7 Startup Website Examples and The #1 Design Tip From Each

There are several startup website examples lists to take inspiration from. And while you appreciate the generic best practices they provide, and the “this is why we like this site…” rundown, you’re looking for something a little more concrete.

Creating a startup website is much harder when you have a million design tips to choose from. The #1 design tip you can take from the top startup websites and apply to your own site would make the process so much easier. So, allow me.

Top 7 Startup Website Examples and Their #1 Design Tip

Feastables

Mr. Beast is one of the most influential YouTubers in the world. But he’s also an entrepreneur, with one of his businesses being Feastables, a chocolate bar startup.

Right away, you’re hit with a bold blue, orange, pink, and white color scheme on the home page. Aside from the colors, you’ve got elements throughout the site that scream Mr. Beast, like the logo in the top left corner, touches of animation, and crisp images of the chocolate, Mr. Beast, his buddies, and his work.

I appreciate how simple the website design is to navigate and how it isn’t crowded with text. He lets the images and animation do the talking. And I love how all videos are embedded and play automatically on some of the pages.

The buttons use color and outlining to jump off the page, and the straightforward CTAs are a nice touch. The site also has a sweet little navigation bar at the top where you can access a chatbot, change the country of the website, log in as a member, find a store, and view your cart.

#1 Design Tip: Lean heavily into branding

Mr. Beast has a huge brand and he’s not afraid to use it to elevate all of his ventures, including this one. He’s bold, he’s out there, and he makes his presence known, and that comes through in the visual branding on his site. He’s consistent and people know it’s him.

Point blank, you need a brand identity. You need a logo, brand colors, font, typography, and video and image formatting that differentiates you from other people. More importantly, use all of these things across all of your marketing channels, from social media platforms to emails to print ads to events.

You want your brand to be so recognizable that all people have to see is your color scheme and they’ll know it’s you, just like Mr. Beast.

KeyNest

When people say find a niche and you’ll thrive, this is what they mean. KeyNest is a startup that fills an interesting need: sharing keys safely. You drop the keys off at one of their lockers and manage who accesses it remotely. Airbnb hosts, serviced apartment operators, hotels, and estate agents have enjoyed the service globally since 2016.

This site is so easy on the eyes. It takes advantage of a neutral color scheme of greens, tans, and a touch of white. I love the Poppins font and simple use of animation that draws you in.

There’s an obvious navigation and hierarchy that makes it easy to find what you’re looking for.

Overall, the site gives off a very professional, clean-cut vibe that’s perfect for its intended audience.

#1 Design Tip: A little bit of animation goes a long way

A lot of people get carried away with animation. They’ve got things sliding across the screen, swooping in, blinking like a strobe light, scrolling. It’s just way too much. But KeyNest’s website proves that a little bit of animation goes a long way.

One of the first things you see on the home page is the “Share keys with your….” animation where the word after “your” changes, going from guests to cleaners to friends to staff to contractors to tenants. It’s subtle, but it gets the point across that you can easily share keys with anyone.

There are buttons you can hover over and they reveal a little bit more information. And if you scroll down on the electronic key lockers page, the picture of the locker to your right changes and shows you the different steps to take.

Choose a couple of important messages you want to hammer home as KeyNest has done on their site, and make them stand out with animation.

Clubhouse

Clubhouse is a unique app, self-described as a “social audio app” that lets users join chat rooms and hold audio conversations with other app users on almost any topic. They launched at a perfect time, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when we couldn’t talk in person but still craved connection.

Their website wants you to do one thing, download the app. I love the use of one CTA because it keeps visitors focused. They don’t overwhelm you with a bunch of menu options or written messages. It quickly and clearly communicates what the app does.

The site also clings to an attractive, minimalist design. But minimalist doesn’t mean boring. You get a little animation, with small pictures of different people bouncing around the page. When you scroll down, the page changes to a different color to keep you engaged.

#1 Design Tip: Use a minimalist design layout

Many people are scared that a minimalist design is boring and can’t possibly honor a brand’s personality. However, Clubhouse’s site proves them wrong. It’s so simple that it allows the most important things to shine through, like the main CTA (get clubhouse), their tagline (Friends over Followers), their logo, and the couple of other pages they have in their navigation bar.

Instead of a crowded, overwhelming startup website design, use a minimalist layout. You can always add touches of animation, color, and visuals to make the important things pop.

Meatable

Meatable is a unique brand that produces lab-grown meat. They draw you in with the line, “It isn’t like meat, it is meat.” They’re hell-bent on solving a big problem–environmental harm caused by industrial farming.

A lot is going on on this site, but it doesn’t feel like it because everything is organized so well. They use whitespace and color to break up the text. It would seem like the orange and white color scheme would be a little too much, but it isn’t because white is the primary color.

The background video of some of their sausage being made on the home page is especially eye-catching, and the text overlay stands out nicely.

The site also uses images really well, mixing them up with pictures of people, nature, products, and infographics. The all-caps, short, concise headers paired with attractive imagery is a heck of a combo. And I can’t forget the cool little loading screen that pops up when you go from page to page.

#1 Design tip: Tell a compelling story

This may not seem like a design tip, but it is if you back your story with quality visuals. Meatable does something a lot of sites don’t: puts their mission front and center. They want what they do and how amazing it is for the world to come across before anything else. Forget the colors, the logo, the font, the pictures. What’s the story and why does it matter?

They don’t just tell a compelling brand story with words either. They use visuals to bring it to life, like the background video on the homepage, or the section below it that illustrates the problem, solution, science, and opportunity, or the infographics they use on their science page.

Present your own brand story in a compelling manner to immediately resonate with like-minded people and differentiate your startup. And treat it like show and tell. Share a message and use a visual to keep visitors with you.

Minna

Minna is an organic tea company selling many different tea flavors “that pop.” They wanted to create a new kind of sparkling beverage without all the not-so-good stuff like sugar and added sweeteners. It’s light, delicious, and can be bought as individual cans or in a variety pack.

The full-sized header image caught my eye immediately. You get a glimpse of the tea cans and what the tea looks like inside of them. The site uses a CSS parallax scrolling effect that naturally guides you down the page.

I like how they space elements out on each page. I also appreciate how big their images are and that they have transparent backgrounds so they pop. And the colorful sections are *chef’s kiss*.

It’s a simple site with only a few pages. However, the minor details like adding nutritional facts and relevant certificates near the “Order Online” CTAs, elevate the site.

#1 Design tip: Don’t be afraid of color

If there’s one thing you can’t ignore on Minna’s site, it’s the color. There’s lots of it and it works so well because they’ve chosen the right colors to play with.

Their home page colors change as you scroll down but they pair well with each picture of their tea cans. They also chose a neutral tan color on their shopping page that allows the color of the cans to pop.

Don’t be afraid of using color, especially if it supports your brand’s personality. Make sure your colors are easy on the eyes, though. We’d have a whole different experience with Minna’s website if their colors were neon.

The Boring Company

According to the site, “The Boring Company creates safe, fast-to-dig, and low-cost transportation, utility, and freight tunnels. The mission: solve traffic, enable rapid point-to-point transportation and transform cities.” They’re doing something huge for the future of our world, and their website illustrates that.

It gives off a futuristic vibe with an almost midnight kind of color scheme, with blacks, purples, blues, and an overall dark overlay on each page. The home page is especially engaging because of how it scrolls and uses full-screen images.

The site’s easy navigation makes it user-friendly and intuitive to explore. There’s a well-defined visual hierarchy that naturally guides your eye to key information on each page. I also love how they use high-quality images and videos to help show how the tunnels work and how they are made using their fast-to-dig Prufrock tech.

The Boring Company nails messaging too, by prominently displaying what they do on the homepage hero section.

#1 Design Tip: Nail the visuals

I can’t get over how crystal clear The Boring Company’s images and videos are. And I really can’t get over how much their visuals convinced me to keep combing through their website.

Not only that, they chose the right images. They guide you from one section to the next, from key point of information to key point of information. The visuals also stay within the same color scheme and draw you into a specific mood and emotion. They keep you there and amplify the message and mission.

Nail your visuals. Be very picky about the ones you use and make sure they give life to what you’re saying in the text.

Cinera

Cinera is a pioneer in the headset industry. They use ground-breaking technology to give you a cinematic experience in the comfort of your own home. Their products are made for movie lovers and individuals who want to take binge-watching their favorite shows to the next level.

Their site gets right to it, selling their unique cinematic experience with headsets immediately on the homepage. The main photograph of a user wearing the innovative headpiece sets the tone for the entire site.

They tell their brand story about fusing fashion and technology with their visuals. They do an amazing job of making their product look impressive and showing it from different viewpoints through videos, professional photos, and infographics.

Also, Cinera’s futuristic vision comes across with the use of gradients. There isn’t much text on their pages but what is there is only relevant information, and that’s always good for visitors.

#1 Design Tip: Show your products off from different viewpoints

Cinera’s website might not be the most flashy, but they do one thing really well, and that’s show off their products. You get them from nearly every angle and it’s refreshing to see as a visitor because many companies give you the same viewpoint of products in different formats.

If you’re a product-based startup, use your website to show off your products from different viewpoints. Give potential customers a chance to see how your product looks from various angles. For example, if you sell sunglasses, show them up close, on someone’s face, on top of their head, being held, and zoom in on different parts of them.