Web Aesthetic

Startup Minimal

Ship it clean. Raise the round.

Seen on sites like

What This Is

Startup Minimal is the unmarked uniform of the modern SaaS landing page. White background, one sans-serif font, a single indigo-to-purple gradient accent, and enough whitespace to land a helicopter. It is the aesthetic of credibility-by-default: if your marketing page looks like this, investors assume you know what you are doing.

The style is not really about minimalism. It is about conformity to a specific template that signals competence. Every element — the pill-shaped CTA, the "trusted by" logo bar, the alternating white-and-gray sections — exists because Stripe did it first and everyone else followed. The look is clean, professional, and almost aggressively generic. That is the point. You are not here to be memorable. You are here to convert.

Characteristics

The One Font

Inter, and only Inter. Weights 400 through 700 for hierarchy. No serif, no display face, no second font. The typography is invisible on purpose — it should feel like the browser default, but better.

Pill-Shaped CTAs

Buttons use border-radius: 9999px, creating the signature capsule shape. Primary buttons get the indigo-purple gradient fill; secondary buttons get a 1px border and transparent background. No sharp corners.

Indigo-Purple Gradient

The accent gradient runs linear-gradient(135deg, #6366F1, #8B5CF6). It appears on hero elements, primary buttons, and decorative touches. It is the only visual luxury in an otherwise monochrome palette.

Trusted-By Logo Bar

A horizontal row of company logos (or gray placeholder rectangles) sits just below the hero. It says "real companies use this" without you having to read a single testimonial. Social proof as decoration.

Alternating Section Backgrounds

Sections alternate between pure white #FFFFFF and barely-there gray #F8FAFC. The contrast is almost imperceptible but creates rhythm. Each section is its own self-contained content block with generous vertical padding.

Generous Whitespace

Massive padding on all sides. Content lives in a centered column no wider than 1100px. The emptiness is not wasted space — it is a signal that you can afford to leave room. Density is for dashboards; landing pages breathe.

Style Reference

Prompt

White #FFFFFF background. One font: Inter at weights 400, 500, 600, 700.
Primary accent indigo #6366F1, secondary purple #8B5CF6. Hero gradient
linear-gradient(135deg, #6366F1, #8B5CF6) on buttons and key elements.
Pill-shaped CTAs with border-radius: 9999px. Subtle box-shadow:
0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.1). Dark text #0F172A, secondary text #64748B.
Alternating white and #F8FAFC section backgrounds. "Trusted by" logo
bar with grayscale placeholder rectangles. Generous whitespace, centered
layout, max-width 1100px. The Stripe/Linear/Vercel landing page look.

When to Use

Good for

SaaS product marketing pages
Developer tool landing pages
B2B software websites
Startup pitch sites and launch pages
API documentation portals

Not for

Brands that need to stand out visually
Consumer products targeting younger audiences
Creative portfolios or agencies
Anything that requires warmth or personality

History

Startup Minimal did not emerge from a design movement. It emerged from a single website: Stripe. Around 2015-2016, Stripe's marketing site established the template — white background, clean sans-serif type, gradient accents, developer-focused copy, and an air of quiet technical sophistication. The design was so effective at signaling "serious tech company" that it became the default.

Linear, Vercel, Raycast, and dozens of other developer-focused startups adopted and refined the look. Inter replaced system fonts. Indigo and purple replaced Stripe's original green gradients. Tailwind CSS made the palette and spacing system trivially reproducible, and suddenly every YC company's landing page looked identical. The "trusted by" logo bar became mandatory. The pill-shaped button became universal.

The aesthetic is now so dominant that deviating from it is itself a statement. Choosing a serif font or a colored background for your startup's homepage signals either supreme confidence or total naivety. Startup Minimal is the path of least resistance, and for most companies, that is exactly the right choice.