50 reasons why your startup looks cheap
Startups are meant to be scrappy. But scrappy shouldn't mean sloppy. In the early days, you have limited time, money, and experience, and it shows. The problem? People judge your startup before they even try your product. And if your brand, UX, or website looks cheap, they’ll assume your product is too.
Here are 50 common reasons your startup gives off the wrong impression:
Your logo was AI-generated. And yes, it shows.
You talk about AI and your logo has that little spark. We get it. Move on.
Your website buttons don’t even work. Literally. Click. Nothing.
You copied an identity from a startup that died in 2021.
You're flexing logos of clients you wish you had.
Your tagline? It could fit any startup. SaaS for growth? All-in-one solution?
Your pitch deck looks like a Canva template with trauma.
Your gradients are straight out of a 2018 Dribbble trend.
Your logo is just your company’s initials. In Helvetica. Italic.
The brand colors have zero contrast. Hope your users enjoy squinting.
The footer still says ©2021. You are literally stuck in time.
Your hover states? Oh wait, you forgot those.
The homepage is buzzword bingo. Scalable. Disruptive. Collaborative.
Your favicon is missing. Tiny icon, big red flag.
Your site takes 12 seconds to load on mobile. Brutal.
The brand identity has no logic. Colors? Random. Fonts? Whatever looked cool.
Every image is stock photography. Office people high-fiving. Still?
You copied Stripe’s layout and hoped no one would notice.
You have a design system. You also have 3 people on your team. Why?
Your logo doesn’t work on dark mode. It just disappears.
You brag more about investors than users.
You send way too many sales emails.
You say "next unicorn" in your Twitter bio. Please stop.
Your copy sounds like ChatGPT wrote it in 5 minutes.
You used that generic startup illustration pack everyone else uses.
Your team page has no team. Just pins in a map.
Your fonts are default system fonts. Bold = heading. That’s your hierarchy.
You made 5 sub-brands. For your one unfinished product.
Every page screams "we needed a website, so we made this."
You’ve got 12 testimonials and none of them sound real.
Your onboarding doesn’t exist. Here's your login. Good luck.
You wanted your brand colors to be so different that its so difficult to work with.
The animations serve no purpose. Just vibes and lag.
You change your messaging every week. You’re confusing even yourself.
Your product screenshots are blurry. It’s 2025.
Your layout is allergic to grids. It’s chaos.
You bought testimonials. And we can tell.
You mention community but you mean your Discord with 4 people.
Your deck says "we’re like Uber for X." You aren’t.
You still think that gradients mean tech.
The copyright says 2021. Again. I’m saying it twice on purpose.
You used a Fiverr logo. $10 can cost you $10M in trust.
You copied someone else's brand and just changed the color.
There’s no privacy policy. Or terms. Just try now.
No founder story, no personality, no trust. You are just... a landing page.
Your payment page looks like a phishing site
You stuffed your blog with SEO junk
You have a roadmap hidden in some Notion link
Your freemium version doesn’t provide anything.
Your navigation has more popups than value
This list is also on a video format if you prefer.
Don't Let the Outside Undermine the Inside
If you’ve made some of these mistakes, you’re not alone. Most early-stage startups look cheap, not because their product is bad, but because branding and UX are afterthoughts. But perception matters. People won’t trust you with their time, data, or money if you look like you just graduated from a hackathon.
Good design isn’t decoration, it’s proof of effort.
Ready to invest in your brand?
You’ve already built something incredible, now it’s time for your brand to reflect that. Let’s work on an identity that tells your story and grows your impact.
Let’s get started: Book a call today.
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