[ojbyrne]

The $200 figure was created by digg PR. Later on they decided that $1000 was more believable (also not true). And elance wasn't involved. The site was pretty ugly for the first 6 months. But that was in 2004, the barriers to entry are higher now.

[vaksel]

agreed...if you could get away with putting up a crappy design in this day and age, pg would have made that a point for the YC startups.

[rokhayakebe]

Frankly design (as in look) does not matter as much as design (as in usability). You can get away with a very basic design as long as you are providing a valuable service. In other words what you can do with great programming and basic HTML skills will always be superior to what you can do with great Photoshop/CSS skills and little programming experience. This is the same reason why small restaurants with great food, but crappy look can easily outscore a million dollar establishment with poor food quality.

[rokhayakebe]

I think you are missing the point, which is have the simplest version of what you have in mind and build on top of it.

[ojbyrne]

There's a certain minimum level of things that have to be done in terms of design, security, and even marketing that are extraneous to your actual functionality. I think the level for those things have risen over the last four years.