The pitch deck is usually the first piece of marketing material a startup needs ("Oh no, we need a logo as well"), next up: the web site.

If your company has not launched yet, and/or your company is not about being a highly interactive game (i.e., the web site is not the product), seed company web sites can be very simple (and easy/cheap) to make.

The objective is to create a credible business card for your company that supports your pitch to investors and/or partners and/or potential customers

A check list:

• Get a decent domain name and use it as your email address as well
• Get an ad-free account with a web site platform such as squarespace or wix.
• Set up the colors, logo, so everything looks consistent with the pitch deck(s) you are sending out
• Check the content for your "business card":
  • Is it clear what the company does (if you are not in stealth mode)
  • Is everything up to date (including the (c) in the footer), names of products, people, investors, board members, etc. etc.
  • Are all the social media accounts hooked up (if they are active, no need to link to that Google Plus domain you got)
  • Is there a good team section: consistent head shots, work experience, links to LinkedIn profiles, twitter accounts
  • Proper and up to date contact details: a Google street view search does not take you to your parent's house.
  • If your legal name is different than the one you are trading with, put it somewhere in the footer for people who do background checks on the company.
• Images, diagrams are consistent with your pitch decks, take it easy with stock images and videos of culturally diversified teams working happily together that do not resemble the head shots in your team section (if they do however, this could be a great background to put up).
• The things loads quickly and shows up decently in all possible platforms.
• Check typos.
• Cut verbose, fluffy buzzwords

When you are ready to sell and your web site becomes a store front rather than a business card, you need to up the investment and effort to a completely different level. But until then, things can stay simple.

Cover image by Adrian Kirkegaard on Unsplash