Clear beats cool: the two-sentence email test
If a smart friend can’t explain your product back after two sentences, your copy isn’t done yet.
Founders love calling their product a “platform” that “empowers” people to “unlock” something. Ask a stranger what it actually does and you get a polite, glassy stare.
Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel has a fix he calls the Email Test. Describe your startup in two sentences, send them by email to a smart friend, and ask them to explain it back in their own words. If they come back with clarifying questions, rewrite. Email matters because you can’t jump in and explain, exactly like on your website. His rules: start with the company name and what it does, then cut jargon, acronyms, marketing speak and vague words like “platform,” even if the result sounds dumber than you’d like. In his words: “You don’t need to sound cool. You need to be clear.”
Then put the two sentences that passed at the top of your homepage. Boring and understood beats impressive and confusing.
The example
- Instead of
- “Acme is an AI-native platform that empowers teams to unlock async collaboration.”
- Try
- “Acme records your daily standup as a 2-minute video, so your team can skip the meeting.”
Before you flush
Write two sentences on what your product does, email them to a smart friend, and ask them to explain it back. Fix whatever they get wrong.