YC should hire this dude as their designer in residence. This and the Exec facelift he did last week are gorgeous.
http://mashable.com/2011/01/14/posterous-founder-leaves-star...
That said, Garry can guide us. His job isn't do design for us... that onus is still no us! Hence, please blame us for poor design.;-)
I'm not convinced that redesigns done in isolation are useful. As the AA designer's reply to dcurtis indicated [1]--in the prototypical example of this kind of stunt--the design can't operate in isolation from the structure and goals of the organization (even if those are dysfunctional).
These "blank page" redesigns disrespect the hard work these YC companies are doing A/B testing and talking to users to improve what really matters: conversions.
But they are great for self-promotion.
They're great for self promotion, they're great for self improvement, and he is giving them out to the companies!
A/B testing is something that we will add in near future, but when product is still in alpha, we have to continue to focus on improving it.
An outside contribution at this stage is as valuable as anything the companies themselves have the resources to put together. Meanwhile, we all see different angles to attack these problems while learning about a great designer. Everyone wins, and it sounds like it matters a great deal.
Of course, an outsider might see what users want more easily than the product team.