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Founder Stories: Pablo Hansen
Y Combinator· 2025-11-05 23:57
Company Overview - Keystone is building a modern bug triage platform that consolidates bug sources and provides initial fixes [1] - The company has raised over $5 million to develop its platform [1] Founder's Experience - The founder, Pablo Hansen, previously completed a master's degree in AI [1] - The founder turned down acquisition offers worth eight figures (over $10 million) [1] Y Combinator (YC) Impact - YC facilitated the building of a community of founder friends [2] - YC helped set the right tone for building the company [2] - The founder strongly recommends applying to YC, citing zero downside and significant potential upside [2]
From dorm rooms to million-dollar companies
Y Combinator· 2025-11-03 18:04
Just a couple months ago, I was still a CS student at Princeton heading into my senior year. >> I was studying CS and statistics. I was just wrapping up a master's degree in AI. >> I was just like working a regular 9 to5 job. >> I was a student at Stanford University.Now I'm a founder of 11 million company. >> I've turned down acquisition offers worth eight figures and raised more than $5 million. I get to like work directly with the executives of large banks and help them shape their AI journey.>> Pretty d ...
Don't Just Check Off Boxes
Y Combinator· 2025-10-29 23:18
Career Advice - Focus on pursuing interests and collaborating with respected individuals [1] - Prioritize long-term projects over simply "checking boxes," especially for those in school [1]
The Hard Part About Being Contrarian
Y Combinator· 2025-10-24 18:59
Initial Perception of OpenAI - OpenAI's launch initially faced predominantly negative press, with skepticism from the AI research community regarding the possibility of a small group achieving AGI [1] - A significant critique was the lack of published papers, especially concerning scaling laws, which contrasted with the traditional academic focus on publications [2][3] Contrarian Success & Customer Focus - The report highlights the importance of focusing on customer outcomes rather than solely optimizing for academic recognition [3] - Similar to Elon Musk's experience with SpaceX, OpenAI's founders needed to persevere despite widespread doubt and criticism [3][4][6] - SpaceX faced initial skepticism and negative press, particularly regarding reusable rockets, with experts deeming it impossible [4] Importance of Independent Thinking - The report emphasizes the need to critically evaluate information sources, prioritizing personal experience and direct interactions over mainstream opinions [6][7] - It cautions against relying on social media and the opinions of famous individuals, advocating for a focus on solving problems for a specific group of people [7]
The Line Between Software and Service
Y Combinator· 2025-10-20 20:31
Industry Trends - The legal software industry is experiencing a blurring line between software and service offerings [1] - Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving, necessitating continuous adaptation within the legal software sector [1] Strategic Direction - Category leaders in the legal software space should serve as strategic partners to large firms, guiding them through significant transitions [2] - The company has scaled headcount rapidly while maintaining culture, urgency, and velocity [2]
How To Be Contrarian — And Right
Y Combinator· 2025-10-17 14:00
Startup Strategy & Competition in AI - The AI industry is seeing increased competition, making it crucial for startups to differentiate themselves through unique insights and contrarian bets [1] - New technology platforms typically offer a two-year window of opportunity before the market becomes saturated with obvious ideas [2] - Startups should focus on identifying and addressing genuine human needs rather than pursuing trendy or derivative ideas [1] - Founders should re-examine conventional wisdom and challenge established playbooks to discover innovative approaches [25] Contrarian Thinking & Identifying Opportunities - Discovering a "secret," or a belief that is not yet widely accepted, is key to standing out from the competition [1] - Great startup ideas often exist in a legal "gray area" where laws may not be clearly defined or up-to-date with technological advancements [4][16] - Founders should focus on first principles thinking to identify user needs and societal benefits, even if it means challenging existing regulations [13][15] Case Studies & Examples - DoorDash succeeded by focusing solely on delivery, a contrarian approach to the "full-stack startup" trend of the time [25] - Coinbase initially faced criticism for working with banks and regulators, a contrarian approach to the cypherpunk ethos of early Bitcoin adopters [9] - Flock Safety, now valued at $75 billion, initially faced skepticism due to its hardware focus and small target market [53] Emerging Trends & Potential Shifts - The "forward-deployed engineer" model, while currently popular, may be ripe for disruption by AI-powered solutions [35] - Code generation is reducing switching costs for enterprise software, enabling startups to compete with established players like NetSuite [30] - AI-powered solutions can transform customer data and business logic in minutes, offering a significant advantage over human-driven approaches [36]
What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About AI And Jobs
Y Combinator· 2025-10-14 14:00
AI 对就业市场的影响 - 行业普遍认为 AI 将会变革经济,但不会摧毁它 [3] - AI 可能会在 5 年内导致 10% 到 20% 的失业率 [1] - 效率的提高实际上意味着对服务的需求会更多,而不是更少 [11] - AI 将首先改变那些重复性的、需要较少背景知识且容错率高的工作,例如客服和数据录入 [12] Jevans 悖论的应用 - 当使用技术降低资源成本时,对该资源及其相关服务的需求会急剧增加,这就是 Jevans 悖论 [7] - 1960 年代,集装箱化使航运成本降低了 90%,全球贸易因此蓬勃发展,催生了货运、物流和仓库配送领域的数十亿美元帝国 [9] - 2010 年代,云计算使基础设施成本降低了 10 倍,服务器管理员转变为 DevOps 工程师和云架构师 [10] 行业应对策略 - 企业应该预料到,随着 AI 降低成本,对放射科医生治疗计划、律师咨询和工程师专业知识的需求将会广泛增加,而不是减少 [11] - 许多以前需要人工参与的角色可能会转变为监督 AI 团队 [12] - 公司应该认识到 AI 转型是真实存在的,不要低估这种变化 [15][16]
The World's First Commercial Mobile Carbon Capture Device
Y Combinator· 2025-10-09 14:00
Company Overview - Remora is developing carbon capture technology for vehicles, focusing on semi-trucks and locomotives, retrofitting them to extract and purify CO2 from exhaust to produce beverage-grade CO2 [6] - The company aims to reduce vehicle emissions by at least 80% [16] - Remora has raised $17 million in venture backing and signed evaluation agreements with major freight companies [33] Technology and Innovation - The system captures CO2 using pellets that trap CO2 molecules while allowing other gases to pass through [7] - Captured CO2 is offloaded as a liquid and sold to end users like food and beverage companies, greenhouses, and water treatment facilities [8] - Remora is building a modular system for different locomotives and trucks, aiming for vertical integration in the production process [27][28] - The company uses a simulator with a real truck engine to model device performance under various conditions [29][30][31] Market and Industry - Transportation accounts for 29% of all emissions in the US, making it the largest sector of emissions [3] - Remora targets the long-haul trucking and freight train industries, which are difficult to electrify [3] - The company aims to capture a billion tons of CO2 per year and sees potential in retrofitting generators, oil and gas production, container ships, cement plants, refineries, and natural gas turbines [33][34] Strategy and Operations - Remora chose to locate its headquarters outside of Detroit due to the high concentration of mechanical and electrical engineers [19] - The company emphasizes building a team of experts and iterating quickly through in-house manufacturing [12][22][23]
The Shortcut Rule
Y Combinator· 2025-10-08 21:43
Engineering & AI Pitfalls - Focusing on a single measure of success in engineering can lead to neglecting other important aspects [1] - Achieving targets without considering the broader context results in missing the points [1][2] - AI's success in chess, exemplified by Deep Blue beating Kasparov, did not advance the understanding of human intelligence [2]
Every AI Founder Should Be Asking These Questions
Y Combinator· 2025-10-07 14:00
Welcome to this this talk. I'm extremely confused. Uh I think maybe more confused than I've ever been in my entire life. Probably definitely more confused than I've ever been in my entire life. Uh and I want to talk about that because I think I don't know when you're confused. That's the start of something interesting. If you're trained as a scientist, that's like the thing you want to pay most attention to is that moment where you're confused like, "Oh, this is interesting. I don't know what's about to hap ...