Industry Trend - The industry believes that discouraging people from learning to code due to AI automation is poor career advice [1] - The industry suggests that advancements in software engineering tools should encourage more people to learn to code, not fewer [1] - The industry draws parallels to the past, noting that arguments against programming due to higher-level languages like COBOL proved incorrect, as these languages made coding easier and more accessible [2] Company Strategy - The company advocates for coding skills across all job roles [2] - The company emphasizes that employees in various roles, such as CFO, head of talent, and recruiters, benefit from coding skills, leading to improved job performance [3] - The company envisions a future where everyone is empowered to code [3]

Legora's Core Business & AI Integration - Legora is building an AI-powered workspace for lawyers, transforming how they review, draft, and research legal documents [3][4] - The company leverages generative AI to solve various legal use cases, such as summarizing court cases, reading stock option contracts, and building end-to-end systems for legal professionals [7][8] - Legora integrates directly into Microsoft Word, bringing generative AI into the existing work environment of legal professionals [16][23] - Key features include chat over documents, tabular review for large document sets, and playbooks for automated contract negotiation [16][20][42] Market Dynamics & Competitive Advantage - The legal tech industry has historically been fragmented with unsexy point solutions, but generative AI has disrupted this landscape [4][6][7] - Legora differentiates itself by offering a compliant system for law firms, addressing data processing requirements in Europe [9] - The company's velocity and ability to out-deliver larger competitors with a smaller team (100 people vs thousands) is a key advantage [57] - Law firms are increasingly open to adopting AI solutions due to client price pressure and the need to maintain competitiveness [32][34] Growth & Strategy - Legora raised $80 million in a Series B round led by iconic and general catalyst [15] - The company is expanding across Europe and into the US, with hubs in New York, London, and Stockholm [88] - A key strategy is to align incentives with law firms, positioning Legora as a long-term partner in their AI adoption [33][34] - Legora emphasizes hiring entrepreneurs and fostering a culture of ambition and problem-solving [91][97] Future of Legal Work - The role of lawyers is evolving towards reviewing work and managing AI agents, rather than solely performing tasks manually [100] - AI is enabling lawyers to perform tasks that were previously impossible, such as redlining files against playbooks and conducting deep research across large volumes of judgments [28] - The company aims to be the category leader in AI law, serving as a strategic partner to large firms in their transition to AI-driven workflows [110][112]

Now I think what we're seeing is with AI there's this promise of hey like this is more than software like this can do like the work of people it's like magic but like it's actually quite hard to do that reliably and so there's been this flip of where the technical expertise is now actually really like the missing piece and we consistently see at least from YC that college students are actually at the forefront of this stuff like actually understanding how to use the models and how to squeeze the performance ...

I look for intellectual fearlessness. I think it doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter what problem we're trying to solve.That courage, that fearlessness of embracing something hard and go about it and be all in and trying to solve that in however way you you want is really a core characteristic of people who succeed. I learned this from them and I really look for young people who have that and then that as a CEO at World Labs in my hiring I look for that quality. ...

Anthropic's Early Days and Mission - Anthropic started with seven co-founders, facing initial uncertainty about product development and success, especially compared to OpenAI's $1 billion funding [1][46][50] - The company's core mission is to ensure AI alignment with humanity, focusing on responsible AI development and deployment [45][49] - A key aspect of Anthropic's culture is open communication and transparency, with "everything on Slack" and "all public channels" [44] Product Development and Strategy - Anthropic initially focused on building training infrastructure and securing compute resources [50] - The company launched a Slackbot version of Claude one nine months before ChatGPT, but hesitated to release it as a product due to uncertainties about its impact and lack of serving infrastructure [51][52] - Anthropic's Claude 35 Sonnet model gained significant traction, particularly for coding tasks, becoming a preferred choice for startups in YC batches [55] - Anthropic invested in making its models good at code, leading to emergent behavior and high market share in coding-related tasks [56] - Claude Code was developed as an internal tool to assist Anthropic's engineers, later becoming a successful product for agentic use cases [68][69] - Anthropic emphasizes building the best possible API platform for developers, encouraging external innovation on top of its models [70][77] Compute Infrastructure and Scaling - The AI industry is experiencing a massive infrastructure buildout, with spending on AGI compute increasing roughly 3x per year [83] - Power is identified as a major bottleneck for data center construction, especially in the US, highlighting the need for increased data center permitting and construction [85] - Anthropic utilizes GPUs, TPUs, and Tranium from multiple manufacturers to optimize performance and capacity [86][87] Advice for Aspiring AI Professionals - Taking more risks and working on projects that excite and impress oneself are crucial for success in the AI field [92] - Extrinsic credentials like degrees and working at established tech companies are becoming less relevant compared to intrinsic motivation and impactful work [92]

[Music] At YC, we work with a ton of founders who are navigating the B2B sales process for the very first time. And I often notice some very common and easily avoidable mistakes that I want to talk about today. So, I'm going to describe the typical progression that a B2B founder goes through.normally starting with something like a a really poorly defined and overly long unpaid design partnership uh all the way through to the like the pro move which is a rapid well-defined tightlyun sales process that result ...

What do people do who are successful. They take an over constrained problem and figure out how to unconstrain it. And that magical sort of three things right which is bringing clarity, creating energy and driving success by solving over constrained problems is what I think leadership is about.But leadership is not about something that you do later in life. If you do it every step of the way,. ...

Figma's Evolution and Strategy - Figma has grown to 1,700 people and eight products, doubling its product lineup recently [3] - Figma emphasizes launching products quickly to gather user feedback, advocating for a one to three-month cadence for product releases [23][26] - Figma identifies user behaviors within Figma Design and then creates separate products to address those needs, such as FigJam, Slides, Draw, Buzz, Sites and Make [46][47][48][51] Design and AI - The design industry is experiencing exponential growth, driven by the increasing importance of design as a differentiator in software development [40][41] - Figma views AI as blurring the lines between design and development, empowering generalist behavior and accelerating prototyping [52][55] - Figma believes the current AI user interface, often based on chat boxes, is similar to the MS DOS era, suggesting significant evolution is expected in the next decade [57] Founder Insights and Advice - Designers are encouraged to step into founder roles, as design becomes a key differentiator [68][69] - Founders should give themselves time to explore and iterate, as early pivots can be crucial for success [13] - Seeking feedback and even rejection is valuable for product development, providing essential data for improvement [36][38]

Business Strategy & Innovation - The genesis of successful ventures like Open AAI and SpaceX often stems from initial interest and a hunch, rather than immediate commercial intent [1] - This approach can attract top talent and capital, leading to the creation of enduring businesses [1] Key Success Factors - Inherent ability combined with genuine interest are crucial components for success [1] - Attracting the smartest people in the world is a key factor in building successful businesses [1]

Government Consulting Market & Trends - US government spends hundreds of billions of dollars annually on consulting [1] - Political pressure exists to cut wasteful consulting and spending [1] - Government increasingly relies on software, often custom-built [1] LLM Impact & Opportunities - LLMs are capable of performing tasks currently done by consulting firms [2] - Funding is being directed towards startups assisting with government sales approvals (Fed Ramp) [2][3] - Funding is also supporting companies using LLMs to improve government regulation and policy legality [3] Investment Focus - The company aims to fund startups developing LLM software for government consulting tasks [3]