Latest Interviews
Showing 1–11 of 11 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Y Combinator20 min
The Powerful Alternative To Fine-Tuning
Ian Fischer, Mark Mandelbaum, Francesc Campoy Flores, Mark Mandelmann, Jr.
Poetic, led by co-CEO Ian Fisher, deploys a recursive Meta-System that autonomously optimizes foundation models to outperform them on benchmarks like Arc AGI v2 and the Humanity's Last Exam at a fraction of the cost. This stealth-stage platform functions as a cost-effective "stilts" for startups, achieving 9 percentage point gains over competing models while utilizing a lean team of seven scientists rather than massive training budgets. The company now invites early access from ventures seeking to integrate these self-improving reasoning strategies into their specific verticals.
- Y Combinator36 min
Anthropic Co-founder: Building Claude Code, Lessons From GPT-3 & LLM System Design
Tom Brown, Melanie Warrick, Mark Mandelbaum, Mark Mirchandani, Brian Dorsey, Priyanka Vergadia, Priyan Kavanagh, Leslie Kendrick, Francesc Campoy
Vivek Mirchandani, a founding engineer at OpenAI and Anthropic, pioneered the scaling laws strategy that established the link between compute investment and model intelligence before co-founding Anthropic to prioritize AI safety and alignment. Under his leadership, Anthropic shifted focus from early consumer prototypes to building robust training infrastructure, ultimately delivering the coding-dominant Claude 3.5 Sonnet model while navigating global bottlenecks in electricity and multi-vendor hardware supply chains. The organization's approach combines internal qualitative benchmarking with a multi-vendor hardware strategy to drive the largest infrastructure buildout in history, positioning the company at the center of the coming wave of AGI development.
- Y Combinator37 min
Cursor CEO: Going Beyond Code, Superintelligent AI Agents, And Why Taste Still Matters
Michael Truell, Garry, Mark Mandelbaum, Chris Banes, Francesc Campoy Flores, Brian Dorsey Kiselman
AnySphere, the creator of the Cursor IDE, achieved a $9 billion valuation and $100 million in ARR within 20 months by processing over half a billion daily AI model calls and automating roughly half of current code production. Founder Michael Trull outlines a strategic shift from productivity aids to autonomous agents that allow non-developers to define software logic while addressing technical hurdles like context window limits and the need for continuous organizational learning. The company's long-term vision aims to transform software engineering into a paradigm where humans act as logic designers and the distribution feedback loop serves as the primary competitive moat against traditional coding methods.
- Jane Street1h 20m
Building Tools for Traders with Ian Henry
Ian Henry, Ron Minsky, Mark Mandelbaum, Mark Mirchandani, David Eastman, Brian Dorsey
Ian Henry, a Jane Street engineer who transitioned from general web development to options trading tools, leverages the firm's custom OCaml ecosystem to build high-density interfaces that eliminate mouse usage and manage complex volatility surfaces. His recent work includes creating Bauble, a live 3D graphics environment in the Janet language that demonstrates how side projects using image-based state serialization and novel macro systems can rapidly inform internal production tooling. Through this process, Henry illustrates how Jane Street bridges the gap between low-latency exchange architecture and expert user needs by prioritizing type safety, extreme information density, and a parallel software universe free from standard web protocols.
- Y Combinator38 min
2024: The Year the GPT Wrapper Myth Proved Wrong
Jared Harge, Diana, Harj, Lily Yang, Cheng Cheng, Suk Peng, Yiu, Francesc Campoy Flores, Priyanka Vergadia, Anan, Mark Mandelbaum, Melanie Warrick, Mark Mirchandani, Gary Miles, Leslie Kendrick Magnuson, Harjit
The 2024 startup landscape shifted toward capital-efficient growth, where companies like Opus Clip and Perplexity achieved tens of millions in revenue with under $5M in funding by leveraging open-source models and vertical-specific applications. Enterprise adoption accelerated as AI agents attained enterprise-scale reliability, driving a record-breaking aggregate weekly growth rate of 10% for YC batches while converting pilots to revenue at unprecedented speeds. This ecosystem revival was fueled by regulatory relief, a resurgence of in-person Silicon Valley activity, and a strategic pivot from model monopoly to multi-model orchestration that prioritized product execution over raw compute ownership.
- Y Combinator42 min
Vertical AI Agents Could Be 10X Bigger Than SaaS
Gary, Jared Harge, Diana, Mark Mandelbaum, Aaron Cannon, Mike, Brett Taylor, Parker Conrad, Matt McGinnis, Salient, VAPI, Rippling, Speedy Brand, OpenAI, Claude, Melanie Warrick, Nico, A Priori, Capital.ai, PowerHelp, Giga ML, Zepto, Mementic, Rainforest QA, Triplebyte, Outset, Vector Shift, Mark Benioff, Paul Graham, Travis, Jake Heller, Flo Cravello, Tia, Hashi Roginio, Mark Mirchandani, Francesc Campoy Flores
Jared Harge projects that vertical AI agents will trigger a $300 billion+ market surge by displacing human labor in specialized enterprise functions, mirroring the historical success of B2B SaaS where general-purpose incumbents cannot master niche domain complexities. While competitors like Mark Mandelbaum note exceptions such as Rippling's horizontal platform strategy, startups are advised to target high-value, repetitive workflows—from automated recruiting to debt collection—rather than competing in obvious consumer applications where incumbents like Google retain dominance. This shift from basic software wrappers to full-stack agents is expected to expand organizational leadership span and create unicorns ten times larger than previous software predecessors by integrating complex domain knowledge directly into autonomous decision-making tools.
- Y Combinator49 min
Gmail Creator Paul Buchheit On AGI, Open Source Models, Freedom
Paul Buchheit, Jared, Harj, Diana, Noam Shazier, Mark Mandelbaum, Mark Blyth, Paul Lewisohn, Zuck Meyer, Melanie Warrick, Gary Illyes, Lyn Alden
Paul Buchheit and Noam Shazier trace Google's evolution from an AI-first innovator to a risk-averse monopoly that stifled tools like Lambda to protect search revenue, while OpenAI emerged as a non-profit counter-movement funded by figures like Elon Musk to keep research open. Buchheit champions open-source models as essential for preserving individual liberty against Big Tech centralization and authoritarian surveillance, predicting that algorithmic efficiency will soon lower barriers for small teams to build AGI. He warns that regulatory overreach like SB 1047 will force excessive censorship and that the future workforce will face displacement by autonomous AI agents capable of deep-faking knowledge work by 2033.
- Y Combinator42 min
Lightcone: Consumer is back, What’s getting funded now, The vibes immaculate
Gary, Harge, Diana, Mark Mandelbaum, Mark Mandelmann, Mark Mirchandani, Mark Mandalini, Francesc Campoy, Jared Yanoski, Melanie Warrick, Dana
The Winter 2024 YC batch marks a historic platform shift where AI dominates 70% of 243 companies, driving total Annual Recurring Revenue from $6 million to $20 million while attracting a record number of MIT graduates. This cohort exhibits a distinct pivot toward consumer startups and developer infrastructure, reversing previous B2B and international expansion trends as founders prioritize tangible AI products over crypto or marketplaces. With median founder age dropping to 26 and 30% of startups pivoting to new ideas, the program positions itself at the foundational stage of an AI revolution comparable to 2007, signaling a massive opportunity to disrupt global software spending.
- Jane Street1h 1m
What is an Operating System? with Anil Madhavapeddy
Anil Madhavapeddy, Ron Minsky, Mark Mandelbaum, Mark Blyther
Mirage OS is a pure OCaml unikernel framework that compiles applications into minimal, single-purpose binaries by linking only essential drivers and protocol stacks directly to the kernel. Since its origins as a Cambridge research project to verify high-level language performance, the system has achieved significant industrial adoption, powering Docker for Mac and Windows, Tezos blockchain nodes, and energy-efficient solar sensor networks. By utilizing a library operating system model and advanced features like the LDRF memory model, Mirage delivers enhanced security through a reduced attack surface while enabling scalable multi-core execution in upcoming language releases.
- Y Combinator1h 1m
Advice on Organizing and Running Growth Teams from Dan Hockenmaier and Gustaf Alströmer
Dan Hockenmaier, Gustaf Alströmer, Craig Cannon, Toni, Michael Savage, Justin LaRosa, Mark Mandelbaum, Francesc Campoy, Dan Galpin, Dan Gallup
Dan Hockenmeyer of Basis One and Gustav Alströmer of Y Combinator discuss a growth strategy centered on prioritizing a single high-leverage channel and achieving product-market fit before scaling paid acquisition. They argue that early-stage teams must rely on analytical generalists who can model the entire business equation, using retention graphs to test high-impact hypotheses rather than chasing superficial metric tweaks. The discussion highlights critical lessons from Airbnb and Thumbtack, emphasizing that sustainable expansion requires building growth functions in-house, treating referrals as paid marketing with strict ROI calculations, and avoiding structural distractions like premature VP hires or reliance on saturated ad platforms.
- Y Combinator2h 14m
IPFS, CoinList, and the Filecoin ICO with Juan Benet and Dalton Caldwell
Juan Benet, Dalton Caldwell, Craig Cannon, Dan Galpin, Francesc Campoy, Mark Mandelmann, Mark Blythouse, Mark Mandelbaum, Chris Broadfootnich
Protocol Labs, founded by Juan Bonet, is developing the InterPlanetary File System and its incentivized Layer-2, Filecoin, to transition internet infrastructure from centralized, location-based models to a decentralized, content-addressed network that ensures data sovereignty and censorship resistance. By replacing traditional venture capital with token-based funding models like CoinList, the organization enables long-term open-source research while utilizing Proof of Replication to create a liquid global market for unused storage capacity. This initiative aims to solve systemic inefficiencies in credit assignment and data redundancy, positioning Filecoin as a competitor to major cloud providers while fostering a new economy where protocol contributors are compensated directly through native network value.