Latest Interviews

Browser/Computer Automation

Following demonstrations by OpenAI's "Operator" and Anthropic, AI agents now possess the capability to browse the web and operate desktop applications, effectively treating all digital interfaces as programmable APIs. This technological leap, supported by emerging open-source tools, enables the full automation of human-executable workflows and is estimated to expand the addressable use cases for AI agents by a factor of ten. Industry observers predict this shift will catalyze significant innovation across applications built upon these newly accessible agent capabilities.

Datacenters

The initiative aims to revolutionize AI infrastructure by deploying fully automated, "lights out" data centers that reduce construction timelines and costs through software-managed site selection, power management, and autonomous robotics. Key figures are currently seeking startup funding to transition from traditional multi-year projects to 24-7 operations where robots handle all facility tasks without human intervention. This approach promises to solve current industry bottlenecks by introducing innovative solutions in cooling, material procurement, and project management to accelerate the deployment of faster and cheaper data centers.

What David Lieb and his team built eventually became the foundation for Google Photos.

David Lieb

Facing imminent failure with dwindling funds, the founders of a struggling mobile company consulted Y Combinator's Paul Graham after their primary app and a secondary photo-sharing attempt failed to generate revenue. Graham challenged them to abandon their current path and build a comprehensive replacement for the native iPhone Photos app, a scope the founder initially deemed impossible. The team subsequently pivoted to this ambitious vision by leveraging identified flaws in Apple's existing software to secure their survival.

Public Safety Technology

Y Combinator is actively recruiting startups to advance public safety, building on Flock Safety's current achievement of solving 10% of US crimes with its license plate camera technology. The accelerator seeks new ventures focusing on computer vision for emergency response, community-police collaboration tools, and operational efficiency technologies to help meet the industry goal of solving 25% of all crimes within the year. This initiative positions YC as a key resource provider designed to facilitate the growth of companies driving this expanding public safety movement.

Government Software

Palantir's decade-long success selling software to the U.S. government, now valued at $125 billion, highlights a strategic opportunity for new ventures to leverage artificial intelligence amidst rising federal deficits. With billions spent annually on repetitive administrative functions, startups are encouraged to develop AI solutions that simultaneously reduce government spending and boost operational efficiency. This dual-purpose approach aims to capitalize on the current economic climate to transform how the public sector manages its resources.

The Winter 2025 application deadline is in less than a week! Apply at ycombinator.com/apply.

Y Combinator is accepting applications for its Winter 2025 batch by November 12th as it transitions to a four-batch annual schedule to capitalize on a unique twenty-year cycle of technological advancement. The program specifically targets early-stage technical teams with co-founders, emphasizing that hesitation is unnecessary given the organization's history of radically altering founders' trajectories even when applications began on a whim. By encouraging ambitious applicants to submit proposals immediately, YC asserts that the selection process offers a risk-free opportunity to fundamentally reshape the future course of their ventures.

Jeff Wang: Sequoia Capital's $9BN Global Equities Fund on The Future for NVIDIA, Google & Meta|E1212

Jeff Wang, Harry Stebbings, Doug Leone, Mike Moritz, Roelof Botha

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New Defense Technology

Amidst concerns that bloated defense contractors are hindering U.S. technological leadership, Y Combinator is actively recruiting startups to emulate agile innovators like Palantir and SpaceX. This strategic initiative leverages Silicon Valley's historical roots as a military R&D hub, a legacy physically embodied by the Y Combinator headquarters which formerly operated as a World War II naval shipbuilding facility. With the next decade framed as a critical window for reinvigorating defense capabilities, the program seeks to catalyze a new wave of defense-oriented companies in San Francisco.

Over-complicated pricing could kill a sales process.

This analysis recommends prioritizing simple, committed recurring revenue models like Monthly or Annual Recurring Revenue over complex or usage-based structures. Advocates argue that committed contracts protect revenue during economic downturns and align better with investor expectations by preventing immediate income collapse. Consequently, the strategic goal is to target MRR or ARR to ensure stability and facilitate value-based renewal negotiations.

Better models, better startups.

B2B companies are leveraging advanced AI models to achieve productivity scales where a single employee performs the equivalent work of ten, while simultaneously upselling premium features to drive year-over-year revenue growth. End-users focus on functional utility rather than model architecture, allowing vendors to incrementally charge for enhanced capabilities as technology improves. This strategy has proven highly effective, with a Y Combinator cohort demonstrating rapid expansion from $6 million to over $30 million in annual revenue within a single batch cycle.

RFS: AI to build enterprise software

Enterprise software development is undergoing a paradigm shift as AI integration replaces costly manual customization with a single, dynamically standardized codebase. This technological transition threatens incumbent firms by rendering their reliance on large sales teams and unique engineering solutions uncompetitive. Consequently, a new hiring initiative targets individual contributors eager to leverage AI for writing enterprise software in the sector's most lucrative market.

RFS: Machine learning to simulate the physical world

Software tools relying on physics-based models for complex tasks like weather prediction and drug discovery face severe computational bottlenecks that require supercomputers and weeks of processing time. AI models function as efficient general function approximators that solve these same physics problems in seconds on standard hardware, eliminating the need for massive computational resources. This initiative targets founders seeking to enter markets that were previously infeasible by leveraging this technology to reduce prediction latency from days to seconds.

RFS: Better Enterprise glue

This event addresses the inefficiency of enterprise custom integration code, dubbed "dark matter," by demonstrating how large language models can automatically generate and maintain specific "glue" code for unique business systems. The discussion highlights how LLMs can disrupt the multi-billion dollar ecosystem built by vendors like Oracle, Salesforce, and NetSuite to support these manual development processes. Additionally, the presentation serves as a recruitment signal, explicitly inviting skilled professionals to apply for roles dedicated to solving this automation challenge.

RFS: Climate Tech

Amidst a newly established global consensus on climate change, startups are recognized as critical drivers of solutions, having already spearheaded innovations in electric vehicles, solar energy, and carbon counting. To leverage this momentum, a curated resource outlining high-impact problems and investment opportunities has been compiled specifically to guide founders and capital toward strategic areas of growth. This actionable directory, located at ycommentary.com/RFS, provides a clear roadmap for scaling technologies like heat pumps and carbon counting to meet collective environmental goals.

RFS: Real-world crypto

This initiative challenges the current crypto landscape by funding engineering teams that tokenize tangible assets like real estate, bank deposits, and actual businesses to grant enforceable ownership rights. Because legal and regulatory hurdles are paramount, the program prioritizes applicants who possess deep legal expertise or have directly collaborated with counsel to ensure compliance. Ultimately, the effort aims to shift the industry from abstract tokens to instruments backed by verified real-world value.