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.Alexandr Wang's advice to his 18-year-old self: develop your own internal compass for how the future will unfold, and hold conviction in it against the noise. At Startup School 2026, the Scale AI (YC S16) founder — now leading Meta’s Superintelligence Labs — talks with Garry Tan about rebuilding...

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Y Combinator

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Alexandr Wang (Alexandr Wang) started Scale AI to help machine learning teams label data faster. It started as a simple API for human labor, but behind the scenes, he was tackling a much bigger problem: how to turn messy, real-world data into something AI could learn from. Today, that early idea powers a multi-hundred-million-dollar engine behind America's AI infrastructure—fueling everything from Fortune 500 workflows to real-time military planning. Just last week, Meta agreed to invest over $14 billion in Scale, valuing the company at $29 billion. Alexandr joined us on Lightcone Podcast to share how Scale evolved from a scrappy YC startup into the backbone of some of the world's most advanced AI systems, how he thinks about competition with Chinese AI labs, and what it takes to build infrastructure that shapes the frontier. 01:15 - Alexandr’s early days at YC 07:25 - Dialing in on what worked 10:24 - Model improvements, evals 19:18 - The techno-optimist view of work 27:47 - The turning points for Scale AI 37:37 - Agentic workflows 41:55 - “Humanity’s Last Exam” 47:48 - U.S. vs China in AI and hard tech 56:57 - How to be hardcore
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University of Austin (UATX)

27,770 views • 6 months ago

Had a great talk with Anjney Midha about why he left a16z to start AMP PBC (raised $1.3B), his early bet on Anthropic, the importance of Japan in AI, his class at Stanford and a lot more. I didn't make him cry like Harry Stebbings, but I think it was a fun conversation about the future of AI Infra. Enjoy! 00:00 Introduction to AMP and AI Infrastructure 03:07 Transition from A16Z to AMP 06:01 Understanding AMP's Role in AI Compute 08:57 The Concept of a Compute Grid 11:59 The Need for Standardization in AI Infrastructure 14:59 Education and Collaboration in AI Development 17:59 Global Perspectives on AI Infrastructure 21:03 Japan's Role in AI and Robotics 23:14 Cultural Connections: Japan and Germany 25:08 The Journey to Teaching at Stanford 26:04 Security in Infrastructure: Lessons Learned 27:50 Cybersecurity and AI: A New Frontier 29:27 The Importance of Redundancy in Cybersecurity 30:39 Investing in AI: The Anthropic Experience 32:54 Wealth Creation and Public Participation 34:06 Infrastructure Bottlenecks in AI Development 36:57 Global Perspectives on Data Centers 39:11 The Need for Education on AI Benefits 42:07 Learning from China: A Systems Approach 45:47 Conclusion: Coordinating the Western Frontier
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Nathan Lands

28,827 views • 3 months ago

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Nakul Mandan

671,989 views • 2 months ago

AI coding is changing faster than almost anyone can keep up. It's impossible to predict exactly where we'll be a year from now. Claude Code's Thariq (South Park Commons alum and 2x founder) came back to SPC to talk about what's on the frontier. (00:00) From Startup Founder to Anthropic (03:33) Building Better AI With Claude Code (07:21) The Capability Overhang (12:17) How Anthropic Builds AI Products (17:51) Prompting Claude More Effectively (30:58) How AI Is Changing Product Teams (41:11) Advice for AI Founders
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AI coding is changing faster than almost anyone can keep up. It's impossible to predict exactly where we'll be a year from now. Claude Code's Thariq (South Park Commons alum and 2x founder) came back to SPC to talk about what's on the frontier. (00:00) From Startup Founder to Anthropic (03:33) Building Better AI With Claude Code (07:21) The Capability Overhang (12:17) How Anthropic Builds AI Products (17:51) Prompting Claude More Effectively (30:58) How AI Is Changing Product Teams (41:11) Advice for AI Founders

Evan Tana

35,075 views • 14 days ago

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🎧🍌 New The Peel with Ankur Goyal Ankur is the Founder and CEO of @braintrustdata, the end to end developer platform for building the world's best AI products. Their customers include companies like Instacart, Zapier, Notion, Airtable, Replit, and more. We hit on the importance of LLM evals, advice for building AI products, why the best companies have two AI product roadmaps, how he hates meetings, and all his non-conventional advice for founders. Watch below or links in the replies! Timestamps: 04:04 Why everyone’s now an AI company 06:03 Reasons LLM evals are so important 09:19 Replacing vibe checks with Braintrust 10:37 Making OpenAI’s protocols the standard 11:27 Why the best companies have two AI roadmaps 13:06 Build your product so each LLM release makes it better 14:54 Predicting AGI is impossible 15:54 Why people who work with LLMs aren’t worried about AI safety 16:52 The best developers are all-in on co-pilots 18:11 How AI is changing software development 21:09 Combining IDE, CI/DC, and observability in one product 27:18 Are models more like CPU’s or relational databases? 30:14 How to pick an LLM 33:00 Advice for staying on top of new AI developments 34:30 Why tool calling is so important 38:02 Advice for young software engineers 40:25 Learning to code doing linear algebra homework 42:36 Lack of purpose interning in big tech 44:07 Working at MemSQL learning to be a founder 47:52 How to get a job at a startup 50:43 Building his first startups product on an flight 52:39 Three lessons from his first failed startup 54:46 Don’t delegate what you’re good at 55:46 Why you should be careful listening to VCs advice 57:34 Tactics for successful delegation 59:36 Why Ankur hates meetings 1:02:42 The importance of self-service in unlocking certain customer segments 1:05:14 How Braintrust got started 1:07:45 Advice on picking your target customers 1:10:35 How Braintrust hires with work trials 1:15:21 Balancing security with a modern UI 1:17:49 Why it’s hard to sell non-AI products right now 1:19:21 Advice for selling to large enterprises 1:23:10 Ankur’s favorite AI products

Turner Novak 🍌🧢

44,280 views • 2 years ago

AI INTERVIEW: OPENAI'S SECRET WEAPON AI agents are no longer just hype—they're here to revolutionize automation, Web3, and beyond. SwarmNode.ai is building a serverless AI agent platform for scalability, efficiency, and real-world impact. In this exclusive interview, he reveals how AI swarms can outperform single models, why OpenAI’s Operator is just the beginning, and how crypto is fueling AI innovation. Plus, he breaks down DeepSeek’s game-changing AI breakthrough, the future of agent monetization, and why serverless AI could be the next frontier in automation. 01:37 – From Engineering to AI: The journey into artificial intelligence. 02:43 – The GPT-3 Moment: How OpenAI’s tech pulled him in. 04:10 – AI’s Biggest Challenge: Why real-world use cases lag behind. 05:05 – OpenAI’s Operator: Why it’s “rudimentary” (for now). 06:25 – Crypto & AI: How tokens help bootstrap AI startups. 08:15 – Can You Bootstrap a Startup with a Token? The trade-offs. 09:56 – 90% of AI Token Holders Don’t Use the Product—Does It Matter? 11:18 – What is SwarmNode?: AI agents, hosted serverlessly. 14:23 – AI Swarms: Why multiple agents outperform single models. 16:08 – What is a Swarm? A simple definition of collaborative AI. 17:32 – “How Can I Make Money with AI?”: Real-world use cases. 18:41 – AI Bounties: Hiring devs to build your custom agent. 20:50 – The Future of AI Marketplaces: Monetizing pre-built agents. 23:15 – DeepSeek’s Disruption: Why it’s good news for AI. 24:46 – Is SwarmNode Compatible with DeepSeek? How it integrates. 26:17 – SwarmNode vs. AI Launchpads: What makes it different? 27:42 – Why Serverless Matters: Cost savings & efficiency. 29:53 – AI Agents in the Real World: Booking flights, managing workflows, and more. 31:11 – Building SwarmNode for Developers: Why it started as a personal project. 32:27 – Explosive Growth: 200,000 AI agent executions in 5 weeks. 34:41 – Why SwarmNode Agents Aren’t Visible on 𝕏 Yet. 36:46 – Startup Hiring Lessons: Finding top AI talent. 39:15 – Why SwarmNode is Built in Python (and What’s Next). 40:32 – Scaling AI Workloads: Handling traffic surges. 41:42 – AWS & Cost Challenges: The biggest monetization hurdle. 42:58 – 2025: The Year of Mass AI Adoption. 45:22 – Should We Be Worried About AI’s Rapid Growth? 46:46 – The Most Underrated AI Tools Right Now. 47:34 – What’s Next for SwarmNode?: Making AI accessible to everyone.
49:12

AI INTERVIEW: OPENAI'S SECRET WEAPON AI agents are no longer just hype—they're here to revolutionize automation, Web3, and beyond. SwarmNode.ai is building a serverless AI agent platform for scalability, efficiency, and real-world impact. In this exclusive interview, he reveals how AI swarms can outperform single models, why OpenAI’s Operator is just the beginning, and how crypto is fueling AI innovation. Plus, he breaks down DeepSeek’s game-changing AI breakthrough, the future of agent monetization, and why serverless AI could be the next frontier in automation. 01:37 – From Engineering to AI: The journey into artificial intelligence. 02:43 – The GPT-3 Moment: How OpenAI’s tech pulled him in. 04:10 – AI’s Biggest Challenge: Why real-world use cases lag behind. 05:05 – OpenAI’s Operator: Why it’s “rudimentary” (for now). 06:25 – Crypto & AI: How tokens help bootstrap AI startups. 08:15 – Can You Bootstrap a Startup with a Token? The trade-offs. 09:56 – 90% of AI Token Holders Don’t Use the Product—Does It Matter? 11:18 – What is SwarmNode?: AI agents, hosted serverlessly. 14:23 – AI Swarms: Why multiple agents outperform single models. 16:08 – What is a Swarm? A simple definition of collaborative AI. 17:32 – “How Can I Make Money with AI?”: Real-world use cases. 18:41 – AI Bounties: Hiring devs to build your custom agent. 20:50 – The Future of AI Marketplaces: Monetizing pre-built agents. 23:15 – DeepSeek’s Disruption: Why it’s good news for AI. 24:46 – Is SwarmNode Compatible with DeepSeek? How it integrates. 26:17 – SwarmNode vs. AI Launchpads: What makes it different? 27:42 – Why Serverless Matters: Cost savings & efficiency. 29:53 – AI Agents in the Real World: Booking flights, managing workflows, and more. 31:11 – Building SwarmNode for Developers: Why it started as a personal project. 32:27 – Explosive Growth: 200,000 AI agent executions in 5 weeks. 34:41 – Why SwarmNode Agents Aren’t Visible on 𝕏 Yet. 36:46 – Startup Hiring Lessons: Finding top AI talent. 39:15 – Why SwarmNode is Built in Python (and What’s Next). 40:32 – Scaling AI Workloads: Handling traffic surges. 41:42 – AWS & Cost Challenges: The biggest monetization hurdle. 42:58 – 2025: The Year of Mass AI Adoption. 45:22 – Should We Be Worried About AI’s Rapid Growth? 46:46 – The Most Underrated AI Tools Right Now. 47:34 – What’s Next for SwarmNode?: Making AI accessible to everyone.

Mario Nawfal

338,251 views • 1 year ago

For nearly two decades, Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie (Aaron Levie) has been at the frontlines of how technology reshapes work—guiding the company through the rise of mobile, the cloud, and now the age of AI. In his fireside with YC's David Lieb at AI Startup School, Aaron reflects on adapting a company for the long term, staying relevant across multiple waves, and why he believes AI is the most transformative shift yet. 00:00 – AI hype vs. reality inside companies 01:00 – Early days: starting Box in 2005 03:30 – Pivoting from consumer storage to enterprise cloud 05:45 – Cloud transition lessons vs. AI today 07:10 – Why unstructured data is AI’s biggest opportunity 09:05 – Will AI replace jobs or create more work? 13:15 – Startups vs. incumbents in the AI era 15:20 – Finding the next “nouns and verbs” for startups 20:25 – Rethinking SaaS business models for AI agents 27:05 – Why companies won’t just build everything in-house 31:15 – Advice to young founders 35:40 – Fulfillment and meaning of life 36:40 – Enterprise design and craft in SaaS 39:00 – Competing with incumbents
40:27

For nearly two decades, Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie (Aaron Levie) has been at the frontlines of how technology reshapes work—guiding the company through the rise of mobile, the cloud, and now the age of AI. In his fireside with YC's David Lieb at AI Startup School, Aaron reflects on adapting a company for the long term, staying relevant across multiple waves, and why he believes AI is the most transformative shift yet. 00:00 – AI hype vs. reality inside companies 01:00 – Early days: starting Box in 2005 03:30 – Pivoting from consumer storage to enterprise cloud 05:45 – Cloud transition lessons vs. AI today 07:10 – Why unstructured data is AI’s biggest opportunity 09:05 – Will AI replace jobs or create more work? 13:15 – Startups vs. incumbents in the AI era 15:20 – Finding the next “nouns and verbs” for startups 20:25 – Rethinking SaaS business models for AI agents 27:05 – Why companies won’t just build everything in-house 31:15 – Advice to young founders 35:40 – Fulfillment and meaning of life 36:40 – Enterprise design and craft in SaaS 39:00 – Competing with incumbents

Y Combinator

236,530 views • 10 months ago

EXCLUSIVE: Microsoft just launched Copilot Vision in Edge—the first AI that can navigate the internet with you in real time. I sat down with Mustafa Suleyman (CEO of Microsoft AI) to discuss how it works, infinite memory, AI companions, agents, and more. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:58 Microsoft Copilot Vision rundown 02:35 Initial reactions and use cases 04:57 How Copilot Vision works 06:02 Teaching AI to remember 08:13 How Microsoft AI is differentiating from OpenAI 09:27 The push for the true AI companion 11:28 Living with a co-intelligence in 10+ years 14:04 How Microsoft handles your data 16:11 When and how can you try Copilot Vision? 18:15 Agentic AI that controls your computer 20:25 What's next: support, gaming, and more 22:34 Preparing the next generation with Copilot 25:11 Mustafa’s advice for students and businesses
26:21

EXCLUSIVE: Microsoft just launched Copilot Vision in Edge—the first AI that can navigate the internet with you in real time. I sat down with Mustafa Suleyman (CEO of Microsoft AI) to discuss how it works, infinite memory, AI companions, agents, and more. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:58 Microsoft Copilot Vision rundown 02:35 Initial reactions and use cases 04:57 How Copilot Vision works 06:02 Teaching AI to remember 08:13 How Microsoft AI is differentiating from OpenAI 09:27 The push for the true AI companion 11:28 Living with a co-intelligence in 10+ years 14:04 How Microsoft handles your data 16:11 When and how can you try Copilot Vision? 18:15 Agentic AI that controls your computer 20:25 What's next: support, gaming, and more 22:34 Preparing the next generation with Copilot 25:11 Mustafa’s advice for students and businesses

Rowan Cheung

268,106 views • 1 year ago

Some of the biggest companies of the next decade won't be software businesses. They'll be services companies like insurance carriers, law firms, and tax practices rebuilt from scratch with AI doing most of the work. In this episode of Startup School, YC Visiting Partner Charlie Warren walks through the playbook for building AI native services companies, covering how to pick a market with the right traits, why variance kills these businesses faster than anything else, and the P&L math that’ll transform your business model. 00:00 — Intro to AI Services Companies 01:01 — Picking the Right Market 02:55 — Markets YC Likes Right Now 03:43 — The Sam Altman Test 04:35 — The Right Founding Team 05:28 — Building the Product 06:19 — Variance Is the Existential Problem 07:08 — The Early Demand Trap 07:53 — How to Price AI Services 08:41 — The P&L Walkthrough 09:33 — AI Operating Leverage 10:27 — Don't Buy Your Way In
11:21

Some of the biggest companies of the next decade won't be software businesses. They'll be services companies like insurance carriers, law firms, and tax practices rebuilt from scratch with AI doing most of the work. In this episode of Startup School, YC Visiting Partner Charlie Warren walks through the playbook for building AI native services companies, covering how to pick a market with the right traits, why variance kills these businesses faster than anything else, and the P&L math that’ll transform your business model. 00:00 — Intro to AI Services Companies 01:01 — Picking the Right Market 02:55 — Markets YC Likes Right Now 03:43 — The Sam Altman Test 04:35 — The Right Founding Team 05:28 — Building the Product 06:19 — Variance Is the Existential Problem 07:08 — The Early Demand Trap 07:53 — How to Price AI Services 08:41 — The P&L Walkthrough 09:33 — AI Operating Leverage 10:27 — Don't Buy Your Way In

Y Combinator

128,905 views • 1 month ago

🎙️ The Sujal Show Ep. 13: Ishan Sharma – The Blueprint for Building Wealth with AI in 2026 4M creator Ishan Sharma reveals his exact AI workflow, shares 3 skills that will save you from AI, 5 junior roles at risk from AI, how to build an AI automation agency, and drops zero‑coding money methods We Discussed on The Sujal Show:👇 - 3 skills that AI cannot replace - Biggest mistake college students make that AI can’t fix - Why he avoids AI avatars (and why you should too) - The easiest way to make ₹1 lakh per month with AI - Ways to make money with AI right now (no coding) - Degree vs personal brand – which actually matters in 2026? - Why he prefers Claude over ChatGPT - Which junior jobs are already dying in 2026? - The “2% rule” for success mindset - Why did he refuse a ₹1Cr brand deal? - Why vibe coding is a trap for serious founders - AI workflow that saves him 20 hours a week - His favorite AI models for 2026 Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:50 How deep he is in AI 02:12 Degree vs Personal Brand in the AI Era 04:23 Are Tier-3 College Degrees Still Worth It? 08:50 Top 10 Ways to Make Money with AI in 2026 15:18 How to market your AI product 16:38 Ishan Sharma's Highest-Earning Year 20:15 Roadmap for a 14-Year-Old to Build a Personal Brand Using AI 22:33 His Content Creation Workflow 27:51 The AI Prompts Ishan Uses Daily 29:19 Most Underrated AI Tool 47:41 Cost of Building AI Automations 48:40 How to Get Hired in the AI Age 52:04 Best Way to Learn AI, Sales & Communication Skills 54:07 Job market 2026 57:38 Top 5 AI Models He dropped out at 20. Built a 4M+ empire. His AI workflow will save you years.
1:04:05

🎙️ The Sujal Show Ep. 13: Ishan Sharma – The Blueprint for Building Wealth with AI in 2026 4M creator Ishan Sharma reveals his exact AI workflow, shares 3 skills that will save you from AI, 5 junior roles at risk from AI, how to build an AI automation agency, and drops zero‑coding money methods We Discussed on The Sujal Show:👇 - 3 skills that AI cannot replace - Biggest mistake college students make that AI can’t fix - Why he avoids AI avatars (and why you should too) - The easiest way to make ₹1 lakh per month with AI - Ways to make money with AI right now (no coding) - Degree vs personal brand – which actually matters in 2026? - Why he prefers Claude over ChatGPT - Which junior jobs are already dying in 2026? - The “2% rule” for success mindset - Why did he refuse a ₹1Cr brand deal? - Why vibe coding is a trap for serious founders - AI workflow that saves him 20 hours a week - His favorite AI models for 2026 Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:50 How deep he is in AI 02:12 Degree vs Personal Brand in the AI Era 04:23 Are Tier-3 College Degrees Still Worth It? 08:50 Top 10 Ways to Make Money with AI in 2026 15:18 How to market your AI product 16:38 Ishan Sharma's Highest-Earning Year 20:15 Roadmap for a 14-Year-Old to Build a Personal Brand Using AI 22:33 His Content Creation Workflow 27:51 The AI Prompts Ishan Uses Daily 29:19 Most Underrated AI Tool 47:41 Cost of Building AI Automations 48:40 How to Get Hired in the AI Age 52:04 Best Way to Learn AI, Sales & Communication Skills 54:07 Job market 2026 57:38 Top 5 AI Models He dropped out at 20. Built a 4M+ empire. His AI workflow will save you years.

Sujal Jethwani

33,853 views • 2 months ago

Over the past year, we've been building our own internal agent infrastructure at YC: over 350 tools, self-improving skill loops, and a shared organizational brain that gets smarter overnight. In this episode of the Lightcone Podcast, we sat down with YC General Partner Pete Pete Koomen to talk about how he led the effort from the ground up. We cover how giving agents unrestricted access to one database was the key unlock, the self-improving skill loops that get smarter overnight, and why he thinks we've arrived at the personal computer moment for AI. 00:39 — YC's AI Stack 02:15 — The Finance Team Problem That Started It All 05:07 — SQL Access Changes Everything 07:20 — One Database to Rule Them All 09:14 — Jevons Paradox 10:07 — Denormalizing for Agents 12:15 — The Single-Player Era of Agents 14:16 — 350 Tools and a Shared Registry 16:24 — Skillify, DRY, and MECE Resolvers 18:23 — The Self-Improving Dream Cycle 20:26 — The Two-Sentence Pitch Skill 23:06 — How Super Intelligence Compounds 25:10 — Recording Everything as a Building Layer 27:10 — The Shared Organizational Brain 29:18 — Trust-Default Culture as a Requirement 30:44 — Raising the Floor for New Employees 32:35 — Horseless Carriages 34:24 — Why Chat Is the Best Interface for Agents 38:50 — Just-in-Time Software 40:49 — Centralizing vs. Decentralizing AI 43:32 — The Personal AI Revolution
46:29

Over the past year, we've been building our own internal agent infrastructure at YC: over 350 tools, self-improving skill loops, and a shared organizational brain that gets smarter overnight. In this episode of the Lightcone Podcast, we sat down with YC General Partner Pete Pete Koomen to talk about how he led the effort from the ground up. We cover how giving agents unrestricted access to one database was the key unlock, the self-improving skill loops that get smarter overnight, and why he thinks we've arrived at the personal computer moment for AI. 00:39 — YC's AI Stack 02:15 — The Finance Team Problem That Started It All 05:07 — SQL Access Changes Everything 07:20 — One Database to Rule Them All 09:14 — Jevons Paradox 10:07 — Denormalizing for Agents 12:15 — The Single-Player Era of Agents 14:16 — 350 Tools and a Shared Registry 16:24 — Skillify, DRY, and MECE Resolvers 18:23 — The Self-Improving Dream Cycle 20:26 — The Two-Sentence Pitch Skill 23:06 — How Super Intelligence Compounds 25:10 — Recording Everything as a Building Layer 27:10 — The Shared Organizational Brain 29:18 — Trust-Default Culture as a Requirement 30:44 — Raising the Floor for New Employees 32:35 — Horseless Carriages 34:24 — Why Chat Is the Best Interface for Agents 38:50 — Just-in-Time Software 40:49 — Centralizing vs. Decentralizing AI 43:32 — The Personal AI Revolution

Y Combinator

753,647 views • 2 months ago