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What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

jamesin.substack.com

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Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#81

Post by pegasus »

xorcist wrote: post #74

I see a pattern with AI companies. They always try to solve a really hard and not very useful problem. It's the same as with self driving car companies ten years ago: If you believe self driving tech is ripe for commercialization, the reasonable thing to do is something capital intensive and a special case where the technology most likely to succeed. For instance, heavy trucks automatically following others in format…

That's exactly the approach to NLP which these super-successful LLMs are contradicting. They are generalists who can best with ease customized software developed over many years in all the subfields of NLP.

Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#82

Post by joshuajooste05 »

xorcist wrote: post #74

I see a pattern with AI companies. They always try to solve a really hard and not very useful problem. It's the same as with self driving car companies ten years ago: If you believe self driving tech is ripe for commercialization, the reasonable thing to do is something capital intensive and a special case where the technology most likely to succeed. For instance, heavy trucks automatically following others in format…

Agreed, the agents people are building are not solving the real issues.

The other thing people have been trying to do is build general agents e.g. Manus.

I just think this misses the key value add that agents can add at the moment.

A general agent would need to match the depth of every vertical agent, which is basically AGI. Until we reach AGI, verticalized agents for specific real issues will be where the money/value is at.

Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#83

Post by nkotov »

Regarding Series A - since the YC deal has increased to $500k, there seems to be no pressure to quickly get a Series A when you have just enough to figure out if what you're building actually works and since the tools have gotten so good, you're not under pressure to spend it quickly either.

Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#84

Post by BoorishBears »

throwanem wrote: post #12
lubujackson wrote: post #4

0 consumer products is wild. I know SaaS has taken over from a bang for buck perspective, but this seens like a too-narrow approach by YC.

A too-narrow approach after Apple beefed it? Nobody knows how to bring AI to market yet but OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Long shots are one thing, but all the ideas I've heard for b2c AI so far are mostly more like pipe dreams. Look for a Zynga play once the field starts opening up for that in maybe a year or so, would be what I'd try to do.

"after Apple beefed it?" ... what? Apple's inability to improve their OS is somehow an indictment of B2C AI offerings in a general sense?

You seem unfamiliar with the space, there are plenty of players outside of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google bringing AI to the consumer space: https://a16z.com/100-gen-ai-apps-4/

Consumer AI is arguably doing better than enterprise where 99% of the spend is poorly scaling undertakings that don't deliver on even 1/10th of their cost.

Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#85

Post by BrandiATMuhkuh »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #19

I'm curious how many startups started making revenue after Seed and decided to defer an A round. I've had a couple companies reach out to ke claiming that they're close to breaking even at Seed, but I have my doubts.

I'm also surprised that it is not discussed. From what I read/hear are AI startups much faster growing than others. And because ZIRP is over, basically everyone I meet strives for revenue or even cash flow positivity from very early on.

Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#86

Post by eh-tk »

justinbaker84 wrote: post #71
neom wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sit on an AI evaluation committee for a huge law firm (It's just a regular old consulting gig) - we get so much inbound from (mostly kids) folks trying to build wrappers for some aspect of legal workflow, but behind the scenes thomson reuters is slowly adding everything they're going to need to software they have been using for 10 years now.

Can confirm. One of my best friends is a senior engineer at thomson reuters and they are focused on that.

Have they published anything yet? Would love to read

Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#87

Post by zdw »

xorcist wrote: post #74

I see a pattern with AI companies. They always try to solve a really hard and not very useful problem. It's the same as with self driving car companies ten years ago: If you believe self driving tech is ripe for commercialization, the reasonable thing to do is something capital intensive and a special case where the technology most likely to succeed. For instance, heavy trucks automatically following others in format…

> heavy trucks automatically following others in formations for long drives.

Congratulations, you just reinvented the railroad.

Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#88

Post by [deleted] »

yesimahuman wrote: post #70
adamsuskin wrote: post #66

> Obviously, if one of these funds gives you a term sheet, it’s a no-brainer. It isn't a no-brainer. Many founders in the new era are weighing bootstrapping, seed-strapping, and VC money without a clear answer. If you can see a path to growing MMs of revenue with little need for staff, you may just not go do a follow-on round.

Just raising as much money as you can when you can from even great firms is how so many founders get themselves in big trouble down the road and reduce their exit optionality or introduce deathly signaling risk. But if you can take lots of secondary to derisk and build that nest egg I guess have at it

[deleted]

Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#89

Post by rogerrogerr »

zdw wrote: post #87
xorcist wrote: post #74

I see a pattern with AI companies. They always try to solve a really hard and not very useful problem. It's the same as with self driving car companies ten years ago: If you believe self driving tech is ripe for commercialization, the reasonable thing to do is something capital intensive and a special case where the technology most likely to succeed. For instance, heavy trucks automatically following others in format…

> heavy trucks automatically following others in formations for long drives. Congratulations, you just reinvented the railroad.

The railroad can’t have individual cars break off from the line to go to arbitrary warehouses, stores, and residences.

The railroad is an amazingly low cost way to move tonnage, if you’re going from a place where the railroad stops to another place where the railroad stops. There aren’t really companies that _could_ be using rail and aren’t.

But it just isn’t cost effective in many cases once you add in last-mile costs. If we built more rail (politically infeasible), you might see more usage but ultimately you still suffer from needing at least one locomotive per train.

Re: What's working for YC companies since the AI boom

#90

Post by throwanem »

BoorishBears wrote: post #84
throwanem wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A too-narrow approach after Apple beefed it? Nobody knows how to bring AI to market yet but OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Long shots are one thing, but all the ideas I've heard for b2c AI so far are mostly more like pipe dreams. Look for a Zynga play once the field starts opening up for that in maybe a year or so, would be what I'd try to do.

"after Apple beefed it?" ... what? Apple's inability to improve their OS is somehow an indictment of B2C AI offerings in a general sense? You seem unfamiliar with the space, there are plenty of players outside of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google bringing AI to the consumer space: https://a16z.com/100-gen-ai-apps-4/ Consumer AI is arguably doing better than enterprise where 99% of the spend is poorly scaling undertakings…

I wasn't really counting horny chatbots and nudify apps, fair. But I also don't have a book in the space to talk.
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