Artificial English tutor that understands your situation and needs - writes email for your English speaking boss, prepares you for a job interview in your specific industry, etc.
I love how this is pretty off the cuff. Gives me a good idea of the actual, unscripted personalities of the group partners, and what they’re like in a group. Awesome guys!
Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro: Differentiating Startup Ideas 00:48 - The Light Cone" Podcast 01:53 - Y Combinator's Recent Batch 03:34 - College Students and AI Startups 04:44 - AI Startup Success Factors 05:53 - Opportunities in Mundane AI Tasks 07:43 - Beware of "Tarpit Ideas" 08:30 - AI Copilot 09:36 - AI Integration into UIs 10:30 - Avoiding the "Checkbox Mentality" 11:54 - Focus on Genuine Use Cases 13:45 - Fine-Tuning Open-Source Models 15:20 - Data Privacy Concerns 16:31 - Purpose-Trained AI Models 18:36 - AI Models for Prototyping 19:45 - Surge in Startup Ideas 20:54 - The "GPT Wrapper" Term: Importance of UX 22:20 - Building a billion-dollar AI company: Focus on Specific Problems 24:16 - AI-Powered Voice Agents 25:50 - Advocacy for Open-Source AI 26:58 - Resurgence of AI Researcher-Founders 29:36 - Returning YC to Its Roots 30:20 - Periodic Dismissal of Emerging Tech 30:55 - Classic Hacker News Essay: The New Cycle of Tech Geeks 32:06 - Outro
The difference is: MySQL doesn’t have a consumer facing product. And in SaaS, the user interactions are much more complex. In Chat based software, it’s the same interaction. And there’s a consumer facing app already. 22:45 This means the barriers to entry are low, which means endless substitutes, which means you'll compete on price (race to the bottom)... low margins, low top line... this isn't rocket science.
That works both ways though. It means open source will likely win in the end since all it takes is one massive LLM to be trained so OAI and the like will lose their moat. I actually think access to chips will likely be the limiting factor, and I can see arguments for both OSS and closed source there.
00:00 - Intro: Differentiating Startup Ideas 00:48 - The Light Cone" Podcast 01:53 - Y Combinator's Recent Batch 03:34 - College Students and AI Startups 04:44 - AI Startup Success Factors 05:53 - Opportunities in Mundane AI Tasks 07:43 - Beware of "Tarpit Ideas" 08:30 - AI Copilot 09:36 - AI Integration into UIs 10:30 - Avoiding the "Checkbox Mentality" 11:54 - Focus on Genuine Use Cases 13:45 - Fine-Tuning Open-Source Models 15:20 - Data Privacy Concerns 16:31 - Purpose-Trained AI Models 18:36 - AI Models for Prototyping 19:45 - Surge in Startup Ideas 20:54 - The "GPT Wrapper" Term: Importance of UX 22:20 - Building a billion-dollar AI company: Focus on Specific Problems 24:16 - AI-Powered Voice Agents 25:50 - Advocacy for Open-Source AI 26:58 - Resurgence of AI Researcher-Founders 29:36 - Returning YC to Its Roots 30:20 - Periodic Dismissal of Emerging Tech 30:55 - Classic Hacker News Essay: The New Cycle of Tech Geeks 32:06 - Outro
2 Things I've advised our clients to consider with AI: > Focus on the picks and shovels: Enable AI rather than create it. > Double click on a niche: Don't just focus on an industry but a niche within a single industry. e.g. Not just antiques but antique books.
About the first, I think a lot of clients want all-in-one observability platforms that typically just get built by the biggest players (e.g. Azure), it seems like niche ideas may win in that field as well
This is an excellent conversation straight from the source of one of the best places tech is born. Thanks for starting this Y Combinator Team. I do so many tech startup interviews myself as a host for Grit Daily mag its refreshing to see what Y Combinator sees as important to discuss.
Thank you for this podcast, you gave me the idea of taking 3 Google Cloud certifications: Cloud Architect, Data Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer to create one of the companies that you recommended to do. Your reviews are really helpful. Thank you 😃
Honestly, I feel like the gold rush around AI and LLMs is creating this negative pressure on the rest of the ecosystem. I think it's pretty likely that we're going to see a huge consolidation in the LLM space in the coming years and there will be a few huge winners and lots of small losers. My hot take is that now is paradoxically the best time to found startups that *aren't* banking on AI and LLMs. Lots of people are going to waste lots of time trying to shoehorn LLMs into spaces they don't belong and fail, and it's a great time to get ahead. You were talking about AI tarpits, I think it's not that there are a few tarpits, but that AI is a giant tarpit with a few paradise-like islands. Build something great while others are swimming in the tar.
I agree completely, it seems like the pressure is making people ignore huge red flags, such as the fact that so many startups are based on the behaviour of openAIs models that can change on a daily basis.
love the modeling around "if a company isn't buying your co-pilot, just build their company with co-pilot and beat them" because if your co-pilot can't level up a company enough to be better than your potential client, then you probably aren't providing enough value.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 19:30 🔍 *Startups see abundant opportunities in building AI applications.* 20:54 💡 *Generative AI ideas are popular but raise sustainability concerns.* 22:31 🎯 *Successful startups address specific user needs with tailored solutions.* 24:19 🚀 *Multimodal AI enhances software functionality, prompting innovation.* 25:18 🗣️ *AI voice agents automate tasks, but concerns arise over misuse.* 26:12 🌐 *Advocacy for open-source AI fosters equitable access and prevents monopolies.* 27:57 🚀 *Growing interest in AI entrepreneurship driven by successful technology transfer.* 30:01 🔄 *AI innovation attracts passionate technologists, echoing historical cycles.* 31:52 💪 *Perseverance and practical focus are vital in navigating AI entrepreneurship.*
11 місяців тому+25
Yo plz don't give up on this podcast. Looking forward to ep 100!
Most of the problems are like ages old. When tech meet use cases, they seem like strange to each other. So many mundane tasks are around us, and just a little bit calibration, these job would intrigue people's potential rather than make them age faster. Talk to the people in different industries, understand them, are so important.
The new gen ai stuff kind of yeah. But the ai that has been getting used for proper problems before this hype bubble, no. Example. Recommendation algos, which fall into the category of ai. Or optical character recognition which also falls under ai but has existed for over 20 years with plenty of problem solving use.
A light cone in special relativity does does not refer to the spatial cone shape produced by a flashlight. Maybe im confused abt what he meant. It actually is related to the cone shape that all possible trajectories of light produce on a local spacetime diagram. For a given starting point it defines a boundary that no object can ever cross.
3:55 - I don't believe in coincidences. I decided to finally go back to college & earn a CS degree I started years prior. And about 3 months before graduating, an old friend asked me to partner with him on an AI startup. So I'm grateful to say not only am I getting in on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but doing it with a fresh current Computer Science education. Granted the timing worked out for me, but I do believe there is more benefit to earning that degree while still jumping into this world. Great video, thanks!!
Jeez, the subtitles kept showing Rapper, first I was like what ! Then I rationalized it saying as GPTs are language models spewing words they in a light heart calling it Rapper
I’m a GPT-4 customer. I’m frustrated with the overconfidence in responses that end up being wrong. I’m also frustrated with its laziness and not knowing where the laziness starts and ends. I asked it to give me a list of all the countries in the world and it was adamant that I just go to a Wikipedia page.
Light cone is such a cool and appropriate name, and the explanation deserves a little expansion: Alpha centauri is 4 light years away, so any choice I make today will only affect alpha centauri 4 years from now, at the earliest, because nothing can travel faster than light. If you plot a spacetime graph of all the events throughout the universe that I could theoretically have an impact on, that graph will form a cone shape, which is why it's called a light cone. A very apt metaphor for starting a company that will shape the future!
Note for myself: Popular ideas for AI startups that are not working(tarpit ideas) AI copilot: Build a copilot for someone's product or service. Finetuning open-source models. Ideas working: LLM security.
I love the episode, it's really insightful and would love to have more. But I would like it if most of the acronyms used could be outlined to help those unfamiliar with them add them to their vocabulary. Thank you
It is very interesting how AI is changing the way we find information and work around the world so exponentially. Investing in large companies dedicated to AI is a smart move. Many companies, are and will continue to migrate to this new technology, it saves money if a robot can do a job instead of a person.
Takeaways generated by Zenfetch: 1. Many assume YC favors AI startups but the partners say they fund smart founders irrespective of industry. 2. College students and young founders are well positioned to work in AI due to the newness of the field and lack of experience requirements. 3. Automating repetitive human tasks using AI, such as searching and form filling, is an area seeing applications being built.
Thanks for the insightful conversation! I just need more clarification on the ideas that seems to be good but they can be taken away by gpt-5. I have a lot of ideas for gen-ai projects but the thing is that are they good enough to stand for the next era. honestly i think it is a marathon of innovation, when gpt-5 unleashes, we jump to new products now the question is do we abandon those we had?
These guys literally became millionaires in the era where explicitly unprofitable businesses were given tens of millions in funding… what do you expect lol
for others closer to my age (mid 40s and up), I have a course on skool called prompt-engineering , I taught kindergarten 9 years then went to computer science/ data science school/ bootcamps with the kids, now 8 years in tech, working as an ai integrated specialist
On skool, I have a course called prompt-engineering , I do live zoom on Saturdays if people have questions. Not free but free stuff, you can find anywhere online
First, great show. I appreciate getting into the nuts-n-bolts, but also appreciate higher level talk shows like this. Thank you. Secondly, what is the name of the Government contracting AI company/tool that you mentioned? I almost fell off my seat when I heard someone was doing this. I started this very same thing, however, it's a 50/50 split of code and AI, as I've found at least 50% of a Sources Sought response or Market Survey response is a regurgitation of what can be found through code. In any case, if I can pay for an already operational SaaS for this, I would gladly do that in place on finishing what I've been working on.
Such an underwhelming explanation of the lightcone. It’s the space-time region that any physical entity can be causally connected to! Such a cool podcast title!
AI is changing the way we access information and the way we work. Even just investing in the major public players is a great way to get exposure to AI. It simply makes sense economically if you can have a robot do what you need to pay a human to do.
Love this podcast. One quick suggestion, the light cone is not exactly the definition you mentioned in the beginning. It's related to time and light speed so that have the cone shape. Just a suggestion.
I'm building an AI startup, and I'm from Africa, currently studying in India. Although 'm facing lots of impediments, and from an impoverished origin, I hope eventually my AI gets funded by YCombinator.
Interesting, that YC are saying replacing mundane data jockey work is perfect for replacement by LLM, when it seems that an ML orchestration engine with an LLM connector, makes more sense?
Exciting start! The Lightcone Podcast's debut episode, featuring insights from YC Group Partners working with top AI startup founders, promises a treasure trove of valuable lessons.
The GPT meme is real and it has nothing to do with “just being a wrapper” but more so about FOMO building. For example, YC invested in a lot of these text2sql wrappers. But these solutions aren’t solving an actual problem - latency when it comes from technical to non technical getting information. Enterprise companies would be all over this, but they’re not because all text2sql does is provide incorrect data, hallucinate, and exacerbate bad data governance. ad hoc data insights powered by GPT in chat format is BS.
If models become local (stored and processed on prem for mobile and desktop) Then applications serve as a literal UI layer. Apps become more lightweight going forward?
For businesses, leveraging private data with approval. But consumers face leveraging (mostly public) data without approvals (ie. using copywrited data)
Do you guys think blockchain will make a comeback for authentication as ai keeps on growing, specially the agi , as the deepfake problems rise ? I mean with the boom of ai the next logical step seems like web3, doesn’t it? Please chime in everyone, what do you think of this?
Just curious, it's interesting how every one of you mentioned LLMs, but no one talked about CNNs (Convolutional Neural Networks). Is it because there are so few computer vision-related startups applying or generally building in this area? Great first episode, by the way. Always love your content, can't wait for future episodes - it's going to be epic!
we need less products with GPT wrappers, instead it is good to see open source AI model with training dataset, but it can contain some danger. anyway looking forward for appearing new AI driven companies observed - backed by YC ⭐
I enjoy your channel and am becoming a fan. However, I often find it challenging to grasp everything because of the frequent use of abbreviations and technical terms. This approach might work well if your intended audience is intermediate to advanced users, but it might not be as inclusive for beginners. Considering beginners today could be the experts of tomorrow, I suggest making your content more accessible to a wider audience. By doing so, you're likely to attract more followers. This is just my opinion, but I do believe you're onto something great. I'm eager to reach a point where I can understand more than 80% of your content. Hope they notice this 😅 . help me out comments community 😁
I used AI to make a summary: Highlights 🚀 AI is permeating every aspect of society, creating opportunities for startups. 📈 Large language models (LLMs) are being utilized by many startups. 🌟 Boring tasks can be the basis for successful businesses. ⚠ “Tarpet” ideas can trap founders if they are not careful. 💡 Focus on solving concrete problems and providing practical solutions. 🤖 AI co-pilot concept is promising but faces challenges with user adoption and finding product-market fit.
The problem with using genAI is that a) you are depending on openAI or any other corporation and b) if you build a product good enough on top of genAI, the company will release over night a feature that is basically your product
You clearly don’t understand the space enough if you think the only available LLMs are the gpt models by openAI or subscription based models by other companies. There’s open source base models that anyone can go refine and run on their own infrastructure.
@@christophero8346 You clearly are not capable of understanding a sentence in english. I never said the only LLMs available are GPT models. I am saying, that anyone who uses GPT as LLM will outcompete your poorly customized llama model running on your little raspberry pi or expensive EC2 instance. So , in order to outcompete, you use GPT. And if that idea is good and generates money, then openAI will scrap you off
What are you building with AI right now?
Ecommerce shopping agent & AI ethics research.
Props AI - A cost monitoring tool for Open AI spend
Artificial English tutor that understands your situation and needs - writes email for your English speaking boss, prepares you for a job interview in your specific industry, etc.
How do I get funding? I want to bring AI powered Vtubers to the masses. I am also working on custom chatbots
Mitra - build AI teams that do anything
It's not everday that YC launches a new podcast! Love the name and the content, keep em coming!
I love how this is pretty off the cuff. Gives me a good idea of the actual, unscripted personalities of the group partners, and what they’re like in a group. Awesome guys!
They feel more human haha!
Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) -
00:00 - Intro: Differentiating Startup Ideas
00:48 - The Light Cone" Podcast
01:53 - Y Combinator's Recent Batch
03:34 - College Students and AI Startups
04:44 - AI Startup Success Factors
05:53 - Opportunities in Mundane AI Tasks
07:43 - Beware of "Tarpit Ideas"
08:30 - AI Copilot
09:36 - AI Integration into UIs
10:30 - Avoiding the "Checkbox Mentality"
11:54 - Focus on Genuine Use Cases
13:45 - Fine-Tuning Open-Source Models
15:20 - Data Privacy Concerns
16:31 - Purpose-Trained AI Models
18:36 - AI Models for Prototyping
19:45 - Surge in Startup Ideas
20:54 - The "GPT Wrapper" Term: Importance of UX
22:20 - Building a billion-dollar AI company: Focus on Specific Problems
24:16 - AI-Powered Voice Agents
25:50 - Advocacy for Open-Source AI
26:58 - Resurgence of AI Researcher-Founders
29:36 - Returning YC to Its Roots
30:20 - Periodic Dismissal of Emerging Tech
30:55 - Classic Hacker News Essay: The New Cycle of Tech Geeks
32:06 - Outro
Very good summary
@@rembautimes8808 thank you 😊
Clever ;)
@@nathanbrannan5228 Thanks 🙃
now i can skip to whatever complete trash their taking about
Love the energy and maturity around the topic! Waiting for Ep2!
30 minutes is about the perfect length for a podcast episode 👌
4 you. i perfer 3 hours.
A lot of info
The difference is: MySQL doesn’t have a consumer facing product.
And in SaaS, the user interactions are much more complex.
In Chat based software, it’s the same interaction. And there’s a consumer facing app already. 22:45
This means the barriers to entry are low, which means endless substitutes, which means you'll compete on price (race to the bottom)... low margins, low top line... this isn't rocket science.
Agreed
That works both ways though. It means open source will likely win in the end since all it takes is one massive LLM to be trained so OAI and the like will lose their moat.
I actually think access to chips will likely be the limiting factor, and I can see arguments for both OSS and closed source there.
"Mundane tasks and boring work"! Love this!
Thanks for the inspiring conversation
00:00 - Intro: Differentiating Startup Ideas
00:48 - The Light Cone" Podcast
01:53 - Y Combinator's Recent Batch
03:34 - College Students and AI Startups
04:44 - AI Startup Success Factors
05:53 - Opportunities in Mundane AI Tasks
07:43 - Beware of "Tarpit Ideas"
08:30 - AI Copilot
09:36 - AI Integration into UIs
10:30 - Avoiding the "Checkbox Mentality"
11:54 - Focus on Genuine Use Cases
13:45 - Fine-Tuning Open-Source Models
15:20 - Data Privacy Concerns
16:31 - Purpose-Trained AI Models
18:36 - AI Models for Prototyping
19:45 - Surge in Startup Ideas
20:54 - The "GPT Wrapper" Term: Importance of UX
22:20 - Building a billion-dollar AI company: Focus on Specific Problems
24:16 - AI-Powered Voice Agents
25:50 - Advocacy for Open-Source AI
26:58 - Resurgence of AI Researcher-Founders
29:36 - Returning YC to Its Roots
30:20 - Periodic Dismissal of Emerging Tech
30:55 - Classic Hacker News Essay: The New Cycle of Tech Geeks
32:06 - Outro
Thanks for doing this.
How would you do it for my vids?
Excited to see where this podcast goes! lots of things to learn from you guys! thanks!
Another day, another YC Classic.
2 Things I've advised our clients to consider with AI:
> Focus on the picks and shovels: Enable AI rather than create it.
> Double click on a niche: Don't just focus on an industry but a niche within a single industry. e.g. Not just antiques but antique books.
About the first, I think a lot of clients want all-in-one observability platforms that typically just get built by the biggest players (e.g. Azure), it seems like niche ideas may win in that field as well
I feel like this is the start of something special.
same, in no other circumstance you have this level of intelligence converge on a podcast for any reason.
5:48 LLMs are NOT great at all at automated consistent data conversion. Why would you state this do confidently?
The analogy of LLM as FPGA of idea prototyping is quite apt !
This is an excellent conversation straight from the source of one of the best places tech is born.
Thanks for starting this Y Combinator Team.
I do so many tech startup interviews myself as a host for Grit Daily mag its refreshing to see what Y Combinator sees as important to discuss.
Thank you for this podcast, you gave me the idea of taking 3 Google Cloud certifications: Cloud Architect, Data Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer to create one of the companies that you recommended to do. Your reviews are really helpful. Thank you 😃
Honestly, I feel like the gold rush around AI and LLMs is creating this negative pressure on the rest of the ecosystem. I think it's pretty likely that we're going to see a huge consolidation in the LLM space in the coming years and there will be a few huge winners and lots of small losers. My hot take is that now is paradoxically the best time to found startups that *aren't* banking on AI and LLMs. Lots of people are going to waste lots of time trying to shoehorn LLMs into spaces they don't belong and fail, and it's a great time to get ahead. You were talking about AI tarpits, I think it's not that there are a few tarpits, but that AI is a giant tarpit with a few paradise-like islands. Build something great while others are swimming in the tar.
Every startup can be a tar pit if you can’t raise funding 😅
I agree completely, it seems like the pressure is making people ignore huge red flags, such as the fact that so many startups are based on the behaviour of openAIs models that can change on a daily basis.
love the modeling around "if a company isn't buying your co-pilot, just build their company with co-pilot and beat them" because if your co-pilot can't level up a company enough to be better than your potential client, then you probably aren't providing enough value.
Best video I watched in a while. Thank you! It's good to have validation that what we are doing is correct.
Working in an AI startup, I can vouch for these observations. They were on point, to which we are working on right now!
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
19:30 🔍 *Startups see abundant opportunities in building AI applications.*
20:54 💡 *Generative AI ideas are popular but raise sustainability concerns.*
22:31 🎯 *Successful startups address specific user needs with tailored solutions.*
24:19 🚀 *Multimodal AI enhances software functionality, prompting innovation.*
25:18 🗣️ *AI voice agents automate tasks, but concerns arise over misuse.*
26:12 🌐 *Advocacy for open-source AI fosters equitable access and prevents monopolies.*
27:57 🚀 *Growing interest in AI entrepreneurship driven by successful technology transfer.*
30:01 🔄 *AI innovation attracts passionate technologists, echoing historical cycles.*
31:52 💪 *Perseverance and practical focus are vital in navigating AI entrepreneurship.*
Yo plz don't give up on this podcast. Looking forward to ep 100!
yes sir
Most of the problems are like ages old. When tech meet use cases, they seem like strange to each other. So many mundane tasks are around us, and just a little bit calibration, these job would intrigue people's potential rather than make them age faster. Talk to the people in different industries, understand them, are so important.
This is very insightful! Keep up the good work, team YC!
So is AI a solution in search of a problem?
The new gen ai stuff kind of yeah. But the ai that has been getting used for proper problems before this hype bubble, no. Example. Recommendation algos, which fall into the category of ai. Or optical character recognition which also falls under ai but has existed for over 20 years with plenty of problem solving use.
Not at all. It has already revolutionized our law firm and there are real world consequences for our clients.
Absolutely amazing talk very bright panel
A light cone in special relativity does does not refer to the spatial cone shape produced by a flashlight. Maybe im confused abt what he meant. It actually is related to the cone shape that all possible trajectories of light produce on a local spacetime diagram. For a given starting point it defines a boundary that no object can ever cross.
3:55 - I don't believe in coincidences. I decided to finally go back to college & earn a CS degree I started years prior. And about 3 months before graduating, an old friend asked me to partner with him on an AI startup. So I'm grateful to say not only am I getting in on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but doing it with a fresh current Computer Science education. Granted the timing worked out for me, but I do believe there is more benefit to earning that degree while still jumping into this world. Great video, thanks!!
Key takeaway: "SaaS is just a DataBase Wrapper", golden phrase right there.
Jeez, the subtitles kept showing Rapper, first I was like what ! Then I rationalized it saying as GPTs are language models spewing words they in a light heart calling it Rapper
I’m a GPT-4 customer. I’m frustrated with the overconfidence in responses that end up being wrong. I’m also frustrated with its laziness and not knowing where the laziness starts and ends. I asked it to give me a list of all the countries in the world and it was adamant that I just go to a Wikipedia page.
Completely agree. Same experience.
Building a startup should start from problems.
Building an AI startup should start from problems, too, not AI.
Data privacy is the main driver for customers looking into hosting their own LLMs specially in regulated markets in the EU
This is a gem. every minute is packed with good ideas.
4:18 the same applies to gen x and any age group…the LLM technology is new for almost everyone
Light cone is such a cool and appropriate name, and the explanation deserves a little expansion: Alpha centauri is 4 light years away, so any choice I make today will only affect alpha centauri 4 years from now, at the earliest, because nothing can travel faster than light. If you plot a spacetime graph of all the events throughout the universe that I could theoretically have an impact on, that graph will form a cone shape, which is why it's called a light cone. A very apt metaphor for starting a company that will shape the future!
Thank you. Interesting times. Look forward to more episodes!
What a great ending, man!
as well as the whole podcast
Love the genesis of the Lightcone name, Jared :) Looking forward to more of these chats.
My favourite moment 10:30 “Companies being asked What’s our AI strategy” and selling them something to tick the box
Really like the format and the wisdom here!
Note for myself:
Popular ideas for AI startups that are not working(tarpit ideas)
AI copilot: Build a copilot for someone's product or service.
Finetuning open-source models.
Ideas working: LLM security.
I think you are right it's crowded place there is more ai startups than demand
Why does an AI copilot ain't work?
@@ephreamjudegeorge8063 there are many industry giants already like ibm unless you want to get f up.Better do something on other products
very insightful, keep it coming! thanks for sharing
yes
Great episode, looking forward to more!👌🏿
Noting a namespace collision: Lightcone Infrastucture (often just called Lightcone) is the parent organization of LessWrong.
Many such cases
Its not a legal problem so I say go ahead.
A half hour is very brief. I'd love to hear more about how you see the world.
Don’t worry we post a new episode of Lightcone every two weeks
Thanks guys. This video inspired me to implement LLM to a feature I’m currently building for my startup.
How come i didn’t think about it that way 😊
Good content - Go YC! Great to see Diana there too!
I love the episode, it's really insightful and would love to have more.
But I would like it if most of the acronyms used could be outlined to help those unfamiliar with them add them to their vocabulary. Thank you
Thank you for this podcast.
This is the best thing happening on the internet right now!🔥
It is very interesting how AI is changing the way we find information and work around the world so exponentially. Investing in large companies dedicated to AI is a smart move. Many companies, are and will continue to migrate to this new technology, it saves money if a robot can do a job instead of a person.
Takeaways generated by Zenfetch:
1. Many assume YC favors AI startups but the partners say they fund smart founders irrespective of industry.
2. College students and young founders are well positioned to work in AI due to the newness of the field and lack of experience requirements.
3. Automating repetitive human tasks using AI, such as searching and form filling, is an area seeing applications being built.
sup gabe
I am a geek and love innovations and cutting edge in AI.
Can you code?
Thanks for the insightful conversation! I just need more clarification on the ideas that seems to be good but they can be taken away by gpt-5. I have a lot of ideas for gen-ai projects but the thing is that are they good enough to stand for the next era. honestly i think it is a marathon of innovation, when gpt-5 unleashes, we jump to new products now the question is do we abandon those we had?
Curious how much should LLM API costs be for B2B SaaS built using LLMs - 10%?
Love love love love this channel
So the truth is you all funded AI without having any idea what the use case is and now everyone is stuck in a bubble.
That's really accurate
These guys literally became millionaires in the era where explicitly unprofitable businesses were given tens of millions in funding… what do you expect lol
It sounds like a bunch of marketers knowing nothing about tech and especially about llms
@@abesari29so true.
If execute your story nice enough, you're a guru. If you fail, you're a con artist 😀
for others closer to my age (mid 40s and up), I have a course on skool called prompt-engineering , I taught kindergarten 9 years then went to computer science/ data science school/ bootcamps with the kids, now 8 years in tech, working as an ai integrated specialist
On skool, I have a course called prompt-engineering , I do live zoom on Saturdays if people have questions. Not free but free stuff, you can find anywhere online
First, great show. I appreciate getting into the nuts-n-bolts, but also appreciate higher level talk shows like this. Thank you. Secondly, what is the name of the Government contracting AI company/tool that you mentioned? I almost fell off my seat when I heard someone was doing this. I started this very same thing, however, it's a 50/50 split of code and AI, as I've found at least 50% of a Sources Sought response or Market Survey response is a regurgitation of what can be found through code. In any case, if I can pay for an already operational SaaS for this, I would gladly do that in place on finishing what I've been working on.
Such an underwhelming explanation of the lightcone. It’s the space-time region that any physical entity can be causally connected to! Such a cool podcast title!
Best 32 minutes i attended in a while.
AI is changing the way we access information and the way we work. Even just investing in the major public players is a great way to get exposure to AI. It simply makes sense economically if you can have a robot do what you need to pay a human to do.
Who's gonna buy all the junk that robots are making, when the average person can no longer afford to pay for their housing and food?
Fantastic. Best podcast I've listened to in a long time. How do I get in. I want in.
This is incredible. Everyone of you looks and sounds great too.
Where do you really see people doing the same research tasks all the time and summarizing their work? 5:46
Great startup idea lying on the ground: make it easy for viewers to fix youtube transcript (so it can pass the touring test)
lol exactly what I thought 😂
Turing Test.
Love this podcast. One quick suggestion, the light cone is not exactly the definition you mentioned in the beginning. It's related to time and light speed so that have the cone shape. Just a suggestion.
I love this conversation! It's about time
Fun fact: the video currently has 7.5k likes whereas the word "like" was used 263 times in this video.
24:46 😏 I have an example of what this would be if you’re looking for a modern CRM reimagining of Salesforce (a 30yo piece of bloated tech).
Thank you very much guys for that amazing episode , helpful insights ❤
As a german startup founder I directly recognized this intro jingle 😅 - shout out to all OMR education listener ✌❤
They should link their linkedIn/social media on the descriptions so we could follow
I'm building an AI startup, and I'm from Africa, currently studying in India.
Although 'm facing lots of impediments, and from an impoverished origin, I hope eventually my AI gets funded by YCombinator.
Thank you for this conversation!
PromptArmour is actually changing the game! Can't wait to see what they do next!
Interesting, that YC are saying replacing mundane data jockey work is perfect for replacement by LLM, when it seems that an ML orchestration engine with an LLM connector, makes more sense?
For a lot of use cases it doesn’t make sense to use LLMs (it’s overkill). Using just ML is even more boring and probably is enuff for most problems
@@HenleyWingI think every big corporations now use ai so where will they get market
thanks for this Gary 👍
what are some good AI stuff examples done in drastically cheaper way but the conventional thought was it mi8 cost us so much?
Dang! This was great pod! Keep it going guys. :-)
What does it mean "we just fund the smart founder"?
How do you understand which one is the smart founder?
Exciting start! The Lightcone Podcast's debut episode, featuring insights from YC Group Partners working with top AI startup founders, promises a treasure trove of valuable lessons.
love this! keep it up ,please!!
I love the FPGA vs SOC analogy.
The GPT meme is real and it has nothing to do with “just being a wrapper” but more so about FOMO building.
For example, YC invested in a lot of these text2sql wrappers. But these solutions aren’t solving an actual problem - latency when it comes from technical to non technical getting information.
Enterprise companies would be all over this, but they’re not because all text2sql does is provide incorrect data, hallucinate, and exacerbate bad data governance.
ad hoc data insights powered by GPT in chat format is BS.
What's the third company logo in the thumbnail that's not Anthropic or OpenAI?
The third company logo in the thumbnail that is not Anthropic or OpenAI is Y Combinator (YC).
Answered by Talkbud
If models become local (stored and processed on prem for mobile and desktop)
Then applications serve as a literal UI layer.
Apps become more lightweight going forward?
For businesses, leveraging private data with approval. But consumers face leveraging (mostly public) data without approvals (ie. using copywrited data)
Still percolating on "GPT Wrappers" and subsequent discussion.
Do you guys think blockchain will make a comeback for authentication as ai keeps on growing, specially the agi , as the deepfake problems rise ? I mean with the boom of ai the next logical step seems like web3, doesn’t it? Please chime in everyone, what do you think of this?
So if you work full time and your startup idea funded. Does that funding go to your salary so you can work on it full time?
Your decision, not VC decision bro
Great to hear your insights. I look forward to more!
Just curious, it's interesting how every one of you mentioned LLMs, but no one talked about CNNs (Convolutional Neural Networks). Is it because there are so few computer vision-related startups applying or generally building in this area?
Great first episode, by the way. Always love your content, can't wait for future episodes - it's going to be epic!
There are just fewer focused there but they do exist Eg Standard AI or Flock Safety
@@ycombinator Thanks for the clarification and quick response.
Whats the point of all the A.I. projects if AGI is around the corner?
we need less products with GPT wrappers, instead it is good to see open source AI model with training dataset, but it can contain some danger. anyway looking forward for appearing new AI driven companies observed - backed by YC ⭐
I enjoy your channel and am becoming a fan. However, I often find it challenging to grasp everything because of the frequent use of abbreviations and technical terms. This approach might work well if your intended audience is intermediate to advanced users, but it might not be as inclusive for beginners. Considering beginners today could be the experts of tomorrow, I suggest making your content more accessible to a wider audience. By doing so, you're likely to attract more followers. This is just my opinion, but I do believe you're onto something great. I'm eager to reach a point where I can understand more than 80% of your content.
Hope they notice this 😅 . help me out comments community 😁
I used AI to make a summary:
Highlights
🚀 AI is permeating every aspect of society, creating opportunities for startups.
📈 Large language models (LLMs) are being utilized by many startups.
🌟 Boring tasks can be the basis for successful businesses.
⚠ “Tarpet” ideas can trap founders if they are not careful.
💡 Focus on solving concrete problems and providing practical solutions.
🤖 AI co-pilot concept is promising but faces challenges with user adoption and finding product-market fit.
I love your videos, continue pls
The problem with using genAI is that a) you are depending on openAI or any other corporation and b) if you build a product good enough on top of genAI, the company will release over night a feature that is basically your product
You clearly don’t understand the space enough if you think the only available LLMs are the gpt models by openAI or subscription based models by other companies. There’s open source base models that anyone can go refine and run on their own infrastructure.
@@christophero8346 You clearly are not capable of understanding a sentence in english. I never said the only LLMs available are GPT models. I am saying, that anyone who uses GPT as LLM will outcompete your poorly customized llama model running on your little raspberry pi or expensive EC2 instance. So , in order to outcompete, you use GPT. And if that idea is good and generates money, then openAI will scrap you off