Episode Details
Back to EpisodesLIVE @ YC Demo Day | Nate Bosshard, Joshua Reeves, Joshua Browder, Burkay Gur, Theo Browne & MORE
Episode 209
Published 4 months ago
Description
- (00:00) - Nate Bosshard, founder of Offline Ventures and co-founder of Tonal, has a background in marketing leadership at companies like GoPro and The North Face. In the conversation, he reflects on his early entrepreneurial ventures, such as selling used records on eBay, and discusses the evolution of Y Combinator's Demo Day to a quarterly event. He also highlights Andrew Dudum of Hims & Hers as an underrated entrepreneur, noting the company's rapid growth and successful public offering.
- (24:17) - Jerry Qian, co-founder and CEO of Reacher, an AI-powered platform that automates creator marketing workflows for brands, discusses how Reacher helps brands find the right creators, personalize outreach, manage payments, and generate scripts to create viral content. He highlights the emergence of TikTok Shop as a significant social commerce platform and emphasizes the role of AI in enhancing creator marketing. Jerry also shares that Reacher has achieved $137,000 in monthly recurring revenue.
- (27:52) - Joshua Reeves, CEO and co-founder of Gusto, a company reimagining payroll and HR services for small businesses, discusses his journey from Stanford electrical engineering graduate to entrepreneur, highlighting his experience with Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch and the early days of Gusto. He shares insights into the company's initial focus on payroll, the importance of using their own product before paying themselves, and the challenges of raising funds during a time when many startups were centered on social and mobile platforms. Reeves also reflects on the significance of customer-centricity, drawing inspiration from Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement speech, and emphasizes the value of understanding and serving customers to build a successful business.
- (33:28) - Bruno Koba, co-founder of Gauss, introduces their AI-driven investment analyst designed to assist retail investors in making informed decisions by monitoring markets, filtering noise, and delivering personalized insights. He emphasizes the platform's focus on reducing emotional investment mistakes and catering to thesis-driven investors who lack time for extensive market research. Bruno also shares his background, including roles at Nubank and Monashees, and mentions Gauss's subscription model, charging $19 per month, with plans to transition to a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) model.
- (39:24) - Jason Cornelius, co-founder and CEO of Perseus Defense, discusses the development of affordable 16-inch guided missiles designed to counter drone threats. He highlights the limitations of existing counter-UAS solutions, such as electronic warfare and high-cost interceptors, and introduces Perseus Defense's cost-effective alternative, aiming to produce missiles for under $10,000 per unit. Cornelius also shares the company's rapid prototyping progress, including multiple missile iterations and live-fire tests, and mentions engagements with the Department of Defense to advance the technology's deployment.
- (44:53) - Farhan Khan, co-founder of Meteor and former University of Washington computer science student, discusses their AI-native browser designed to automate repetitive online tasks, positioning it as a superior alternative to Google Chrome. He explains that Meteor employs AI agents to handle activities like scheduling meetings and data entry, aiming to save users significant time. Farhan also shares his entrepreneurial journey, including previous projects and his decision to drop out of college to focus on building Meteor.
- (48:31) - Wyatt Lansford is the co-founder and CTO of Pally, a platform that consolidates contacts and conversations from various platforms into one place, utilizing on-device AI to maintain user privacy. In the conversation, Haz Hubble, Pally's founder, discusses the platform's functionality, emphasizing its local data processing to ensure privacy, and shares the company's growth