Bertrand
1.2K posts

Bertrand
@BertrandBuild
Building privacy first AI agents 🛠 tee | zk | zkml

I decided to join Y Combinator, again. This would be my second time! Not fully sure what I'm working on yet. But, I'm sure I'll find something in time as I wander and ship. I'm a little scared to do the whole build a company thing again ngl, but mostly excited. There's never been a better time to work on the ideas in my head. The batch started this week. Starting a company at 23 vs now starting a company at 30 feels so different. At 23 (when I did YC in 2020), naivety was there. At 30 I guess I know how difficult it all is. It's not surprising to me that most people in YC are aged 19-24. Still, I feel like I have the naivety of a 19 year-old, but, with the mental of a guy who's been through a lot and learned a lot. So, I'm bullish. Let's see what happens. You'll probably see me launching a lot of random stuff over the next few weeks especially. Also, I am blown away by the number of founders in the batch walking up to me telling me they credit being at YC to @_buildspace. It's so wonderful, and warms my heart. I often struggle to stop and understand the value of my past work because I'm so interested in the future. So, this was nice. It's funny, many saw me irl and freaked out thinking I was joining as a YC partner and were very very surprised to hear I was joining as a founder back in the dirt alongside them haha. Most founders never start another company and usually turn into VCs or get a high-tier job at a big company. I do not blame them. And honestly, that would be the easier more secure path for me especially as I begin thinking about family. But, idk. I feel like my ideas are important. And even though I don't have a specific "This is the idea I'm excited about" it's more a feeling of "I should explore my ideas...I would regret it if I didn't". Especially in 2026, at the epicenter of one of the greatest inventions of my lifetime. Every time I think about getting a job (of which I've been offered many great ones) that voice in my head comes back and says to give my nascent visions a shot. So, gonna try :) Maybe I flop, maybe I don't, only one way to find out. I'll be dropping weekly updates on YouTube if you're interested. I put one out last week that talks more in depth around the story of how this YC stuff even happened randomly, why I'm doing this again, my imposter syndrome and how I think about it, and other stuff. I'll link it below. Lets see what happens!! See y'all.










I don't use Telegram. All those accounts are fake. Not against Telegram, but the one feature that killed it for me was anyone can message you when they know your handle. And I get spammed to the point my phone lags. Gave this feedback to Pavel directly once too. 🤷♂️

GPT-5 says 'I don't know'. Love this, thank you.







