Jon Xu

The YC application deadline is today. If you're working with AI to close the scientific discovery loop, drop an application and tell us about it.

We’re bringing Jensen Huang to Startup School for a fireside chat with @garrytan! From co-founding @nvidia in 1993 to building the backbone of the AI era, Jensen helped turn GPUs into the engine of modern computing. Apply to attend: events.ycombinator.com/startup-school…

This summer we're launching YC Paper Club to bring researchers & builders together. Every few weeks we'll host a small group dinner in Mountain View to share and discuss new research papers. Interested in both research & building the future? Sign up at: events.ycombinator.com/ycpaperclub

MIT student asked a question earlier today that a lot of young founders are quietly wondering about: "Won’t the frontier labs just do everything?" Yes it's true that OAI/Ant are shipping at incredible pace, but it's quite easy to avoid their blast radius and build amazing startups: OpenAI is not going to build a cattle-herding drone, buy an old F-150 and drive from ranch to ranch like the founder of one of the fastest-growing YC W26 startups, Graze Mate. Anthropic is not going to integrate with dental insurance verification systems (Lance). Google is not going to navigate NATO procurement (Milliray). The value is in the last mile, not the model. Sales cycles require humans who understand the customer. And most importantly, the market is expanding, not shrinking: AI isn't cannibalizing the existing 1% software spend — it's unlocking the other 5-6% that was going to humans. That's a much bigger market for startups yet-to-be-founded than the one the labs are playing in. Now, what DOES seem risky? A thin UI layer on top of ChatGPT with no domain expertise; a general-purpose chatbot or assistant; or a product that gets obsolete when model capabilities improve. But — tools for specific industries; "full-stack" AI companies that actually are the service (AI law firm, AI accounting firm, AI uranium exploration company); or generally products where the customer doesn't want a tool but an outcome — are defensible ideas for startups.

Grateful to have @demishassabis and @GoogleDeepMind stop by YC today and hang with founders!

Congrats to @astorinvest on their $5M seed! They're building an AI investment advisor for everyday investors. It connects to your brokerage, analyzes your portfolio, and delivers personalized recommendations. Less than two months after launch, thousands of users have already connected over $200M in assets to the platform. fortune.com/2026/04/23/jjj…

AI isn't just making teams more productive. It's changing how companies should be built. In this episode of Startup School, YC Partner @sdianahu explains what it means to build an AI-native company, where AI isn't just a tool but the operating system your company runs on. She breaks down how to make your company queryable so agents can improve across every function, why management hierarchies break down when an intelligence layer replaces human middleware, and why early-stage founders have a massive edge in building this way from day one. 00:58 - AI as your company’s operating system 01:57 - Open vs closed loop companies 03:00 - Making your company fully queryable 05:00 - The rise of the 1,000x engineer 07:12 - Why middle management disappears 09:12 - Startups will win this shift

Everyone thinks about money differently. The last generation of personal investment software was fine but not truly optimal for anyone. I know because I built one. AI unlocks a truly personalized advisor with deep understanding of financial situations and personal opinions. Excited that @brunokoba_ and @tulha_ are building this at @astorinvest. Congrats guys!

The team at @10x_Science is delivering a huge unlock for drug development by increasing the speed of protein characterization by orders of magnitude. David, Andrew and Vishnu are an insanely talented team working on a huge problem! And they’re hiring.

That’s a wrap on YC Startup School India. Bengaluru, you really brought it. We can’t wait to see what you’re going to build.

@_groww is now a public company and is the largest investment platform in India. @lkeshre the founder and CEO is still the power user of the product he’s built and still talks to users today.  Had the privilege of sharing the stage at Startup School India where he spoke about building a generational consumer company. We talked about product taste as being not just what looks good, but intentional design choices informed by an obsession with the customer. Lalit and how the team at Groww builds products exemplify this. Photo credit: @gcs319

📍 YC startup school

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@harshilmathur built the largest payment platform in India by being obsessed with his users, having relentless conviction in a competitive space and never losing the ability to move quickly, even today at their scale. Thank you for sharing the @Razorpay story with Startup School India.

Insane builder energy. Let’s go Startup School India!

What an epic lineup of founders for Startup School India. Looking forward to our conversations with them!

Grateful to these incredible founders for speaking at Startup School India today. Aadit Palicha (Zepto) Harshil Mathur (Razorpay) Vidit Aatrey (Meesho) Lalit Keshre (Groww) Mukund Jha (Emergent) Varun Vummadi (GigaML) Six YC-backed Indian founders. Combined company value: $25B+. Jobs created in India: over 250K.

We had room for 2,000 people at Startup School India. More than 25,000 applied. No Startup School anywhere in the world has ever had this many people apply. Not SF, not NYC, not London. India blew them all away.

We are lucky to have Harshita join as GP. Very excited for the founders that get to work with her! @aroraharshita33

The average age of the three @Starcloud_ founders during the batch 18 months ago was 41! 😱