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Artwork for Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Y Combinator
Y Combinator
Artificial Intelligence
Startups
Openai
Software Engineering
Cursor
Entrepreneurship
Artificial General Intelligence
Airbnb
Design
Nothing
Natural Language Processing
Chatgpt
Cloud Computing
Perplexity
Consumer Marketing
AI Agents
Smartphones
B2B Startups
Software Development

We help founders make something people want. The Y Combinator Podcast is where builders talk about building. From the earliest days of an idea to scaling a company that changes the world, YC partners and founders share real stories, lessons, and tactics from the frontlines.

PublishesTwice weeklyEpisodes310Founded9 years ago
Number of ListenersCategory
Technology

Listen to this Podcast

Artwork for Y Combinator Startup Podcast

Latest Episodes

A 7-million parameter model outperforming models a thousand times its size on tasks like ARC Prize. That's what recursive reasoning unlocks.In this episode of Decoded, YC's Ankit Gupta and Francois Chaubard break down two recent papers on recursive A... more

Demis Hassabis has had one of the most extraordinary careers in tech. He started as a chess prodigy and video game designer at 17 before getting a PhD in neuroscience and going on to found DeepMind. His lab cracked Go, solved protein structure predic... more

Replit is the leading no-code app builder for consumers and enterprise, letting anyone with an idea build real, deployed software using natural language. The company just raised a $400 million Series D at a $9 billion valuation.In this episode of Fou... more

AI isn't just making teams more productive. It's changing how companies should be built.

In this episode of Startup School, YC Partner Diana Hu explains what it means to build an AI-native company, where AI isn't just a tool but the operating system... more

Key Facts

Contact Information
Podcast Host
Number of Listeners
Find out how many people listen to this podcast per episode and each month.

Recent Guests

Katie Dill
Head of Design at Stripe
Stripe
Episode: Stripe Head of Design Katie Dill Breaks Down Their New Website
Karine Mellata
Co-founder of Variance
Variance
Episode: This Startup Secretly Detects Fraud For Fortune 500s
François Chollet
Founder of Arc Prize; lead researcher behind India and Endia, advocate of symbolic program synthesis and agentic AI
Arc Prize, Endia
Episode: How François Chollet Is Building A New Path To AGI
Mukund Jha
Founders of Emergent
Emergent
Episode: Building A Global AI Startup From India
Madhav Jha
Founders of Emergent
Emergent
Episode: Building A Global AI Startup From India
Max Hodak
Co-founder of Neuralink; founder of Science
Neuralink, Science
Episode: The Future Of Brain-Computer Interfaces with Science's Max Hodak
Raphael Schaad
Designer, co-founder of Cron; visiting partner at YC
YC
Episode: How To Avoid AI Design Slop
Ian Fischer
Co-founder and co-CEO of Poetiq
Poetiq
Episode: The Fastest Path To Super Intelligence
Boris Cherny
Creator and engineer of Claude Code
Anthropic
Episode: Inside Claude Code With Its Creator Boris Cherny

Hosts

Garry Tan
Host of the main YC startup-focused discussions, often guiding conversations with founders and investors.
Harjit
Host contributing to YC-related startup conversations and guest dynamics.
Diana
Co-host involved in YC Startup Podcast discussions and guest coordination.

Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars from 1.2k ratings
  • It’s ok

    Some episodes are interesting, but the podcast overall just seems like a bunch of ads for their companies

    Apple Podcasts
    3
    Murphycj
    United States3 months ago
  • Everyone is yc

    Thanks yc i always believe the future is bright, everytime hearing or reading about startups

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    Goldenretrieverr
    Indonesiaa year ago
  • Eh

    YC used to be run by actual builders and founders

    Now it’s run by PM’s who got lucky at some tech startup and write substack articles for a living

    Not much to learn from this podcast

    Apple Podcasts
    1
    JJkollins
    United Statesa year ago
  • Huge ground-based knowledge

    Podcast Addict
    5
    OSCAR ORO
    2 years ago
  • Audio

    Guys your audio sucks. Get new equipment

    Apple Podcasts
    3
    Mavrik19
    Canada2 years ago

Listeners Say

Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.

Listeners appreciate the actionable founder-focused insights and high-quality guest lineups.
The show is valued as essential listening for founders and those involved in startup acceleration.
Audiences frequently praise interview quality, though some note audio quality inconsistencies.

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

The $9B Startup That Wants to Create a Billion New Developers
Q: What is Agent 4 and how does it change the way people build software on Replit?
Masad details the evolution to Agent 4, including parallel agents, asynchronous design workflows via a canvas, and teamwork features that let multiple users collaborate in real time. This enables users to plan, design, and deploy software even while the agent works in the background.
The $9B Startup That Wants to Create a Billion New Developers
Q: What impact did YC have on Replit's trajectory and fundraising?
The host asks about YC's influence; Masad describes three months of intense focus, the Demo Day exposure to VCs, and eventually a pivotal intro to Marc Andreessen that helped lead their seed round. He emphasizes how YC expanded their network and validated their momentum.
The $9B Startup That Wants to Create a Billion New Developers
Q: How did Replit evolve from a developer tool to a platform for creators beyond traditional engineers?
Masad explains that the mission expanded as they observed designers, product managers, and non‑developers struggling with tool complexity. By introducing AI assistants, multimodal interfaces, and a focus on empowering domain experts, Replit shifted toward enabling anyone with an idea to build and deploy software, not just developers.
This Startup Secretly Detects Fraud For Fortune 500s
Q: How did you convince your first big customer to take a bet on you?
The founders demonstrated deep domain expertise in fraud and built a product tightly aligned with the customer's needs, showing that the platform could evolve with enterprise requirements and scale beyond initial pilots.
This Startup Secretly Detects Fraud For Fortune 500s
Q: What problem were you solving at Apple that led you to start Variance?
We wanted to bring the centralized fraud engineering experience to a standalone company, solving how to automate complex risk and compliance tasks at scale with AI agents, rather than relying on disparate rules and humans.

Audience Metrics

Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.

Listeners per Episode
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Frequently Asked Questions About Y Combinator Startup Podcast

What is Y Combinator Startup Podcast about and what kind of topics does it cover?

The show centers on practical lessons from startup builders, investors, and technology pioneers, with a strong emphasis on early-stage company growth, AI tooling, and the evolving landscape of product development. Across episodes, listeners hear first-hand accounts of founding teams, scalable technologies, and strategic decisions—from YC-backed startups and AI startup founders to experts shaping design, coding tools, and AI governance. Notable strengths include candid founder stories, actionable takeaways for product-market fit, and explorations of frontier technologies like AI agents, brain-computer interfaces, and autonomous tooling that hint at how modern startups operate in a fast-moving tech ecosystem.

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How many listeners does Y Combinator Startup Podcast get?

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Which podcasts are similar to Y Combinator Startup Podcast?

These podcasts share a similar audience with Y Combinator Startup Podcast:

1. AI + a16z
2. The a16z Show
3. The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
4. No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
5. This Week in Startups

How many episodes of Y Combinator Startup Podcast are there?

Y Combinator Startup Podcast launched 9 years ago and published 310 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Y Combinator Startup Podcast?

Recent guests on Y Combinator Startup Podcast include:

1. Katie Dill
2. Karine Mellata
3. François Chollet
4. Mukund Jha
5. Madhav Jha
6. Max Hodak
7. Raphael Schaad
8. Ian Fischer

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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