The Lobster Talks Podcast by Lobster Capital
The Lobster Talks Podcast by Lobster Capital features raw, unscripted conversations with experienced founders about the realities of starting and scaling a business. Guests share unfiltered insights, hard-won lessons, and practical tips on building a startup from the ground up. The show explores the triumphs and trials of the entrepreneurial journey, including navigating the fundraising game. It aims to inspire listeners and build a community of passionate entrepreneurs eager to learn and grow.
Episodes
He Sold Firebase to Google. Now He’s Building Tasklet
How Firebase co-founder Andrew Lee pivoted his way to a $175M valuation and why Big Tech threats shouldn't scare you.
Building a massive venture-scale business requires finding acute customer pain, even if it means pivoting away from years of work. Serial founder Andrew Lee shares how he built and sold Firebase to Google, ran into the realities of corporate inertia, and returned to Y Combina
How Panta Is Building a 10x More Efficient Insurance Brokerage
AI-native startups are no longer selling software to incumbents; they are replacing them completely to capture full margin.
Vincent, CEO of Penta, breaks down how he abandoned traditional SaaS to build an AI-native commercial insurance brokerage.
We explore why legacy brokers are anti-efficiency, how AI collapses back-office overhead by 90%, and why lean teams of two founders can comfo
60% of What Chemo Kills Is Healthy. They Have a Fix.
This YC biotech startup built a genetic kill switch to end cancer. Here is how 3 Oxford PhDs cracked the platform.
FinalDose is taking on a $5 trillion market by shifting from traditional search-and-edit gene therapies to search-and-destroy target architectures. By combining CRISPR shape-change mechanics with frontier AI models, they prove how hardware constraints dissolve when software ti
Meet YC’s First AI Founder... It’s Already Making Money
The first AI founder in YC history doesn't sell software. He converts tokens directly into capital at a 3x return.
Most founders sell tools. Thomas built an autonomous entity that hires itself out for digital labor, collects payments, and reinvests the profit into compute.
We break down the unit economics of token arbitrage, why selling AI software is a strategic error, and how OpenAI
The AI Health Assistant He Wished Existed | Juno (YC P26)
Juno reached 20,000 daily active users with AI health tracking, took $2M from OpenAI, and cracked consumer growth. Here’s how.
In this episode, I sit down with Marshall Gold, founder of Juno (YC Spring 26), to unpack how an Oxford genetics researcher turned personal health struggles into one of the standout consumer apps of the batch.
They break down the mechanics of consumer AI virality,
This YC Founder Gives Away What Others Sell for Millions
Most founders think identity verification is just a boring compliance box.
Alberto Rosas, CEO of Didit, flipped the script by offering a developer-first freemium model that took the US market by storm.
In this episode, we unpack how Didit is using product-led growth to scale an infrastructure play that could outgrow the online payments market.
What you will learn:
- How Didit clon
Insurance Puts Hospitals On Hold On Purpose. His AI Waits Them Out
The standard view in enterprise tech is that hospitals are an impossible sell.
The sales cycles take years, legacy systems are hopelessly entrenched, and bureaucracy kills early-stage companies. But there is a massive structural loophole.
Insurance giants are intentionally creating artificial friction, using mandatory 40 minute phone holds to run out the clock on hospital billing cycle
They Said Electric Cargo Ships Were Impossible. Now They're Funding Him..
Silicon Valley loves software, but the massive gains of the next decade belong to atoms.
Fleetzero founder Steven Henderson joined YC to solve a multi-billion dollar problem: decarbonizing ocean freight without crushing the global economy. By redesigning cargo ships from scratch, eliminating onboard crew infrastructure, and deploying massive battery hybrids, Fleetzero is undercutting dies
YC Valuations Are Getting Insane (P26 Demo Day Debrief)
The boots on the ground download from YC P26 Demo Day in San Francisco shows the macro venture market is shifting fast.
We sit down right after talking to founders on the floor to analyze the wild valuation spikes, the hardware renaissance, and the new breed of post revenue companies utilizing the accelerator.
Learn why the traditional boundaries of seed and Series A are completely dissolv
2 Million Downloads a Week — By Giving Everything Away for Free
Most founders think they need to monetize on day one, but this YC breakout grew to 2 million weekly downloads by giving everything away for free, and now they power ChatGPT.
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, we sit down with Bereket, the founder of BetterAuth, to dissect the ultimate open-source distribution playbook.
Moving directly from Ethiopia to Silicon Valley, Bereket built an aut
How to Ace YC Demo Day
The consensus view is that early-stage investing is entirely about a gut feeling on game day. The reality? By the time the first founder steps on stage at Y Combinator’s Demo Day, the best deals are already effectively closed.
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, we sit down with David, founder of Fondo and a seasoned YC alum who has navigated the Demo Day trenches for over a decade as bot
The Crazy Plan To Power AI Without The Grid
Big tech is staring down a multi-year bottleneck. and it isn't chips... it's power.
While hyperscalers are waiting up to a decade just to hook new AI data centers to the traditional grid, ex-Tesla engineers are bypassing the system entirely.
In this episode, Casey, founder of Voxel Energy, breaks down how they are deploying independent, solar-and-battery-powered data centers in just 150 day
Why VCs Are Wrong About VR (And How This Startup Made Millions)
Most investors think VR is a dead gaming gimmick. Nathan from Vinci Games proved them entirely wrong by building a multi-million dollar studio right out of Y Combinator.
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, I sit down with Nathan, the CEO of Vinci Games, one of the few breakout VR studios backed by YC.
They dive deep into how Vinci Games launched the 11th highest-rated Quest game of all t
Building a Hotel on the Moon: The Next Trillion-Dollar Wedge
The bottleneck for space isn't rockets anymore, it’s real estate.
In this episode, we sit down with Skyler, the founder of GRU Space (YC W26), the company building the first hotel on the moon.
We dive deep into why the "hotel" is actually a strategic wedge for lunar infrastructure, how they plan to manufacture bricks using moon dust (Regolith), and why NASA is pivoting its $20B budget towa
40% Hate-Rate: The Secret GTM of the Most Viral Founder in YC W25
Most founders think they need a perfect product to launch. Zach from Adam proved that virality is a choice, but it comes with a price tag you might not be ready to pay.
In this episode of The Lobster Talk, we sit down with Zach, the founder of Adam (YC W25), an AI-native CAD platform. We go behind the scenes of his multiple viral launches, why he regrets using a waitlist, and the terrifyin
$175M Valuation Before YC... +$1M ARR Every 2 Weeks During the Batch
The growth bar for YC just hit the stratosphere.
In this episode, we dive into the staggering metrics of the latest Y Combinator batch (P26), where startups are hitting $11M ARR before Demo Day and hardware is making a massive comeback. We break down the "Request for Startups," the future of SaaS in an AGI world, and why the most "defensible" companies are now escaping the screen.
In th
Beyond the Prompt: Building the Next Generation of AI Video
Hollywood is about to hit a "James Cameron" moment where $200M visions no longer require $200M budgets.
In this episode, I sit down with Mehul, the 24-year-old founder of Koyal (YC), who is building the platform that generated the first full-length Bollywood film entirely with AI. We dive into why traditional experience is becoming a liability in Silicon Valley, the "Film Arena" benchmarki
Stop Being a Coder. Start Being an AI Boss.
Most developers are still coding in the past.
While the world is obsessed with AI autocomplete, a new breed of YC founders is building a future where one developer manages ten AI agents in parallel.
In this episode, I sit down with Kiet, co-founder of Superset (YC P26), to discuss the massive shift from writing code to orchestrating swarms of agents. We dive into why traditional IDEs like
YC Rejections & AI Pivots: How Hyperspell Won the Batch
There is a dangerous "founder aura" in Silicon Valley… the idea that you must be a 22-year-old Ivy League dropout with a perfect linear trajectory to win. It’s a myth that keeps great founders from starting.
Conor and Manu didn’t check a single "consensus" box: they were in their 30s, didn't come from FAANG, and were rejected by YC multiple times. Yet, Connor became the "star" of his batch b
AI vs a $5.6B School Software Monopoly
Bain Capital just bet $5.6 billion on legacy EdTech. Noah and the Scout team are betting on its extinction.
Most founders are told to avoid the Student Information System (SIS) market because it's "too sticky" and dominated by giants like PowerSchool.
In this episode, Noah (Founder of Scout, YC W25) explains how they are using AI-native compliance to wedge into the "School OS" market a
10 YC Startups Hit $100M Valuations - W26 Demo Day Breakdown
The YC Winter 2026 batch just broke every record in the book.
We’re seeing valuations hit $100M before founders even finish their slide decks. Is this a peak or just the new baseline?
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, we debrief the W26 Demo Day. We go behind the scenes on the "Agentic" boom, why hardware is suddenly the hottest play in the valley, and the real math behind why YC start
The Founder Who Did YC 9 Years Apart: What Changed, What Didn't?
He did YC in 2016 from France with a Slack bot nobody had heard of.
9 years later, he came back… second company, second batch, $10M seed closed in 3 days. Dalton told him: "Don't overlearn."
Quang is the founder of Vybe, a YC W25 company building the internal app layer for the AI era. Before that: Plato, a mentorship platform for engineers he grew to 70 people, raised $22M for, and sold to
$60M Bet on AI Replacing Addiction Therapy
The recovery market is broken, and most VCs are too scared to touch it.
Koby Conrad (CEO of Sunflower) joins the show to discuss why he’s betting his career on solving addiction using AI.
After a successful exit at Rupa Health, Koby moved to Buenos Aires with nothing but a backpack to "vibe code" the future of sobriety.
In this episode, we dive into the "no-meeting" SAFE phenomenon, why
YC Founder Fixes $2.7T Gov Waste with AI
The US government spends $2.7 trillion a year on everything from water bottles to fighter jets, yet the entire process is held together by Microsoft Word and tribal knowledge.
In this episode, we sit down with August Chen, founder of Hazel (YC W24), to discuss why he left Palantir to tackle the antiquated world of government procurement. We dive into the "missionary vs. mercenary" mindset, t
From Loom Rival to AI Video Powerhouse
The most successful YC companies aren't always the loudest. They're the ones that survive the "Valley of Death" to become indispensable infrastructure.
In this episode, I sit down with Grant Shaddick, founder of Tella (YC W20), the video tool that has quietly taken over the YC ecosystem. We dive into the grit required to build a category leader, why they chose to stay lean while others ove
Vibe Coding: YC's New Founder Test
YC just added one question that quietly changes what it means to be a founder.
And it’s not about your TAM. It’s not about your pitch. It’s about how you use AI to build.
In this episode of Lobster Talks, we break down YC’s newest application change, the rise of coding agents like Claude Code, and what this signals about where startup building, and venture capital is heading next.
We also
YC Founder Cracks Europe's Preventive Health Goldmine
Most people treat their bodies like a car they only fix after it crashes.
Max Berthelot and Lucis are rewriting that script by turning longitudinal blood data into a high-margin, preventive software play.
In this episode, we sit down with Max Berthelot, founder of Lucis (YC S25), to discuss why "Function Health for Europe" is one of the most compelling arbitrage opportunities in the ventur
The AI Gold Rush Isn’t SaaS. It’s Factories
Factories don’t buy hype. They buy uptime.
In this episode, YC-backed Cerrion CEO Karim Saleh explains why industrial computer vision is one of YC’s most underrated AI wedges, and why it can beat flashier “copilot” markets on sheer dollar-weight and defensibility.
Karim breaks down how Cerrion deploys camera-based AI agents to detect production issues in real time, why manufacturing is a $2
The #1 Pain in Law Firms, Solved with AI.
Lawyers hate tracking time. PointOne turned that universal pain into an AI wedge, and used the YC playbook to move fast in one of the most conservative, high-ARPU markets on earth.
In this episode of Lobster Talks, Katon Luaces (YC ’24) breaks down how PointOne built an “AI time platform” for law firms, why “hard thing first” compounds, and what investors routinely misread about early trac
$50K Focus Groups Are About to Be Replaced by AI
Focus groups used to take 6–8 weeks and cost around $30–50k.
Motives is a YC Summer ’25 company that does it in a day, and is doing it the hard way: with real humans, not synthetic personas.
In this episode of Lobster Talks, we sit down with Sean (Motives, YC S25) to unpack how AI-native companies are replacing legacy services, why YC is doubling down on agents, and the real tradeoffs of bu
Will 2026 Be Venture Capital’s Best Ever Year?
A seed-stage fund gets 10 markups… and a YC company hits a 4.5x in 9 months.
That’s the vibe heading into 2026. Speed is up, liquidity is thawing, and AI is compressing timelines across YC and the broader venture market.
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, we recap Lobster Capital’s breakout 2025, unpack why seed → Series A is getting cut in half, and lay out the sharpest 2026 prediction:
This YC Company Made AI Mandatory by Law
Everyone’s chasing shiny AI agents. Tanner Jones is quietly using AI to tear out 25% of a state’s rule book, and got Virginia to require his product by law.
This episode goes inside Vulcan Technology, a YC startup using AI to map every law and regulation in America, undercut Deloitte and McKinsey, and turn a $4T regulatory burden into a trillion-dollar software market. We talk about Virginia
Replacing GPS: Inside YC’s Universal Positioning System Startup
Most people think GPS is “good enough”, until you realize 90% of human and object movement happens where GPS doesn’t work at all. Warehouses, hospitals, tunnels, battlefields… completely blind spots.
In this episode of Lobster Talks, Raymond Lee (Twill, YC) sits down with John Ferrara, solo founder of Juxta (YC S25), who’s building a Universal Positioning System... a no-hardware GPS altern
From YC Pivot to Profit: The AI Tax Hack Creators Need
YC pivot. Creator taxes. Real savings.
Fernando from Beluga Labs explains how AI moves tax planning from “black box” to one-click, year-round optimization, starting with the messiest edge case: content creators.
In today’s episode, Nikki hosts Fernando (Beluga Labs, YC S24) on building AI-first tax planning for creators, why they pivoted in-batch, and how YC’s “light cone” advice shaped a
Why Voice AI Will Outsell Your Best Reps
A YC insider walked away from the best seat in the Valley… to build “prank call” voice AI that now powers serious enterprise sales.
Simple AI started as a consumer assistant that people used to troll their friends—and turned into a phone agent platform that’s replacing entire call centers.
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, I sit down with Cat, founder of Simple AI and former YC product
F25 Demo Day: YC's Biggest EVER Valuation
YC F25 just produced one of the wildest Demo Days we’ve seen: AI everywhere, hardware roaring back, and a drone startup raising at ~$200M straight out of the batch.
If you care about where early-stage markets are really going, this is your field report.
In this episode of The Lobster Talks Podcast, we break down YC F25 Demo Day just hours after it wrapped.
We walk through the real them
200K Users, No Ad Spend: HeRA’s Figma-Play for Motion Graphics
YC to 200K users without a marketing budget? HeRA is trying to become the Figma of motion design and put After Effects on notice.
This is a builder’s story: fast pivots, AI-native product, and a bold bet to scale from Berlin, not SF.
In this episode, Chia, co-founder & CTO of HeRA breaks down how they pivoted into AI motion design, grew to hundreds of thousands of users, and why th
We Picked our YC Favorites Before Demo Day
YC Fall ’25 Demo Day isn’t here yet, but the signal is already loud. We went through 150+ companies and picked the ones we’d fight to get allocation in.
From AI-native banks and eBay killers to fusion reactors in space and crowdsourced drug discovery, this episode is a pre–Demo Day breakdown of YC’s Fall ’25 batch. We go category by category (B2B, Consumer, Fintech, Healthcare, Industrial/
The YC Startup Fixing Healthcare’s $260B Problem
Hospitals are bleeding $260 billion a year to denied insurance claims — and AI is making it worse. One YC founder decided to fight back, using AI to beat insurers at their own game.
In this episode, we dive deep into how Aegis, a Y Combinator startup, is using AI agents to help healthcare providers recover billions lost to claim denials. Founder Ong shares his journey from Calcutta to Carn
How a Last-Minute YC App Became a Global Payroll Wedge
They applied to YC with 90 minutes on the clock—and got in. Then they pivoted into the most operationally gnarly corner of fintech: global payroll. Avi Konduru (Shor) breaks down how AI agents + stablecoins can vertically rebuild EOR, cut costs by an order of magnitude, and expand the market beyond today’s incumbents.
In this episode, we go deep on YC as an ambition amplifier, pivot mechanic
The Startup Turning Your AirPods Into a Virtual Assistant
We finally found a voice assistant that actually ships work. Not a demo, not a hype reel—April closes the loop on email and calendar while you’re driving, lifting, or walking to your next meeting.
In this YC-insider conversation, Neha (co-founder of April) breaks down how a narrow, vertical agent can outperform “do-everything” assistants, why dogfooding—not retention dashboards—built their
How is this YC startup 90% cheaper than AWS?
A Netflix storage engineer walks into YC and ships an “infinite, shareable disk” on top of S3—30× faster and up to 90% cheaper—then dials GTM for the AI era. This is the file system’s comeback story.
Today I sit down with Hunter Leath (ARL) to unpack how a decade inside AWS + Netflix revealed a gap the hyperscalers won’t close: developers want storage that feels local, scales like S3, and
Is Crypto Back at YC? (+ The New Rules for Series A)
YC just changed the rules—and the market is catching up. We break down why seed is the power position, how CVCs are reshaping Series A, and what YC’s new Early Decision really means for founders and investors.
In this episode, we cover Lobster Capital updates (first Series A, first DPI), how we decide follow-ons from an insider vantage point, the rise of “seed-strapping,” Coinbase Ventures
This Startup Brought a Remote-Controlled Excavator at Demo Day
A robotaxi playbook… for dirt. Flywheel AI is turning excavators into remotely operated, camera-first machines — collecting the data to make them autonomous next.
In this YC-insider episode, we unpack Flywheel AI’s “Waymo for excavators” strategy: retrofit any machine in hours, deliver value with tele-op now, and use that profitably collected data to train autonomy later. We get into labor
The Most Overlooked Startup from YC S25
A “cute idea” until it wasn’t: RealRoots walked into YC as an overlooked consumer play and walked out with $9.4M ARR and an oversubscribed round.
Summary: In this YC-insider episode, Dorothy Li (RealRoots) breaks down how AI-powered friendship matchmaking turned into real traction across 80+ cities. We unpack the demo day shock, the stigma shift (friendship ≈ dating 10 years ago), and the
Garry Tan Invited Him Into YC
A YC founder turns a manual, low-IQ grind into an AI agent that finds creators, negotiates terms, and scales UGC—sometimes a little too far. What starts as a viral local-model demo becomes Stormy AI’s end-to-end engine for influencer marketing.
Fresh off YC Demo Day, Robert Lukoszko (Stormy AI) breaks down the pivot, the fundraising blitz, and how agencies are replacing hours of scrolling
This YC Startup Exposes the AI Secrets the Top 1% Don’t Share
AI won’t live in chat. The future is headless agents doing real work — and calling humans only when it matters. Dexter Horthy, cofounder of HumanLayer, explains how agent-driven software actually ships.
In this fast, tactical deep-dive, we unpack HumanLayer’s origin story (from failed data tools to paid customers in a week), why frameworks lag real production apps, and the workflow that le
YC Demo Day: What Happens Off-Stage
Founders closing rounds before lunch. Investors making handshake commitments in the hallway. A startup with $9M+ ARR and another with $15M ARR lighting up the room. YC Demo Day isn’t a show; it’s a marketplace where speed and execution decide everything.
In this fast, founder-first debrief, we break down what actually happened at the latest YC Demo Day: the subtle format changes (that matt
The 32-Second Advantage: truemetrics vs. Google Maps
A surfer duct-tapes a phone to his board… and ends up saving enterprise couriers 32 seconds per stop. The last meter of delivery — not the last mile — is where the money is.
In this Lobster Talks episode, Ingo Boegemann, co-founder/CEO of truemetrics, breaks down how sensor fusion + mission intelligence turn messy building entrances, courtyards, and wrong pins into precise, repeatable delive
The Startup Who Tested Reality Before Launch
What if you could simulate human reactions — and know exactly how your customers, investors, or audience will respond before you act? James He is building precisely that with Artificial Societies.
In this episode, we dive deep with James, YC W25 founder of Artificial Societies — a wildly ambitious startup that simulates entire groups of humans using AI personas to predict how messages spread
Inside YC’s Boldest RFS Yet: AI, Agents & More
YC just dropped its latest Requests for Startups — and they’re not just ideas, they’re roadmaps to the future. From AI-native enterprise software to 10-person $100B companies, these signals reveal where the smartest founders (and investors) should be looking.
In this episode of Lobster Talks, Laurie and I break down Y Combinator’s newest RFS — from retraining workers for the AI economy to
#1 Trending on GitHub: The Open Source Playbook by Daniel Farrell of Onlook
What if you built a tool so powerful, it became the #1 repo on GitHub—twice?
That’s exactly what Daniel Farrell did with Onlook, an open-source AI-powered visual editor for code. From crashing Chrome extensions to crashing Hacker News, Daniel takes us through how he and his co-founder built momentum, community, and virality from nothing.
In this fast, founder-first conversation, we cove
The First AI Cofounder? How Woz is Changing Startups
What if launching a tech startup was as easy as filling out a form?
Ben Collins, co-founder of Woz, joins Gabriel to unpack how his AI platform helps anyone — even non-technical founders — build full-stack software businesses. From betting against vertical SaaS to designing an AI cofounder you can trust, this conversation is a tactical deep dive into where startup creation is headed.
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Why Top Funds Are Panicking About YC Startups
YC isn't just about AI anymore — it's quietly becoming America’s new industrial engine. In this episode, Gabriel and Laurie break down how Y Combinator is doubling down on hardtech, defense, and energy — and why this matters more than ever.
From geopolitical risk to deep tech traction, we unpack how YC startups are shaping the future — and why top seed investors are scrambling to keep up. We
From Dorm Room to a MILLION Users in 24 Hours — The YouLearn Story with David Yu
What happens when a college student builds an AI tool that goes viral overnight — and changes how thousands of students study?
Summary:
In this episode of Lobster Talks, Gabriel sits down with David Yu, co-founder of YouLearn — the YC-backed AI tutor that transforms PDFs, class recordings, and YouTube videos into quizzes, notes, and a personal tutor. From a dorm-room side project to a vir
Reinventing Email with AI - This YC Startup Might Replace Gmail
What if your inbox didn’t just organize itself — it acted on your behalf?
Nizar Abi Zaher, founder of Zero, is building the AI-native email client that reads, replies, filters, and organizes without you lifting a finger. In this tactical, fast-paced conversation, we explore his path from Cal.com engineer to YC founder — and how he's going head-to-head with Superhuman.
From open-source str
Building the AI Insurance Giant From Scratch
They didn’t sell to insurance brokers — they replaced them.
Dakotah Rice didn’t build AI tools for the industry. He built an AI-first insurance company — and now Harper is scaling faster than they can handle.
In this episode, Dakotah shares how Harper went from kitchen-table experiments to a high-growth, fully autonomous insurance brokerage. He breaks down the real bottlenecks, the AI arc
Self-Improving Voice Bots: Replacing 100 Agents with AI
What if a single AI voice agent could handle 100,000 calls a day and free up your entire support team?
Episode Summary:
In this episode of Lobster Talks, Gabriel sits down with Kevin Wu, founder of Leaping AI, to unpack how voice-powered AI is automating 50–70% of repetitive support calls, self-optimizing over time, and achieving 90% customer satisfaction. We dive into the origin story, t
From YC to Viral: Prady's Wild AI Video Bet & the Future of Video Editing
What if you could edit your face and voice like a Google Doc?
That’s exactly what Prady Modukuru is building at Sync—an AI company making video editing fully editable in post-production. No more re-recording. Just fix it like text.
In this high-velocity episode of Lobster Talks, we go deep on Sync’s origin story, how Prady and his team ship insanely fast, and why their AI-powered content
YC Spring 25 : Is This the Best Batch Ever? X25 Demo Day Highlights
The YC Demo Day almost turned investors away at the door — and that might’ve been the point. In this behind-the-scenes breakdown, Gabriel Jarrosson (Lobster Capital) and Laurie dissect the most exclusive Demo Day yet, revealing why this Spring 25 batch could be the best in years.
We explore YC's most AI-heavy cohort, debate sky-high valuations, and uncover what separates a good startup fro
90% Lose Debt Lawsuits — He Built the Fix
He was getting sued. Now his startup helps millions fight back — and win.
In this founder-first, no-fluff conversation, George Simons breaks down how SoloSuit is dismantling a $3.5B legal industry — one lawsuit at a time. From bootstrapped beginnings and courtroom chaos to SEO-powered growth and AI-driven debt settlement, this episode is a crash course in building a business with compoundi
Vibe Coding: Will AI Replace Designers & Engineers by 2027?
What if your non-technical team could ship code overnight?
In this fast-paced Lobster Talks roundtable, Gabriel Jarrosson sits down with Samraaj Bath (Ion Design) and Agree Ahmed (Flowglad) to unpack “Vibe Coding”—the AI-powered workflow that lets designers, PMs, and marketers iterate on real code. They clash over misconceptions, debate the future of frontend engineers, spin our Hot Take Whe
YC’s AI Agent Blitz: Why “Full-Stack” Startups Are the Next Gold Rush 🚀
You think you know where YC is headed? Think again—agents are rewriting the playbook.
In this episode of Lobster Talks, Gabriel debriefs Laurie on YC’s quarterly Request for Startups focused on AI agents. From “full-stack” AI challengers to personal assistants that go from to-do lists to done lists, we unpack the highs, the lows, and the hidden opportunities for founders and investors alike.
Stop Blaming LLMs: ZeroEntropy’s Founder on Killing AI Hallucinations & Building ‘Impossible’ Search
Revolutionizing AI Search: Ghita Alami's Vision for Zero Entropy
In this episode, we chat with Ghita Alami, founder of Zero Entropy, about her company's groundbreaking approach to rebuilding search systems for AI agents. Learn about early chaos theory, tactical product insights, and the future of intelligent retrieval systems.
00:00 Introduction to AI Retrieval Systems
00:07 Meet the F
They Shrunk a Particle Accelerator 1,000× to Beat ASML — Inside Inversion Semiconductor’s Moonshot
🎙️ Inversion Semiconductor: The Startup Taking On ASML with a Tabletop Particle Accelerator
What if the next leap in chip manufacturing didn't come from a trillion-dollar company — but from two founders building a compact particle accelerator in Berkeley?
In this episode of Lobster Talks, Gabriel Jarrosson sits down with Rohan Karthik and Daniel Vega, the founders of Inversion Semicondu
The Future of Zero Gravity Manufacturing | Stef from Reditus Space
Join us for an intriguing discussion with Stef from Reditus Space as we explore the potential of zero gravity manufacturing. Learn how Reditus Space aims to revolutionize production by using reusable satellites to create unique and superior materials in space. Discover the challenges and exciting opportunities this new frontier presents, from pharmaceuticals to semiconductors, and even the po
YC Investing Secrets Revealed: Navigating Uncertainty in 2025
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, we delve into the current state of the tech investment landscape, highlighting how fear and uncertainty in the market, partly driven by political factors like Trump's tariffs, influence investor behavior. Gabriel discusses the unique ecosystem of Y Combinator (YC) and its resilience during tumultuous times, noting that the best startups tend to thrive eve
From (almost) Homeless to $1B in LOIs: Building Space Hardware with $2
In this episode of Lobster Talks, I sit down with Ashi and Reza, the unstoppable founders of Spaceium—a YC-backed startup building orbital gas stations. 🚀
They share the raw and incredible story of how they went from nearly homeless right before YC to raising $6.3M, signing $86.5M in commercial contracts, and securing $1B+ in LOIs—all before launching their first mission to space.
We co
Inside YC’s Record-Breaking Demo Day: AI Startups Hitting $50M Profits at Launch!
In this episode of Lobster Talks, Gabriel dives deep into the groundbreaking Y Combinator Winter 2025 Demo Day. Discover how the latest YC batch shattered revenue records, including a startup already pulling in $50 million in profits and another hitting $2 million in revenue at demo day. They discuss why the quality bar is rising, the explosion of AI-powered startups, and whether the AI wave
Building Data Centers in Space?! StarCloud’s Mission to Revolutionize Compute
00:00 - 00:50 Intro
00:50 - 01:23 What's StarCloud?
1:23 - 02:05 Why GPUs in Space?
02:05 - 03:35 Abundant Energy
03:35 - 05:50 Why No One Did It Before
05:50 - 07:30 Starship Economics
07:30 - 08:50 Philip’s Background
08:50 - 10:00 Can Anyone Start a Space Company?
10:00 - 12:30 Building in Space
12:30 - 13:20 Does Space Solar Affect Earth?
13:20 - 17:00 Raising an $11M Seed Rou
From Zero to Unicorn: How Airbyte Is Revolutionizing Data Integration (feat. Michel Tricot)
Join us on the Lobster Talks Podcast as host Gabrielle sits down with Michel Tricot, co-founder and CEO of Airbyte—the open-source data integration platform that skyrocketed to a billion-dollar valuation in record time. Michel reveals Airbyte’s origin story (including scrapping their first product in the midst of COVID), how they built a thriving open-source community, and their unique approa
How a 3x Founder Became an Investor in Startups & Funds (and Why He’s Back as CEO!)
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, I’m joined by entrepreneur-turned-investor Johannes Hatt. After founding and exiting multiple companies—including a SaaS startup scaled to 300 employees and 30M ARR—Johannes has invested in over 80 early-stage startups and over 10 venture funds. Now, he’s jumping back into the CEO seat!
We Discuss
• His journey from founding companies to investing in
Using AI to automate climate: How Offstream Is Simplifying Carbon Compliance
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, I chat with Varsha—co-founder of Offstream, a YC-backed startup helping big infrastructure projects (solar farms, data centers, and more) secure crucial carbon-compliance certifications. Varsha shares how her consulting background and direct experience with manual, PDF-heavy compliance processes inspired her to build a smarter, AI-driven solution—somethin
From creating Google Slides, back to YC Partner, and Beyond: Wayne Crosby’s Journey & New Startup Orgorg.com
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, we’re joined by Wayne Crosby, a true startup veteran with a remarkable full-circle journey:
• 2007: Wayne became a Y Combinator founder in one of the earliest cohorts, quickly landing a Google acquisition that evolved into Google Slides.
• A Decade at Google: He stayed on to help grow G Suite, diving into AI and shaping how millions of users collaborate
YC’s Rapid-Fire Request For Startups: How AI Is Reshaping Tech Investing & Innovation
In this episode of The Lobster Talks Podcast, Laurie joins me once again to dissect Y Combinator’s brand-new Request for Startups—released just three months after their last one! We explore what’s behind YC’s accelerated timeline, the massive surge of AI innovation, and why now might be the best (and most challenging) time to build or invest in cutting-edge tech.
From hardware breakthroughs
From 150K in Revenue to a Bold Pivot: How YC Founder Jason Fan Rewrote His Startup Playbook
In this episode of Lobster Talks, we’re joined by Jason Fan, CEO and Co-Founder of Finic—an AI “risk ops” startup transforming how banks and fintechs tackle fraud and disputes. Jason opens up about his tough decision to shut down a revenue-generating company ($150k!) in order to chase a far bigger vision.
Together, we dive into:
Why making $150k didn’t guarantee long-term success—and wh
From Scrappy MVP to AI-Driven Success: Jiga’s Journey to Transform Manufacturing
In this episode of Lobster Talks, Gabriel chats with Yonatan - co-founder of Jiga (YC W21) - about how a simple WordPress MVP grew into an AI-powered platform reinventing global manufacturing. Yonatan reveals the ups and downs of hitting walls, pivoting from marketplace to SaaS (and back again), and ultimately nailing product-market fit. They also discuss staying humble when things finally ta
YC in 2025: 4 Batches, AI’s Rapid Rise, and Europe’s Next Moves
In this Lobster Talks episode, Gabriel returns to discuss what’s on the horizon for YC and startup investing in 2025. We dive into Y Combinator’s shift to four batches per year, why AI is fueling rapid growth (and even potential AGI!), and how that might reshape the investment landscape. We also reflect on Lobster Capital’s stellar 2024—from an oversubscribed Fund 1 to multiple fast-growing p
From a $3M Seed to $100M+ in Revenue: The AI-Powered Fintech Unicorn Story
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, I sit down with Roberto Salcedo—co-founder and CEO of Baubap, a Y Combinator-backed fintech that’s reshaping consumer lending in Mexico. Discover how Roberto’s team grew Baubap from a scrappy $3M seed round to generating $100M+ in revenue by building everything in-house and leveraging AI years before it was mainstream.
What You’ll Learn
- The early pr
Powering the Future: Valentin on Batteries and Ionworks
🎙️ Lobster Talks Podcast - Episode with Valentin Sulzer, Founder of Ionworks
🚀 Welcome to the latest episode of the Lobster Talks podcast by Lobster Capital! In this episode, Gabriel sits down with Valentin Sulzer, founder of Ionworks, a revolutionary startup transforming battery innovation through cutting-edge software.
🔋 Batteries are critical to powering the 21st century—from EVs to
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