Nemo Shakhverdiev

Got invited by Palitra News, one of Georgia's largest media networks, to talk about VertoX.

For context: their content reaches hundreds of thousands of views a day across TV, digital, and their news wire.

Two years ago I was writing code alone at 2 am, wondering if any of this would matter outside my own head.

Now I'm sitting down for a national interview about the product.

For the 5th time in 28 months, I ve just submitted our application to Y Combinator.

Over the last two years of building VertoX, we ve kept shipping regardless of external validation. We are building with or without YC. But let s be real, YC is an insane lever. The network, the founders, the speed, it just accelerates everything.

Honestly, this time feels completely different. We ve grown, our tech is way sharper, and the foundation is stronger than ever. I have a really good gut feeling about this batch.

If you ve gone through YC or made it to the interview stage: what were the most unexpected or brutal questions they hit you with? What should I be relentlessly preparing for right now?

Every 30 days, over 1 billion people open Google Translate to translate text, documents, or screenshots.

The problem? Context and accuracy.

Even for basic text, legacy tools regularly make critical errors. You end up having to proofread the translation, but if you don't actually know the target language, you're stuck hoping for the best.

With documents, the layout might look fine, but the meaning is often broken.