... YCombinator listed "Proving You're Human" as one of its topics for Fall 2026. And I've been thinking about how this applies to building in public. The guidelines on Product Hunt explicitly say no AI-generated comments. "Our community wants to talk to and hear from real people." But the harder question is: how do you prove you're real when everyone's performing authenticity? The "raw" updates. The "vulnerable" posts. The "here's me being honest" threads ...

... with the teams I work with: the business results behind the launch. That s what really tells us whether a launch was successful. For example, with own.page generated 1,900 signups . With Gauth , we received 2 partnership requests from YCombinator companies. We also regularly get inbound collaboration requests from creators on YouTube, X, and LinkedIn. And on the investor side, one of our recent launches generated 5 inbound requests from investors. So yes, a strong launch can bring ...

... India 160  (India nearly matches US reception). Schools: UC, Stanford, Oxford, Cornell, Tel Aviv. Part 3. What actually works at launch Teams win:  solo 123 2 3 = 188 4+ = 288; blended multi-maker avg ~227 vs 123 =  +85% .  Power-hunter  ( 10 hunts):  235 vs

... When someone raised money, especially from a prominent VC with a strong reputation, like Antler or YCombinator, the company immediately sounded more trustworthy to me. But the latest analysis shared by @4kulia showed that in the first half of the year, only 26 launches were VC-funded. To be honest, I would have expected more launches to be backed by VCs. So what's happening? Is interest in VC funding taking a back seat, with more people preferring ...

... YCombinator has posted the topics (products) it wants to cover and support. Here is a list of them: The Primer  AI education with personalised learning The Future of American Defense (Drones, sensors, interceptors,...) A Cloud for Small Software Multiplayer AI (Teams collaborating with shared AI agents) Compute at Sea (Offshore data centres) AI-Powered Consumer Products for 1 Billion People AI for the Ageing Population New Operating Systems for the Physical World The Best Time to Build ...

... recent tab of your AI conversations? Doesn t matter if it s about work, coding, planning, writing, or something completely random... Just curious what everyone is actually talking to AI about =D Mine was about applying late to YCombinator for Fall 2026 . To be honest, I posted the question in p/yc and got rejected there =D So I started figuring it out with GPT instead =D What s yours? Comment from Fatima Sarki(@fatima_sarki): I asked ...

... suddenly lose access to all AI. But what happens if , one day, access to the leading American models is restricted more broadly? We would still have European models, open-source systems we can operate ourselves, and Chinese alternatives. But there is no guarantee that another major power would never make the same decision to protect its own strategic advantage. AI is no longer just another software category. It is becoming infrastructure. It will shape education, healthcare, national security, research ... ... world are American, and Europe should continue working closely with the United States. But cooperation and dependency are not the same thing. Technological sovereignty does not mean refusing to use foreign technology. It means having a real alternative

... look unconventional on paper Liz co-founded and ran WayUp, an early-career recruitment platform that raised over $40M before merging with Yello. She then worked closely with founders on go-to-market as a Visiting Group Partner at YCombinator, before moving into seed investing full-time at First Round Capital and was named to the Forbes Midas Brink List in 2025. If you're building something and want a real look at how seed conviction gets formed ...

... days left until the YCombinator application deadline. Are you applying this round? Right now, we are fully in execution mode with VertoX : actively testing and optimizing our speech translation tech for real-world usage while searching for a creative agency to record our product demo video. Despite the busy schedule, I m submitting our application anyway. You literally have nothing to lose by trying. It doesn t matter if you only have an idea on paper ...

... time in 28 months, I ve just submitted our application to YCombinator. 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 ...

... send a one-pager, it's faster." A dense page of text and I read none of it. A deck gives an investor a clean, focused way to follow your story, one idea at a time. "Don't mention competitors, it makes you look weak." A blank competition slide reads as naive, not dominant. Showing you understand the landscape is what makes the "here's our edge" line land. I've watched each of these cost founders real momentum ... ... plainly in the first minute, the technology has nothing to attach to. Comment from Lucas Pols(@lucasjpols): @mshen316  Agreed, and the follow up matters as much as the slide itself. Being able to say why the obvious alternative

... Since launching ExploreYC, the #1 request in my inbox has been some version of: "This is great, but can I get the underlying data?" Founders wanted it for competitor research. Investors ... ... wanted it for sourcing. Job-seekers wanted to filter every company that's hiring. Data nerds just wanted to play. So today we're launching the YC Companies Database What it is: A single searchable, sortable table of every Y

... years ago I got into YCombinator and built the first version of @Basedash: AI data analyst . It was a simple tool that let you edit data in your database. Now, six years later, we have a whole new product , and again we're shipping... database editing. But this time it's a look into the future of how companies are going to be run. At the surface, this feature is kinda neat but nothing ...

... Rejected by YCombinator for the 4th time. Got the email today. VertoX wasn't selected for an interview this time. Am I stopping? Not a chance. YC themselves state that over 50% of the startups they accept are repeat applicants. It s not about failing; it s about making progress between the batches. Right now, we are in the pre-launch phase, sharpening our core Deep Tech infrastructure for real-time live communication. We focus on what matters most ...

... everything blindly. But we should be honest enough to learn from what works. We need more than grants. We need density. We need a European Silicon Valley mindset. We need something with the energy, speed, and network effects of YCombinator. We need easier cross-border company building. We need investor-friendly structures. We need less fragmentation. We need leaders who understand that startups are not a side topic of the economy. They are one of the ways the future ...

... issues with compliance for vibe coded projects. Vibe coding has changed everything about how fast you can build. Lovable hit $100M ARR in 8 months. Replit scaled from $2.8M to $150M ARR in under a year. 25% of YCombinator's Winter 2025 cohort had codebases that were 95% AI-generated. The tools are incredible and the speed is real. But the rejection rate hasn't changed. It's actually gotten worse. 50% of apps are rejected on first ...

... random read of one of Paul Graham's essays (founder of YCombinator) ! Or browse through them from this UI not like the original Paul Graham UI that still sits for this essays, but a new modern one inside https://exploreyc.com/founders check it out and contribute more if you have any ideas! Comment from Konstantin Borimechkov(@konstantimb): @evelyn_white  haha yea, had that pain so decided to fix it! Comment from Evelyn White(@evelyn_white): Nice idea , much ...

... Used the GStack by Garry Tan [ https://github.com/garrytan/gstack v] from YCombinator to build a list of issues, improvements, features, fixes everyone can work on! If you would like to contirbute, you can find it all at: https://github.com/KonstantinMB/... Have a productive day everyone! Comment from Konstantin Borimechkov(@konstantimb): @elliot_grant1  let s see where we go! Comment from Ghost Kitty(@ghost-kitty-9647813): Comment Deleted Comment from Ghost Kitty(@ghost-kitty-9573678): Comment Deleted Comment from ...

... week ago, @YCombinator hosted a launch day here. We launched @Flare on it. Here's what happened: 3rd place 400+ upvotes 1,860 App Store impressions 150+ downloads 8.39% conversion rate Thank you. Genuinely. We read every comment, hopped on calls, and replied to every DM. What we heard, over and over: the moment Flare clicks is when you hear your Orb talk back to you about your social life. So this week we rebuilt onboarding to put that ...

... teamed up with @YCombinator or to give builders one more chance. Launch on Product Hunt this Friday, tag your post "YC application" @gustaf will personally review the top launches. One or more will walk away with a YC interview, even though the official deadline has passed. If you've been sitting on a launch, this is your reason to stop waiting. Schedule your launch here and make it count. Comment from Alex Funk(@alexfunker): @aaronoleary ... ... scheduled my launch!! EBITIO gives dentists independent financial analysis before buying a practice. Submitted to YC S26 this week. Built by a dentist who personally participated in 300+ practice valuations. ebitio.com Would love your eyes on it. Thanks @

... fully open source github.com/BlogBowl/BlogBowl . RankSpot became a dedicated AI SEO agent that plugs into your existing website and publishes optimized articles every single day. What RankSpot Does Every day, automatically: Finds keywords your customers actually search for Tracks competitors and targets what is already working for them Writes 1,500+ word research-backed articles Publishes directly to your WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Framer, or Ghost Optimizes for AI search so ChatGPT and Claude recommend your business No agency. Just ... ... Comment from Daniil Poletaev(@danshipit): @arthlimchiu  Thank you! Comment from Daniil Poletaev(@danshipit): @lakshminath_dondeti  Thank you! Comment from Daniil Poletaev(@danshipit): @sammy_anagolum  Thank you, Sammy! Comment from Daniil Poletaev(@danshipit): @ollyflow  Hopefully @Y

... YCombinator startup will pay humans to help AI agents when they get stuck. ( This is what I read today. ) At the same time, I see how Indian employees in production have cameras on their heads, and the AI learns from their movements (practically filming their firing process). In addition, there was already a site where AI agents hired human actions for stablecoins . First, AI worked for us. Now we are starting to work for AI. And eventually, will ...

... everyone Over the past ~6 months, I applied to YCombinator a few times, but didn t get in. We re still early (pre-seed), but the process actually helped me think much deeper about what we re building. Right now, I m working on VertoX, a real-time voice translation that lets you speak any language on calls while keeping your tone, emotions, and your own voice. We re currently building the demo and aiming to launch around April ...

... Last week Garry Tan (CEO of YCombinator) shared his entire Claude Code setup on GitHub and called it "god mode." He's sleeping 4 hours a night. Running 10 AI workers across 3 projects simultaneously. And openly saying he rebuilt a startup that once took $10M and 10 people. Alone, with agents. But here's what's interesting. His setup is essentially a collection of text files with structured prompts. Developers who use Claude Code regularly already have their ... ... capability... it ll be fiduciary duty. If AI agents can be proven to outperform humans in specific roles, there s a world where companies are legally obligated to use them. At that point, it s not 'AI

... participants got reply, feel free to let us know! Comment from Nika(@busmark_w_nika): @maunilparikh  imagine how these security things will be needed with quantum chips. Comment from Aleksandar Blazhev(@byalexai): What happened with the PH YCombinator Launch day? Do we have any information about the winners? Were any teams accepted, what happened? Comment from Aleksandar Blazhev(@byalexai): @aaronoleary  thanks for the update! Looking forward to hear more details! Comment from Rohan Chaubey(@rohanrecommends): @byalexai ...