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 this episode, you’ll learn:

- How a startup raised at a $175M valuation before even starting YC.

- The rise of "Barbarian" founders disrupting defense and space.

- Why YC is betting on "AI escaping the screen" (Robotics, Agriculture, Medicine).

- The "Build vs. Buy" shift: Why SaaS prices are about to compress.

- The "FDE" (Forward Deployed Engineer) model and how AI agents are scaling enterprise sales.

📌 Watch now and subscribe for more smart, fast, founder-first interviews.

Chapters:

00:00 Record Batch Revenue Buzz

00:40 Free YC Application Feedback

01:21 P26 RFS Episode Kickoff

02:02 YC at 175M Valuation

04:46 Robotic Bird Spy Drones

06:12 AI vs Hardware Bifurcation

09:20 How to Underwrite Defense

10:52 AI Escapes the Screen

16:06 Is SaaS Actually Dead

19:24 Moats Still Matter

19:59 Build vs Buy Tradeoff

20:33 SaaS After AGI

20:38 Agent Services Wave

22:03 Adobe and Price Compression

23:45 Claude Says Just Buy

24:12 Apple OS and Hardware Shift

25:55 Founder Age and Deep Tech

27:07 Is Hardware Defensible

28:22 Fresh Eyes Disrupt Industries

31:25 Selling to Big Companies

33:27 AI Enables Enterprise GTM

35:56 AI First Companies and Wrap

🎧 Listen on the go:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1u1JyRKH8JYFjhBkvTUOAP

Apple: https://apple.co/4cZ8RMm

My other YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@lobstercap

This Lobster Talks episode is brought to you by YC Roaster, a free tool helping founders improve their YC applications.

🔗 https://ycroaster.com

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" benchmarking the world's best models, and why the future of Netflix is a "choose your own adventure" generated in real-time.

What you’ll learn:

- Why Silicon Valley views 24 as the cutoff for "young" founders.

- The "Film Arena": How Koyal benchmarks Runway, Luma, and Kling.

- Why the "Infinite Canvas" UI is a mistake for creative tools.

- How AI allows for "reshooting" a movie without a single set.

- The future of interactive media: Starring in your own Harry Potter.

📌 Watch now and subscribe for more smart, fast, founder-first interviews.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 AI Films Explained

00:33 Sponsor YC Roaster

01:13 Meet Koyal Founder

02:01 Young Founder Advantage

02:58 Experience Versus New Tech

07:01 Co Founding With Family

10:46 Democratizing Movie Budgets

12:35 Actors Avatars Hybrid Sets

14:02 Selling To Hollywood

15:46 Koyal Workflow Like Filmmaking

18:30 Hollywood Adoption And Theaters

20:37 T Series And Product Evolution

25:07 Shooting Impossible Locations

26:35 AI Beats Green Screen

26:46 Avatar Lesson on Timing

27:52 AI Augments Creators

28:56 Future Media Two Paths

29:32 Real Time Interactive Movies

30:50 Bandersnatch and Engagement

34:30 Pixels to 3D Immersion

38:09 How Much Control Is Too Much

39:19 Personalized Harry Potter Worlds

41:29 Licensing IP and UGC

42:42 Koyal Strong Product Opinions

48:37 Wrap Up and Community Plans

🎧 Listen on the go:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1u1JyRKH8JYFjhBkvTUOAP

Apple: https://apple.co/4cZ8RMm

My other YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@lobstercap

This Lobster Talks episode is brought to you by YC Roaster, a free tool helping founders improve their YC applications.

🔗 https://ycroaster.com

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 Cursor are failing the agentic era and how "worktrees" are the secret to scaling your output.

What you will learn:

• Why the role of a developer has shifted from "Writer" to "Editor" to "Orchestrator."
• The technical limitations of current IDEs when running multiple agents.
• How to use Git worktrees to give every AI agent its own isolated environment.
• The future of "Intent" and how tools like Linear will integrate directly into the code.
• Why "human-in-the-loop" is the current meta, and where it goes next.

📌 Watch now and subscribe for more smart, fast, founder-first interviews.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Cursor Becomes Secondary

00:51 YC Roaster Ad Break

01:35 Podcast Welcome And Setup

02:41 Meet Superset And The Problem

05:12 Why Cursor No Longer Fits

07:13 Superset Parallel Workspaces

10:32 Go To Market And Growth

14:50 Staying Relevant In Fast AI

16:29 Invariants And Agent Future

20:53 Building Primitives Now

24:13 Linear And Task Systems Debate

27:12 APIs And Defensibility

28:41 YC Shoutouts And Whats Next

30:11 YC Records And AI Boom

31:43 AI Adoption Gap Outside SF

32:30 YC Cycle Compresses With Agents

10:32 Should YC Be One Month

35:50 Second Time In YC

37:18 Why Repeat Founders Return

41:13 YC Confidence And Mentorship

46:00 Leaving A Startup To Start Superset

48:08 Team First Thesis For Superset

53:11 Risk Taking And Fear Setting

56:49 Superset Plug And Farewell

🎧 Listen on the go:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1u1JyRKH8JYFjhBkvTUOAP

Apple: https://apple.co/4cZ8RMm

My other YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@lobstercap

This Lobster Talks episode is brought to you by YC Roaster, a free tool helping founders improve their YC applications.

🔗 https://ycroaster.com