Thomas Bates

YC has quietly built a parallel tech ecosystem. Not just a network - an entire operating system for startups. Think about it: A YC founder can build their entire stack using only YC companies. Infrastructure, analytics, payment processing, marketing tools - it's all there. At friend-and-family prices. When you launch a product to the YC network, you get something priceless: A group of technical founders who actually understand what you're building. They become your first users, your debuggers, your evangelists. This is why PostHog is now used by 65% of new YC companies. This is why Brex dominated fintech... and why each YC batch makes the next one stronger. A true compounding advantage.

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YC’s saying something loud: "The next great $1B business will be founded by a designer. More designers should be founders." Why? Because when AI levels the playing field for engineering… Taste, storytelling, and product intuition become the moat. If you’ve ever shipped a great design, you already know how to: - Obsess over real user pain - Simplify complexity - Build trust through aesthetics and now? You don’t have to wait for an engineer to “make it real.” AI will help you ship the MVP. Your job is to make it feel magical. What this means: - Your Figma file is now the prototype, the pitch, and maybe even the product - Design isn’t the last step... it’s the founding layer - Startups with design in their DNA build faster and convert better If your a designer who's been waiting for a sign… this is it.

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The smartest YC founders I know are NOT raising VC money. Here are FIVE unique things they're doing instead: 1) Firing their least technical co-founder. 2) Importing/exporting used Herman Miller chairs. 3) Selling their YC office hours on Craigslist. 4) Auctioning screenshots of their Stripe dashboard as art. 5) Using Central to eliminate nonsense HR/finance work and focusing on profitability - centralhq.com What else am I missing?

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"Everybody thinks it gets easier when you’re at $100M+ ARR, cash-flow positive, and growing. But I just had the worst two months of my entire life.” That’s what Marcelo Lombardo, founder of Omie, told me on Friday. Omie is the Brazilian SaaS giant founded in 2013. They just announced a $160M Series D. With 180K SMB clients and 30-40% annual growth, they’re the #1 cloud ERP and fintech for small businesses in Brazil. They are real OGs in the BR ecosystem. I picked Marcelo's brain on his learnings going from $0 to $100M ARR. "It doesn't get easier as you grow, it just gets different". I burst into nervous laugh but also in relief. The conversation was so fun and full of golden nuggets that deserve to be shared.. so here are some of the lessons and stories he shared: 1. Borrow credibility to open doors In the early days, he picked up the phone relentlessly to speak with his first customers and ask a simple question: “Do you remember where you found us?” Many said “Google", until he pressed. The real answer: “My accountant told me to use Omie.” That’s when they realized accountants, not ads, were the real channel. They flipped strategy into partnerships with them. Today they drive 80% of Omie’s sales. 2. Commissions can erode trust “If my client finds out I’m making money from this, it hurts my credibility. Give them the discount instead.” the accountants would tell him. The best accountants valued trust over margin. Incentives that work in SaaS backfire when partners are fiduciaries. 3. Trust lowers walls faster than incentives When Marcelo asked accountants if he could sell to their clients directly, they handed him their entire client list. Why? “Because they trusted me.” he said. Alignment matters more than commissions. 4. Trust scales through presence “The job to be done is not to scale software sales, but to scale trust.” Omie’s AEs visit 3-4 accountants a day, every 15 days. Not to pitch, but to listen: “What’s your problem today? What’s your client’s pain?” That cadence compounds relationships and yields warm intros. 5. Trust is long-term leverage Instead of outspending competitors on ads, Omie built a distribution moat by being the most trusted partner to accountants. Other nuggets from our call: - Trust > commissions - Give partners the product for free so they become power users - Keep partnerships alive with cadence: 3–4 visits/day - Great partners protect client trust; weak ones chase margin - At every stage, the problems change, but trust is always the multiplier If you're building a compay, or operating, I encourage you to share what you learn, you never know who you help. Shoot me a comment or a dm. Now, back to building 💪. #startups

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I met a YC founder who raised $3.5M, but kept the team to 3 people. He took 2 years to launch— then grew 10x to $2M ARR in a year: Benji built an end-to-end recruiting platform with just 3 people. Today, he raised a $50M Series D. Since 2022, he grew Ashby from 70 to 220 employees—and 2,700 customers. He hit $200K ARR the year he launched— then 10x’d to $2M ARR the year after. I asked Benji why it his end-to-end solution worked when so many “one stop shops for X” fail: 1. There were big unsolved pain points. 2. Existing vendors were small companies.  3. It was possible to build a bundle of best-in-class products. “If you can give people 1 product that works better than 4 products without losing functionality…people will be happy to use that.” It sounds too easy— and it is. Benji was a Director of Engineering, where he spent 90% of his time hiring— he experienced the problem first-hand. He thought about his idea for 18 months before going all-in. He had 100 conversations with potential customers before he started building. He graduated YC, raised $3.5M, but didn’t hire anyone. He kept his runway long. It wasn’t just turning 4 products into 1. Benji understood the pain point, the customers, and the space. He succeeded for the same reason most startups do: He put in the the work— the unsexy, everyday work. The work behind the scenes. The work that doesn’t make headlines. The work you never see. /// Listen to the full episode with Benjamin Encz on The Product Market Fit Show #startups #venturecapital #founders

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Hot take: In a few years, the most important role at any early-stage startup won’t be “Head of Product” or “Head of Engineering.” It’ll be the Head of Growth. Why? Because building product is getting exponentially cheaper. With AI and offshore talent, what used to cost $100K now costs $1K. And every app, every tool, every platform is starting to look the same. So differentiation won’t come from what you build … it’ll come from how you make people care. That’s where the Head of Growth steps in. The best ones will: — Build obsessive, tasteful cult-like brands — Turn virality into a science that can be replicated — Create a compelling narrative that gets customers, users, and investors hooked — Curate loyal, engaged communities — Find creative zero-cost growth loops that can run forever — Master meme-making and internet subcultures —Throw IRL events that people actually want to go to — Generate mass attention with tiny budgets — Influence and convert online skeptics — Create negative CAC channels that turn the marketing function into a profit center — Master social content across every medium: text, video, and audio They’re a hybrid brand strategist, performance marketer, data scientist, and creators who operate with the rigor of a founder. P.S. I'm building a community for the top heads of growths in New York. We have people from companies like Rippling, Perplexity, and Anthropic. Shoot me a DM if you want to join

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