Adrian Sanchez-Castro

The 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿 "𝗠𝗮𝗳𝗶𝗮" is quietly building again — this time inside 𝗬 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 Former Palantir engineers and operators are launching startups that touch AI infra, developer tools, and next-gen data intelligence. I pulled the data using Harmonic — my go-to startup discovery engine as a BA - and here are 6 new YC-backed startups founded by ex-Palantir talent 👇 ▫️ Clidey (YC X25) – AI-powered infra platform with containerized workflows and real-time analytics ▫️ Overstand Labs (YC W25) – AI insights from Slack, email, WhatsApp to surface product signals and churn risk ▫️ Laminar (YC S24) – LLM tracing + evaluation with blazing-fast Rust pipelines and graph-based workflows ▫️ Zeit AI (YC S24) – Natural language queries across messy enterprise data, with GDPR-safe profiling ▫️ Kenley– AI copilots for consulting workflows like RFPs, due diligence, and internal search ▫️ Parsewise – AI agents that extract structured data from messy documents, with traceability All 6 were discovered through Y Combinator’s latest batch. All have roots at Palantir. And all are solving real data problems at the edge of what's possible. Which one is your favourite? 

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We’ve been jamming with Y Combinator’s Summer 25 batch, and have been blown away by the quality and pace of the teams. What jumps out: -Infra > interface: some excellent teams are building in the execution fabric, trust rails, or evaluation loops. They’re tackling latency budgets, anti-bot arms-races and SOC-2 checklists: the plumbing that lets agents graduate from demos to enterprise workloads. -Data moats by design: the strongest vertical plays lead with proprietary claims corpora or HIPAA-grade call graphs. -Hard-tech is back: Flywheel’s tele-ops excavators and Verne's one-hour-training vision stack prove YC is funding robots again, but with a software-first margin profile. -Founders who’ve lived the pain: Ex-Cleartax PMs fixing GST reconciliation. Ex-Goldman post-trade leads building zero-trust for agents. Wet-lab scientists automating plate handling. Why we’re excited: -These teams are solving the reliability, audit, and compliance gaps so agents can be boringly dependable, instead of asking if they will work. -Several are already in production with paying customers pre-Demo Day. -Defensibility comes from data moats, regulatory grounding and real infrastrucutre. You can see the agentic web moving from prototype to platform. Looking forward to seeing some of you tomorrow at Demo Day.

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This is crazy: NONE of the GenAI unicorns that started post-transformer are YC companies. And 85% were founded in just the last 2 years: 55% in 2023, 30% in 2022 (we are early in the cycle) via @BennettSiegel

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𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝘁 𝗬 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟬 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀 In this video, YC's Michael Seibel shares valuable insights on starting a successful business from scratch 👇 1. The importance of having a technical co-founder. 2. How to brainstorm and validate your startup idea. 3. Key steps to building an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). 4. Strategies for achieving growth and gaining traction. 5. Tips for fundraising and dealing with investors. 6. Essential operations and hiring practices. Credit Rubén Domínguez Ibar

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<$25M ARR companies with high AI adoption are getting meaningful leverage. Great report by ICONIQ, tl;dr: 1) AI-native companies are pulling ahead: → 56% trial-to-paid vs. 32% for others → Smaller teams, fewer CSMs, faster closes → Engineers are replacing traditional post-sales roles 2) GTM AI adoption concentrated in Marketing, SDRs, AEs 3) Channel = ~20% revenue, 30%+ in $250M+ ARR orgs 4) AI GTM spend is set to increase 70–80% this year 5) AI is reducing the need for post-sales headcount 6) Quota attainment is flat, AI-native teams staying leaner Check out my Newsletter – Startup Riders via the link on my profile page or the link at the top ☝️ #ai #llms #agent #startups #founder #vc

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This week's essay: "Emerging Playbooks in Vertical AI." We cover early learnings for founders building AI-Native Vertical Software: how to identify a wedge, drive early-stage value, and build long-term defensibility. h/t to Richy Nelson, David Yuan, Tidemark, Kristen Berman, and Kyle Poyar for the inspiration! Link in comments below!

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