Diana Hu cofounded Escher Reality, which went through the Summer 2017 batch of YC. They were acquired by Niantic and she is now the head of their AR platform.

She's on Twitter @sdianahu.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.

Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

***

Topics

00:00 - Intro

00:40 - Getting into AR

2:55 - Her first exposure to AR

4:40 - AR's future role in media

7:45 - Deciding where to go with the product 

9:55 - Innovations that enabled AR

14:25 - Building a product in a new market

17:25 - Raising money for a new market

21:40 - Advice for founders after an acquisition 

26:40 - Immigrating to the US

31:10 - Advice for Immigrant founders

33:49 - Advice for founders in/after YC


#141 - Diana Hu

We help founders make something people want.

Technology

Tech News

Podcasting

Gadgets

Software How-To

YC has become a surprising force in the hard tech world, funding startups building physical products from satellites to rockets to electric planes. In this episode of Lightcone, we go behind the scenes to explore how YC advises founders on their ambitious startups. We also take a look at a number of YC's hard tech companies and how they got started with little time or money.

Inside The Hard Tech Startups Turning Sci-Fi Into Reality | Lightcone Podcast

If you read articles about companies like OpenAI and Anthropic training foundation models, it would be natural to assume that if you don’t have a billion dollars or the resources of a large company, you can’t train your own foundational models. But the opposite is true.

In this episode of the Lightcone Podcast, we discuss the strategies to build a foundational model from scratch in less than 3 months with examples of YC companies doing just that. We also get an exclusive look at Open AI's Sora!

Building AI Models Faster And Cheaper Than You Think | Lightcone Podcast

One trait that many great founders share is conviction. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll talk about finding confidence in what you're building, the dangers of inaccurate assumptions, and a question founders need to ask themselves before they start trying to sell to anyone else.

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

Building Confidence In Yourself and Your Ideas | Dalton & Michael Podcast

In this episode of the Lightcone Podcast, YC Group Partners chart the evolution of San Francisco as the center of the startup world and how AI has brought everyone back to the city. 


They also talk about why YC chose to open our new HQ in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco and share their advice for new founders moving to the city for the first time.

Where Is The REAL Cerebral Valley? | Lightcone Podcast

Startups need to innovate to succeed. But not all innovation is made equal and reinventing some common best practices could actually hinder your company. In this episode, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel discuss the common innovation pitfalls founders should avoid so they can better focus on their product and their customers. 

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs

#141 - Diana Hu

Download our free app to listen on your phone