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Inside the ex-YC partner’s $15B self driving car company | Qasar Younis
Qasar Younis is the co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a leading vehicle intelligence platform that helps companies develop and deploy autonomous systems at scale. In June 2025, the company raised $600M at a $15B valuation. Before Applied Intuition, Qasar was the COO and a group partner at Y Combinator, and earlier founded TalkBin, which was acquired by Google. He’s also held engineering roles at General Motors and Bosch.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
• The two founder traits Silicon Valley undervalues
• How to get 1–3 extra months of work done every year
• Lessons from YC on pattern matching and founder feedback
• The battle-tested startup formula Qasar used at Applied
• Why co-founder fit is make-or-break
• Applied’s playbook: vertical SaaS, product-led GTM, and leveraging VC networks
• Why Applied went multi-product in the early days
• Contrarian takes on startup culture, compensation, and cost control
• Why domain expertise is making a comeback
• And much more…
Referenced:
• Applied Intuition: https://www.appliedintuition.com
• Ansys: https://www.ansys.com
• Bilal Zuberi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bzuberi
• Bosch: https://www.bosch.com
• Elad Gil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladgil
• General Motors: https://www.gm.com
• “Google’s Acquisition of TalkBin”: https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/25/google-acquires-talkbin-a-feedback-platform-for-businesses-thats-only-five-months-old/
• “High Output Management”: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884
• Kyle Vogt: https://x.com/kvogt
• Marc Andreessen: https://x.com/pmarca
• “Only the Paranoid Survive”: https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Strategic-Inflection/dp/0385483821
• Paul Graham: https://x.com/paulg
• Peter Ludwig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwludwig
• Sam Altman: https://x.com/sama
• TalkBin: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/talkbin
• “The History of the Standard Oil Company”: https://www.amazon.com/History-Standard-Oil-Company-Volumes/dp/1519455860
• Waymo: https://waymo.com
• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com
• Zoox: https://zoox.com
Where to find Qasar:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qasar/
Where to find Brett:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
Where to find First Round Capital:
• Website: https://firstround.com/
• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
• This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
Timestamps:
(01:26) Two founder traits Silicon Valley undervalues
(04:23) Gain 1-3 extra months of productivity yearly
(05:52) Why founders should read outside the startup canon
(07:27) Lessons from YC
(13:44) Why it's harder to start than to quit
(15:52) The moment you become a real founder
(20:24) How great founders master luck
(21:46) Qasar’s battle-tested startup formula
(25:37) The founding insight for Applied
(31:42) How Applied expanded beyond automotive
(38:05) Why Applied went multi-product early
(45:45) What no one says about startup secondaries
(49:02) Why being cheap is a startup superpower
(51:04) The myth of "competition doesn’t matter"
(53:50) Early scrappiness: The Sunnyvale house setup
(54:50) Why domain knowledge is making a comeback
(58:32) The mentors who shaped Qasar
View all episodes
By First Round
4.8
5757 ratings
Qasar Younis is the co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a leading vehicle intelligence platform that helps companies develop and deploy autonomous systems at scale. In June 2025, the company raised $600M at a $15B valuation. Before Applied Intuition, Qasar was the COO and a group partner at Y Combinator, and earlier founded TalkBin, which was acquired by Google. He’s also held engineering roles at General Motors and Bosch.
In today’s episode, we discuss:
• The two founder traits Silicon Valley undervalues
• How to get 1–3 extra months of work done every year
• Lessons from YC on pattern matching and founder feedback
• The battle-tested startup formula Qasar used at Applied
• Why co-founder fit is make-or-break
• Applied’s playbook: vertical SaaS, product-led GTM, and leveraging VC networks
• Why Applied went multi-product in the early days
• Contrarian takes on startup culture, compensation, and cost control
• Why domain expertise is making a comeback
• And much more…
Referenced:
• Applied Intuition: https://www.appliedintuition.com
• Ansys: https://www.ansys.com
• Bilal Zuberi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bzuberi
• Bosch: https://www.bosch.com
• Elad Gil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladgil
• General Motors: https://www.gm.com
• “Google’s Acquisition of TalkBin”: https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/25/google-acquires-talkbin-a-feedback-platform-for-businesses-thats-only-five-months-old/
• “High Output Management”: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884
• Kyle Vogt: https://x.com/kvogt
• Marc Andreessen: https://x.com/pmarca
• “Only the Paranoid Survive”: https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Strategic-Inflection/dp/0385483821
• Paul Graham: https://x.com/paulg
• Peter Ludwig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwludwig
• Sam Altman: https://x.com/sama
• TalkBin: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/talkbin
• “The History of the Standard Oil Company”: https://www.amazon.com/History-Standard-Oil-Company-Volumes/dp/1519455860
• Waymo: https://waymo.com
• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com
• Zoox: https://zoox.com
Where to find Qasar:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qasar/
Where to find Brett:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
Where to find First Round Capital:
• Website: https://firstround.com/
• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
• This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
Timestamps:
(01:26) Two founder traits Silicon Valley undervalues
(04:23) Gain 1-3 extra months of productivity yearly
(05:52) Why founders should read outside the startup canon
(07:27) Lessons from YC
(13:44) Why it's harder to start than to quit
(15:52) The moment you become a real founder
(20:24) How great founders master luck
(21:46) Qasar’s battle-tested startup formula
(25:37) The founding insight for Applied
(31:42) How Applied expanded beyond automotive
(38:05) Why Applied went multi-product early
(45:45) What no one says about startup secondaries
(49:02) Why being cheap is a startup superpower
(51:04) The myth of "competition doesn’t matter"
(53:50) Early scrappiness: The Sunnyvale house setup
(54:50) Why domain knowledge is making a comeback
(58:32) The mentors who shaped Qasar
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