The Lobster Talks Podcast by Lobster Capital

Bain Capital just bet $5.6 billion on legacy EdTech. Noah and the Scout team are betting on its extinction.

Most founders are told to avoid the Student Information System (SIS) market because it's "too sticky" and dominated by giants like PowerSchool.

In this episode, Noah (Founder of Scout, YC W25) explains how they are using AI-native compliance to wedge into the "School OS" market and why the future of education looks nothing like the traditional classroom.

What you’ll learn:

- Why Private Equity buying your competitor is a massive "Buy" signal for your startup.

- The "Wedge" Strategy: Why Scout chose online hybrid schools in California.

- How to overcome intense Imposter Syndrome during the first week of Y Combinator.

- The Sneaker Bot Origin: Why YC loves founders who "hacked" systems as kids.

- Managing the "Post-YC Slump" and building a 20-year sustainable business.

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

Chapters:

00:00 YC Investor Boost

00:49 Free YC Roaster Plug

01:34 EdTech Market Shakeup

02:16 What Scout Builds

03:05 PowerSchool Deal Timing

03:48 From Wedge to SIS

06:56 Beating Switching Costs

09:52 Niche Beachhead Strategy

11:00 First Real Customer Signal

13:41 Future of Schooling Bet

16:31 Why Based in New York

19:50 NYC Talent Network Edge

22:11 Sneaker Bot Origins

24:33 Building the Supreme Bot

25:38 Hacking Systems Mindset

26:30 Spotting System Hacks

27:24 Waffles and Tooth Bonds

28:59 Getting Into YC

30:31 Imposter Syndrome Reset

34:23 YC Lessons That Stick

34:50 Going Big in EdTech

39:37 The Post YC Slump

42:54 From Demo Day to Customers

45:42 YC Stamp for Investors

47:21 Rapid Fire 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

The YC Winter 2026 batch just broke every record in the book. 

We’re seeing valuations hit $100M before founders even finish their slide decks. Is this a peak or just the new baseline?

In this episode of The Lobster Talks, we debrief the W26 Demo Day. We go behind the scenes on the "Agentic" boom, why hardware is suddenly the hottest play in the valley, and the real math behind why YC startups are worth 4x more than their peers.

What you’ll learn:

• Why 10+ companies in this batch raised at $100M+ valuations.
• The truth about the "1% acceptance rate" (and how to skip the line).
• How a consumer hardware startup hit $27M ARR during the batch.
• Why "Open Claw" changed the game for AI agent startups.
• The blurring lines between Seed and Series A rounds.

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

Chapters:

00:00 Faster Exits Thesis

00:30 YC Roaster Plug

01:14 Winter 2026 Debrief

01:59 Record Growth Metrics

03:17 Revenue And Acceptance

06:44 Why YC Still Pays

07:42 100M Valuation Surge

11:23 Seed Series A Blur

14:49 Skipping Series A

19:47 AI Agents Narrative

22:35 Why YC Still Wins

23:22 Post Claude Demo Day Shift

24:43 Seed FOMO And Valuation Surge

25:40 Why Exits Keep Getting Bigger

27:33 Big Tech Acquisition Logic

34:10 Talent Scarcity Drives M&A

36:37 Breaking Down 27M ARR

38:50 Consumer AI Notetaker Bet

43:00 Wrap Up And Where To Follow

🎧 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

He did YC in 2016 from France with a Slack bot nobody had heard of. 

9 years later, he came back… second company, second batch, $10M seed closed in 3 days. Dalton told him: "Don't overlearn."

Quang is the founder of Vybe, a YC W25 company building the internal app layer for the AI era. Before that: Plato, a mentorship platform for engineers he grew to 70 people, raised $22M for, and sold to Coda, where he worked as a GM before quitting to start over. 

In this conversation, we go deep on what it actually means to be a second-time YC founder: the overcorrections, the traps, and what's genuinely different about YC today vs. 2016.

In this episode, you'll learn:

→ Why hiring zero people after raising $10M was the wrong overcorrection, and when Quang finally figured that out

→ How selling before the product was ready backfired, and what First Round's Liz told him to do instead

→ YC's self-fulfilling prophecy: how the program became a distribution machine, and why seed rounds that took 3 weeks in 2016 now close in 3 days

→ Why Vybe is quietly pivoting from "build internal apps" to "agents that use those apps", and what inspired it

→ The three-component PMF framework First Round runs with every portfolio company (and where most founders skip straight to step 3)

Chapters:

00:00 Raising First 150K

00:30 YC Roaster Sponsor

01:14 Meet Quang Twice YC

02:03 Discovering YC In France

05:37 Slack Bot Breakthrough

06:34 Product Hunt To YC Interview

07:49 Silicon Valley Network Effect

13:47 Why Expense Reports Question

15:59 Getting The Acceptance Call

17:02 Moving To Mountain View

18:46 Building Bots In YC

20:31 Pivot To Plato Mentorship

22:02 Acquired By Coda

22:49 Coda Vs Retool Pain

26:37 Replit Agent Sparks Vibe

27:33 Internal Apps Are Still Hard

28:52 Quitting Coda For Vibe

29:00 Co Founder Wealthfront Pain

30:07 Back To Y Combinator

30:26 Avoiding Overcorrection Traps

31:48 Hiring Lessons And Rebound

34:33 Selling Too Early Too Hard

37:39 Five Customers Before Scale

39:17 Product Market Fit Framework

42:08 Claude Code Threat Or Tailwind

44:52 Open Claude And Apps Disappear

46:46 Vibe Agents And Integrations

49:10 YC Then Vs Now

55:49 Wrap Up And Subscribe

—

🦞 Lobster Talks is the YC insider podcast for investors. New episodes weekly.

Subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss the next one.

Listen on the go:

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

🎧 Apple: https://apple.co/4cZ8RMm

More from Lobster Capital:

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lobstercap

🌐 Website: https://lobstercap.com

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

🔗 https://ycroaster.com

The recovery market is broken, and most VCs are too scared to touch it.

Koby Conrad (CEO of Sunflower) joins the show to discuss why he’s betting his career on solving addiction using AI. 

After a successful exit at Rupa Health, Koby moved to Buenos Aires with nothing but a backpack to "vibe code" the future of sobriety. 

In this episode, we dive into the "no-meeting" SAFE phenomenon, why SaaS moats are dying, and how Sunflower reached $1M ARR in record time.

What you will learn:

• Why the "Wellness" category is a trap for serious founders.
• How to raise capital in "emotionally difficult" or stigmatized markets.
• The strategy behind giving away software for free to monetize physical "atoms."
• Inside the YC Fall 25 batch: What has changed since 2019.
• Why AI sponsors are actually more effective for lonely users than human ones.

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

Chapters: 

00:00 Choosing Mission Over Money

00:30 YC Roaster Sponsor Break

01:14 Why Addiction Is Underserved

02:08 What Sunflower Builds

03:24 Fundraising In A Stigmatized Market

05:14 Why Not A Wellness App

08:00 Stigma Parallels And Founder Backstory

10:37 YC Twice And The Compounding Effect

13:59 No Meeting SAFEs And Investor Alpha

18:31 Limits Of AI In Recovery

22:06 From Subscriptions To Clinics

28:14 Distribution Moats And Community

30:27 Community Network Moats

31:21 Software Is Not The Moat

31:57 B2B Pilots And Revenue Paths

33:18 Finding Product Model Fit

34:56 Why Start Over For Addiction

37:01 Backpack Minimalism Reset

39:24 Garry Tan As Group Partner

43:04 Rapid Fire AI Predictions

43:45 Gambling Addiction Rabbit Hole

46:34 AI Across Healthcare And Ash

50:59 Smarter Than The Robot

51:53 Where To Find Sunflower

🎧 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

The US government spends $2.7 trillion a year on everything from water bottles to fighter jets, yet the entire process is held together by Microsoft Word and tribal knowledge.

In this episode, we sit down with August Chen, founder of Hazel (YC W24), to discuss why he left Palantir to tackle the antiquated world of government procurement. We dive into the "missionary vs. mercenary" mindset, the reality of the 1% acceptance rate at YC, and why the "death of the paper-pusher" is the greatest opportunity in VC today.

What you’ll learn:

• Why 50% of small businesses have abandoned government contracts.
• The Palantir playbook: How to "deploy yourself" into a customer's workflow.
• Why selling to the Government requires a "hierarchy of needs" approach.
• The pivot from B2B2G to direct B2G: When the mission stays, but the product moves.
• How AI is turning months of RFP paperwork into seconds of work.
• Predictions for the "DOGE" era and the future of civil servant tech stacks.

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

Chapters: 

00:00 Million Dollar Toilet Problem

00:39 YC Roaster Ad Break

01:22 Why Gov Procurement Lags

02:50 Broken Systems Examples

04:05 Inside Procurement Tech Stack

05:30 Palantir Lessons On Procurement

07:29 YC Pivot To B2G

11:36 Selling To Government Reality

17:22 Scaling A Small Sales Team

21:29 AI For Deterministic Compliance

25:15 Workflow First AI Second

26:00 Vendor Search Enrichment

26:18 Drafting Requirements Fast

26:36 Evaluation Notes Assistant

27:04 Safety and Tesla Analogy

28:35 Scope Review Guardrails

30:29 Palantir Patience Lessons

32:36 Hair on Fire Problems

33:57 Fast Pilots and Features

36:07 Overcoming Trust Deficit

39:04 Why the Name Hazel

41:50 Predictions Rapid Fire

43:58 Procurement Jobs Future

45:32 Investor Takeaway and Wra

“🎧 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

The most successful YC companies aren't always the loudest. They're the ones that survive the "Valley of Death" to become indispensable infrastructure.

In this episode, I sit down with Grant Shaddick, founder of Tella (YC W20), the video tool that has quietly taken over the YC ecosystem. We dive into the grit required to build a category leader, why they chose to stay lean while others over-raised, and how AI is finally killing the "video editing" bottleneck.

What you’ll learn:

• Why "boring" infrastructure often outperforms "hype" AI startups.
• The reality of the startup "Valley of Death" and how to survive it.
• Why a high valuation can actually be a founder's biggest trap.
• The future of agentic video editing: from tools to outcomes.
• The secret behind Tella’s viral adoption among YC founders.

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

Chapters:

00:00 The Big Vision: Make Video Creation Effortless

00:35 Sponsor Break: YC Roaster — Free YC Application Feedback

01:19 Podcast Intro: Why Tella Is a Quiet YC Power Tool

02:28 What Tella Is: The All‑in‑One Screen Recorder

04:38 From “Loom Competitor” to Polished Production Value

07:43 Why YC Founders Keep Choosing Tella

10:51 Async Video vs Meetings: The Future of Work?

15:23 Beyond Loom: One Tool for Every Company Video

18:25 AI + Video: Auto Layouts and Editing Without Editing

24:21 How Close Are We to Fully Autonomous Video Editing?

25:58 Why Video Is So Unforgiving: Trust Dies When Recordings Break

27:50 AI Can’t Save a Broken Capture (Yet): The Gap vs Text Generation

29:12 Generative AI as a “Bandage”: Fixing Mistakes After the Fact

30:21 Desktop/Web Video Creators Are Underserved (and AI Changes That)

31:24 From Whisper Dictation to “Fix My Delivery”: The Future of AI Video

32:20 YC 2020 to PMF: Staying Lean, Scrappy, and Not Getting Ahead of Yourself

36:26 How to Not Quit: Stubbornness, Small Wins, and Solving Hard Problems

39:16 The Rendering-Bug Breakthrough: Quality Fixes That Unlocked Growth

42:01 Fundraising Discipline: Valuation Pressure vs Runway and Focus

47:30 Wrap-Up: Try Tella + Where to Find the Team

🎧 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

YC just added one question that quietly changes what it means to be a founder.

And it’s not about your TAM. It’s not about your pitch. It’s about how you use AI to build.

In this episode of Lobster Talks, we break down YC’s newest application change, the rise of coding agents like Claude Code, and what this signals about where startup building, and venture capital is heading next.

We also go deep on YC Roaster, Lobster Capital’s new initiative helping founders improve their YC applications using AI + YC alumni review.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

- Why YC’s new “coding agent session” question is a founder filter

- How vibe coding is becoming table stakes in 2026

- What 20,000 YC applications really signal about global founders

- Why traction keeps rising as the YC acceptance bar

- How smart VCs are building internal tools and why most aren’t

- Why the best founders and funds pivot fast

This is a behind-the-scenes look at how YC evaluates builders today.

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

Chapters:

00:00 Claude Code Is Addictive: Why Everyone’s Vibe Coding Now

00:44 Sponsor Break: YC Roaster - Free, Brutally Honest YC Application Feedback

01:27 Welcome to Lobster Talks: What’s New in the YC World

02:00 How YC Roaster Was Built (Fast) + How the AI→Alumni Review Flow Works

03:37 Launch Results: Hundreds of Apps, MVP Bugs, and the V2 Relaunch Plan

06:23 What Applicants Look Like: Quality Spread, Global Submissions, and Reviewer Time Sinks

11:29 Why Build YC Roaster: Lobster’s “Helpful Fund” Flywheel + VCs Who Ship

14:20 YC’s New Application Question: Submit a Coding Agent Session You’re Proud Of

15:06 What YC Is Really Testing: Technical Bar, AI Fluency, and Advanced Agent Workflows

22:42 Founder vs Idea: Pivot Culture, Proof-of-Work, and How AI Changes Evaluation

27:06 VCs Need Tools Too: Internal Engineering, Interactive Marketing, and Fund Differentiation

29:28 YC Request for Startups: 2026 Themes - Agents, Stablecoins, GovTech, Spatial/Robotics

31:33 Wrap-Up: Subscribe, Reviews, and Next Week’s YC Founder

🎧 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

Most people treat their bodies like a car they only fix after it crashes.

Max Berthelot and Lucis are rewriting that script by turning longitudinal blood data into a high-margin, preventive software play.

In this episode, we sit down with Max Berthelot, founder of Lucis (YC S25), to discuss why "Function Health for Europe" is one of the most compelling arbitrage opportunities in the venture world.

We dive into the cultural shift of paying for health in Europe, the technical challenge of scaling doctor-supervised AI, and the relentless execution required to expand across five countries in record time.

What you’ll learn:

- Why blood data is the "Gold Rush" of the next decade.

- The YC strategy for conquering fragmented European markets.

- How to maintain "San Francisco Velocity" while based in Paris.

- Why AI + Wearables are currently overhyped (and what's missing).

- The 5-day fundraising sprint: How Lucis closed their round during YC.

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

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Preventive Health and Function Health

00:45 Welcome to Lobster Talks Podcast

01:32 Meet Max Berthelot and Lucis

02:23 The Importance of Longitudinal Health Tracking

05:02 Challenges and Opportunities in European Healthcare

09:14 The YC Experience and Decision to Stay in Europe

12:54 Maintaining YC Culture in Europe

18:13 The Role of AI in Healthcare

22:14 Expansion Across Europe

23:00 International Expansion Playbook

23:53 Challenges in European Market

25:35 Relentless Execution and Metrics

28:35 Trends in YC Healthcare Startups

32:22 Fundraising Journey and AI Impact

36:11 Overhyped Trends in Health Tech

39:20 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

🎧 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

Factories don’t buy hype. They buy uptime.

In this episode, YC-backed Cerrion CEO Karim Saleh explains why industrial computer vision is one of YC’s most underrated AI wedges, and why it can beat flashier “copilot” markets on sheer dollar-weight and defensibility.

Karim breaks down how Cerrion deploys camera-based AI agents to detect production issues in real time, why manufacturing is a $20T opportunity, and what most investors get wrong about selling into factories. If you’re building “real-world AI,” this is the playbook… from five paid pilots before code to scaling via workflows, not dashboards.

What you’ll learn:

• Why YC keeps funding industrial computer vision (even across hype cycles)
• The technical truth: every factory is different… and why VLMs change the game
• The go-to-market wedge that wins: small scope → fast ROI → expansion (NRR)
• How Cerrion embeds into daily factory workflows (shift meetings, handovers, owners)
• The biggest investor myth about manufacturing sales cycles, and the real unlock
• Why competition-heavy AI markets are a trap (and what to build instead)

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

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to the Manufacturing Market Opportunity

00:38 Welcome to Lobster Talks

01:11 Introducing Karim Saleh and Cerrion

02:16 The Evolution of AI in Manufacturing

03:47 Challenges and Solutions in Industrial AI

05:40 The Impact of US Reindustrialization

08:44 Customer Success and Expansion Strategies

15:44 Fundraising and Market Trends

26:07 Future of Industrial AI and YC Insights

36:07 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

🎧 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

Lawyers hate tracking time. PointOne turned that universal pain into an AI wedge, and used the YC playbook to move fast in one of the most conservative, high-ARPU markets on earth.

In this episode of Lobster Talks, Katon Luaces (YC ’24) breaks down how PointOne built an “AI time platform” for law firms, why “hard thing first” compounds, and what investors routinely misread about early traction vs. real product validation.

You’ll learn:

- Why “why now” is the only filter that matters for AI startups

- How PointOne got early users fast with aggressive cold outbound

- The “hard thing first” strategy—and why it creates real moats

- The truth: early traction validates the problem, retention validates the solution

- How to sell AI into skeptical industries with “stepping-stone” adoption

- Why AI law firms are real… but “one law firm in the future” is unlikely

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: The Importance of Long-Term Customer Retention

00:33 Welcome to Lobster Talks: Featuring Katon Luaces

01:09 Introducing PointOne: Revolutionizing Time Tracking for Law Firms

01:54 The Magic of Technology: Making the Impossible Possible

02:46 The YC Journey: From Idea to Execution

03:59 Balancing Technology and Market Demand

05:52 Navigating YC: Maximizing Traction and Growth

07:29 Building a Complex Product: Challenges and Strategies

11:51 Post-YC Growth: From Zero to Exponential

13:18 The Philosophy of Tackling the Hardest Problems First

16:35 The Reality of Startup Life: Persistence and Iteration

21:22 Selling AI to a Traditional Industry: Overcoming Resistance

26:31 Innovative Business Models in Law Firms

27:06 Impact of AI on Legal Practice

28:07 AI Tools and Job Transformation

30:31 Competing with AI in Legal Services

31:59 Challenges and Opportunities for AI Law Firms

35:17 Future of AI in Legal and Other Sectors

37:41 YC's Role in AI Legal Startups

41:52 Overhyped and Underpriced AI Investments

47:19 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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

🎧 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