
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Most AI apps still feel clunky, generic, or oddly off-tone. Pete Koomen thinks he knows why — and he’s calling it the “horseless carriage” problem. Just like early cars mimicked carriages, today’s AI products too often copy outdated software models instead of rethinking from first principles.
Pete, a General Partner at Y Combinator and co-founder of Optimizely, joins us to break down his viral essay AI Horseless Carriages. We talk about why editable system prompts are critical, how app design is holding AI back, and why user-controlled agents could unlock far more powerful workflows than today’s one-size-fits-all experiences.
We also covered WhatsApp’s 3B user milestone, Mach Industries’ new funding round, a major App Store ruling against Apple, and Anthropic’s Claude integrations.
By Eric Tarczynski5
1616 ratings
Most AI apps still feel clunky, generic, or oddly off-tone. Pete Koomen thinks he knows why — and he’s calling it the “horseless carriage” problem. Just like early cars mimicked carriages, today’s AI products too often copy outdated software models instead of rethinking from first principles.
Pete, a General Partner at Y Combinator and co-founder of Optimizely, joins us to break down his viral essay AI Horseless Carriages. We talk about why editable system prompts are critical, how app design is holding AI back, and why user-controlled agents could unlock far more powerful workflows than today’s one-size-fits-all experiences.
We also covered WhatsApp’s 3B user milestone, Mach Industries’ new funding round, a major App Store ruling against Apple, and Anthropic’s Claude integrations.

16,164 Listeners

1,283 Listeners

531 Listeners

4,346 Listeners

1,952 Listeners

1,099 Listeners

2,357 Listeners

112,358 Listeners

6,066 Listeners

2,645 Listeners

10,017 Listeners

522 Listeners

29,242 Listeners

987 Listeners

472 Listeners