A YC insider walked away from the best seat in the Valley… to build “prank call” voice AI that now powers serious enterprise sales. 

Simple AI started as a consumer assistant that people used to troll their friends—and turned into a phone agent platform that’s replacing entire call centers.

In this episode of The Lobster Talks, I sit down with Cat, founder of Simple AI and former YC product lead behind Startup School and YC’s co-founder matching tools. We go deep on the real difference between a business and a startup, why YC went all-in on AI before the rest of the market, and how voice agents are quietly becoming the most valuable “employee” in the building.

You’ll hear how a side-project consumer app turned into inbound from enterprises like Omaha Steaks, why B2B isn’t boring when the hair is really on fire, and what the future looks like when calling a business means talking to an AI that actually solves your problem.

In this episode, we cover:

• How Cat went from building Startup School at YC to founding Simple AI
• Why “making money” isn’t enough to call something a startup—and why tech-enabled scale still matters
• The origin story of Simple AI: consumer assistant, prank calls, and the first “holy sh*t” user feedback
• How large enterprises are using voice agents today for inbound sales, support, and real revenue lift
• Why high-quality, high-conversion calls beat “cheap” AI—and how Simple AI thinks about upsell and A/B testing
• B2C vs B2B in voice AI, YC’s early bet on LLMs, and whether this is a winner-take-most market

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

Chapters:

00:00 The Power of Voice AI: Pranks and Beyond

00:34 Sponsor Message: Stable - Your Virtual Business Address

01:34 Introduction to Lobster Talks and Today's Guest

01:41 Meet Cat from Simple AI

01:55 Cat's Journey at YC and the Birth of Simple AI

02:46 Building Tools for Founders at YC

04:25 The Distinction Between Business and Startup

05:49 The Role of Technology in Startup Scalability

09:03 The Visionary Leap into Voice AI

10:58 The Early Days of AI and YC's Influence

15:58 The Consumer Focus of Simple AI

17:49 Real-World Applications of Simple AI

21:00 How Simple AI Works: Practical Examples

22:44 The Power of Simple AI: No Marketing Needed

22:58 Celebrity Endorsement: Reese Witherspoon's Favorite AI

23:41 How Simple AI Benefits Businesses

24:03 AI in Call Centers: A Game Changer

24:39 The Omaha Steaks Case Study

25:45 AI vs. Human: The Upsell Advantage

26:15 Seasonal Workforce Challenges Solved by AI

27:47 The Future of AI in Sales and Support

31:57 The Synergy Between B2C and B2B Products

34:10 The Potential of Voice AI in B2C

44:08 The Competitive Landscape of Voice AI

45:51 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

This podcast episode is sponsored by Stable. Click here to sign up for a virtual address: 

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