Some of the biggest companies of the next decade won't be software businesses. They'll be services companies like insurance carriers, law firms, and tax practices rebuilt from scratch with AI doing most of the work.
In this episode of Startup School, YC Visiting Partner @CharlieWarren walks through the playbook for building AI native services companies, covering how to pick a market with the right traits, why variance kills these businesses faster than anything else, and the P&L math that’ll transform your business model.
00:00 — Intro to AI Services Companies
01:01 — Picking the Right Market
02:55 — Markets YC Likes Right Now
03:43 — The Sam Altman Test
04:35 — The Right Founding Team
05:28 — Building the Product
06:19 — Variance Is the Existential Problem
07:08 — The Early Demand Trap
07:53 — How to Price AI Services
08:41 — The P&L Walkthrough
09:33 — AI Operating Leverage
10:27 — Don't Buy Your Way In
A historic moment at #ASCO26: more than 9,000 oncologists rose for three standing ovations as Brian Wolpin, MD, MPH, Director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research, presented promising new Phase 3 results for an investigational treatment for metastatic pancreatic cancer.
In the trial, daraxonrasib helped patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer live significantly longer than those who received chemotherapy.
While more work remains, these findings offer something powerful: hope for patients and families facing one of the most challenging cancers.
As Dr. Wolpin said, “It is exciting to see that we may soon be able to help patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer in ways we haven’t been able to before, improving both survival and quality of life.”
Congratulations to the researchers and patients who made this important progress possible. 👏👏👏
Video Courtesy: @asco
Once again, Russia fired hundreds of drones and missiles at one of the great capitals of Europe. At families, children in their beds.
Once again, the unbombed capitals of Europe will respond with press statements.
Everyone says: hire people better than you, then get out of the way.
One of my biggest mistakes at Algolia was taking that literally.
Yes, hire people better than you. But don’t confuse seniority with earned trust.
Stay close at first. Inspect the work. Pressure-test the judgment. If you’re still micromanaging after 3 months, you hired the wrong person.
And trust your gut.
As a founder, you are the most fine-tuned model in the world on your own company. If something feels off, it probably is, even when the exec says, “Trust me, I’ve done this for 20 years.”
I’ve decided to leave @AnthropicAI
Never thought I’d say this so soon. The pursuit of AGI has truly been my life’s work but something more important has emerged.
In 1942, hundreds of America’s best scientists made huge sacrifices and joined the Manhattan Project to protect this nation against immense evil.
Today, America faces a similar danger. Over the last few years sparks of AGI have been felt across the world.
In order to protect this great nation against the threat of AGI ending up in the hands of evil, I have decided to join the modern day Manhattan Project.
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be joining (and moving into the office) @UseCorgi as a sales development representative!
After every Russian escalation into a NATO country we hear leaders repeating the mantra "We stand with..."
But we could do much more than standing around.
For example — we could create a European-Ukrainian defense union. Fund it with confiscated Russian frozen assets. Close the skies in Ukraine, making Ukraine and other frontline states safer.
These things are very possible and this work could start today.
Instead, I am sadly reminded of how Britain and France “stood with” Poland in 1939 while that country was being dismembered. It was called the Phony War, because mere declarations of “support” mean very little on the ground, and do nothing to prevent real war.
Actions always speak louder than words, and usually cost much less than inaction.
Je me suis entretenu avec le Prince héritier d’Arabie saoudite Mohammed Ben Salman, le Sultan d’Oman Haïtham Bin Tariq, le Président émirien Mohammed Ben Zayed et le Président égyptien Abdefattah Al Sissi.
À tous, je porte le même message : il est essentiel qu’un accord entre les États-Unis et l’Iran aboutisse rapidement. Cette opportunité doit être saisie maintenant. La priorité doit aller à la conclusion d’un cessez-le-feu et à la réouverture immédiate du détroit d’Ormuz, sans aucune condition et en conformité avec le droit international. Les discussions devront ensuite se poursuivre pour aboutir à un accord complet et robuste sur les autres sujets, en particulier sur le programme nucléaire et balistique, et la stabilité régionale.
La France se tient prête à y prendre toute sa part, en aidant à la reprise du trafic maritime avec la mission multinationale indépendante mise sur pied avec le Royaume-Uni, en appuyant les discussions sur le nucléaire avec son expertise et ses capacités, et en contribuant au nécessaire établissement d’un cadre de sécurité régional, avec les partenaires dont elle a aidé à assurer la protection ces derniers mois.
S'agissant de la stabilité régionale, elle doit commencer avec le Liban, où il est urgent que les armes se taisent, toutes, et pour de bon. Rien ne justifie l’escalade majeure en cours au Sud Liban. La France poursuivra son soutien aux autorités libanaises dans leurs efforts pour rétablir la souveraineté de l’État et l’intégrité territoriale du pays.
a standing ovation for daraxonrasib at asco. over 40k oncologists, entrepreneurs, investors, and patient advocates together celebrating revmed's breakthru in the fight against pancreatic cancer. u never forget these moments. it's what innovation is all about.
One of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen: a standing ovation for the full Daraxonrasib results
I feel inspired and energised, to put it mildly — we have a targeted therapy for pancreatic cancer now, and nothing is undruggable anymore
La Marine nationale a arraisonné hier matin un nouveau pétrolier sous sanctions internationales en provenance de Russie : le Tagor. Notre détermination est constante et totale.
Cette intervention a été effectuée en Atlantique, en haute mer, avec le soutien de plusieurs partenaires dont le Royaume-Uni, dans le strict respect du droit de la mer.
Il est inacceptable que des bateaux contournent les sanctions internationales, violent le droit de la mer et financent la guerre que mène la Russie contre l’Ukraine depuis plus de 4 ans.
Ces navires, qui ne respectent pas les règles les plus élémentaires de navigation maritime, constituent également une menace pour l’environnement et pour la sécurité de tous.
Overnight, our warriors applied Ukraine’s long-range sanctions against an oil refinery in Russia’s Saratov – about 700 kilometers from the frontline. An important result. Thank you! There were also strikes in the Rostov and Kirov regions, as well as at a military base on the Caspian Sea coast.
Our Defense Forces of Ukraine are carrying out long-range missions in line with the approved priorities of the plan for such sanctions. This week, targets were also reached in the Yaroslavl, Ryazan, Voronezh, Volgograd, Rostov, Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod and Krasnodar regions at distances ranging from 300 to 1,200 kilometers from Ukraine’s state border.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, our intelligence agencies – thank you!
1 in 2 smokers die prematurely, losing 14 years of life on average. 24% of people in the EU smoke.
This World No Tobacco Day, EU tobacco rules are helping to reduce smoking and prevent deaths. Read more: https://t.co/RHCQxRT90l
Imagine replacing 90% of your employees with a team of geniuses who have no idea how your company operates.
Total chaos. Nothing works.
That’s what AI feels like today.
The missing piece is extracting all the domain knowledge from people’s heads and providing that as structured context to the models.