Asher Lin

Co Founder @ AutoSitu (YC W26)
UIUC'23 | Havard DD | Umich'25

[Asher Lin @asherlin_01]

First ever real post on X.

There was nothing fancy about why I started AutoSitu.
One part was very practical: jobs.

When you apply for hundreds or thousands of jobs, the “safe path” starts to feel less safe.

At some point, I remember thinking:
@ycombinator's acceptance rate is around 1%. My W26 batch is 0.5%. Weirdly, that started to feel less impossible than getting one good job out of 2,000 applications.

Really, I don't have a heroic founder story...
It is just the reality I faced.

The second part was scale.
If I worked as a traditional urban planner for my whole life, maybe I could touch hundreds of projects.
Maybe 1,000 if I was lucky.

But most of that impact would disappear into memos, meetings, comments, revisions, and project files.

With @autositu, we have already processed 3,000+ plan sets. Ultimate personal dream here, leave a legacy to the world that's less easier to disappear than a buttprint on a sofa.

This is not about chasing startup glamour.
It is about asking whether the same amount of life can create a larger surface area of impact.

These are the real reasons I began the founding path.

[EngagingCities @EngagingCities]

Engaging the community with augmented reality to visualize future developments , https://t.co/zOXHtEd2Op by Xuanshu Lin #urbanplanning,#cities,#livablecommunities,#communityengagement,#digitalinnovation