Ayan Agarwal

investing @AltimeterCap / former founder @ycombinator
views are my own, no investment advice

[Ayan Agarwal @ayanagarwal0]

Excited to lead Anthropic's Series H and to continue our partnership with them. We believe this team has built one of the most consequential companies of this era, and they're just beginning to show what this technology can do. Excited for what's ahead.

[Altimeter Capital @AltimeterCap]

We are thrilled to lead @AnthropicAI Series H!

Anthropic is making intelligence ubiquitous and transforming how industries are thinking about operating. We have been in awe of their capacity to metabolize hard things and make it look easy, whether that's unlocking research breakthroughs, shipping products, or driving compute efficiency.

We believe the Anthropic team has built something rare: a culture where mission, talent, and velocity are perfectly aligned. That foundation allows them to redefine what’s possible in AI.

What also stands out is the simultaneous speed and precision of their execution. Claude has become the default operating system for entire enterprises, powering coding, reasoning, and complex workflows at a scale we've never seen before. We believe their ability to ship high-performance systems while also pushing the frontier on safety and alignment is unmatched.

Huge congrats to the entire Anthropic team. Deeply honored to continue to partner with you as you continue to set the standard for what safe and powerful intelligence can be. What Anthropic has accomplished is one for the history books, and yet the best is still ahead. 🚀 @altcap @paulinebhyang @ayanagarwal0

[Ayan Agarwal @ayanagarwal0]

Back at @ycombinator for alumni demo day yesterday - a couple things that stood out:

1. Talent shifting from software to hardware. Saw repeat / exited SaaS founders in the batch now building in atoms. Moving where the immediate opportunities & bottlenecks are.

2. “Build something agents want” - PLG has become agent-led growth. Teams building to get picked and consumed by agents, not humans

3. Computer-use agents are eroding moats. If agents operate software like humans, startups don't need to integrate with incumbents and can’t be “locked out” via API. e.g. healthcare startups grabbing data from hospital EHR

4. Schleps are back! so many founders opened conversations with "i know this is super unsexy, but...". I think many software founders have stopped trying to out-build the labs, and are instead going after the ugly, defensible segments instead. Focused on deep proprietary data, heavy workflows, etc. These companies had crazy revenue numbers so seems to be working!

5. Founders working with the government vs. around it. Old YC instinct (imo) was to route around the regulator and ask forgiveness vs. P26 teams in energy, airspace, defense partnering with agencies from day one. In general, heard govt is leaning in + moving faster than founders expected

thanks @garrytan for the (last min) invite and congrats on a killer batch. Good luck to p26 tomorrow!

[Squawk on the Street @SquawkStreet]

CNBC EXCLUSIVE: Anthropic now sitting right under a $1T valuation according to the latest Series H financing. Altimeter's @paulinebhyang helping lead the funding round. Hear why she thinks OpenAI and Anthropic can be multi-trillion dollar winners over time:
https://t.co/va0YZ3FQ3n

[Ayan Agarwal @ayanagarwal0]

"there is reason for optimism: in our new world, the victors will be those who are best suited to deliver mass and apply advanced technologies to their future force."

excited to continue supporting the optimists @anduriltech

[Anduril Industries @anduriltech]

https://t.co/7cv1qTPt1v

[Ayan Agarwal @ayanagarwal0]

@mrinalsingh02 @Standard_Cap @ycombinator @generalcatalyst @boltohq Congrats guys

[Erik Kriessmann @ekriessmann]

Major commercial validation for @K2Space, partnering with @SES_Satellites to deliver high-power satellites for its next-gen MEO network.

Tranche 1’s initial deployment of 28 satellites will effectively double SES’s network capacity, enabled by K2 Mega, a new class of satellite that is bigger, higher power, more flexible, and built for scalable production.

Next-gen constellations require a step-function change in power and scale.

K2 is delivering it.

[Ayan Agarwal @ayanagarwal0]

Back at @ycombinator for alumni demo day and you could feel the difference. Observations as a founder-turned-investor:

1. W26 is shipping way faster than earlier batches. Floored by companies that pivoted in the last few weeks with real products and customers. I attempted a late pivot in the S21 batch and it was… not like that

2. Spending more on tokens than headcount. Many 2-person teams consuming over $75K of tokens / month with no signs of slowing down.

3. First hires are increasingly in sales / commercial engineer roles, not “pure” devs. Distribution > engineering.

4. Crazy traction, and it’s not just "YC ARR”. Founders running sales / success / support agents are showing up to enterprise conversations looking like mature orgs. Lots of healthcare, banking, govt logos across the batch.

5. Valuations reflect all of this. Most teams raising at $30-40M vs ~$20M just a year or two ago. Love seeing founders get rewarded for speed, progress, profitability.

6. And a fun surprise: tons of deeptech love! Robotics, energy, drug discovery - YC branching out in a positive way.

Most importantly: founders still love YC. Reuniting with my batchmates (five years later!) and supporting W26 founders means more than I can put into a tweet.

[Shri Sukhani @SukhaniShri]

@MetloHQ repo went from 119 stars on Thursday to 400 today (Monday)! :)

[Ayan Agarwal @ayanagarwal0]

@opportunefalcon Just after I meet my supernatural aid or mentor, it’s the hero’s journey dumbass

[Ayan Agarwal @ayanagarwal0]

@mounibec checked a bunch out and liked @ProtorAPI the best

[Ayan Agarwal @ayanagarwal0]

@itunpredictable @trysleek

[TechCrunch @TechCrunch]

Hundreds of Y Combinator alumni join crypto collective to back Web3 startups https://t.co/AwCM8IPmHd by @screengoblin