Chase Kim

Co-founder of Light Anchor (YC P26). Former forward deployed @sendbird

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

We're building autonomous companies.

"Autonomous" companies...

This is me and my co-founder's dad and packing hundreds of skincare boxes.

A few things we've learned:
1. the physical world is hard. really really really really hard.
2. anyone in the last mile will survive and continue to thrive
3. consumers are much better customers than software customers (they actually respond to emails)

The world of AI is coming, but boxes don't pack themselves (yet).

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

Rebuilt from scratch! That is the only way.

[Y Combinator @ycombinator]

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

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

@ycombinator @MyUnoWallet @RuleSaket @MordiShadpour can't wait! looks amazing

[Sangha Park @sanghaya1]

https://t.co/mh4FZzJwDZ

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

@ycombinator @DraftedAI Congrats on the launch and raise!

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

10/ Last and a crazy thought

Other than raw materials, if the cost of labor and research continues to trend downwards, we don't see a reason why manufacturing continues to be focused to certain countries like China.

We're thinking of building brands entirely in the US.

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

Polsia raised their Series A ($30M @ $250M) last week and everyone keeps asking if we're just another Polsia.

We're not and here's why: 🧵

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

9/ Companies like OpenStore and Thrasio attempted this but their attempt was: 1) acquiring existing brands (we don't think this works) and 2) pre-AI (that worked)

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

@ycombinator @jynniit @clairen19 @manny4c Love the team! Congrats 👏

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

@ycombinator @callab_ai Congrats on the launch!

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

Congrats on the raise @polsia 🙌

[Ben Cera @Bencera]

Polsia just raised $30M at a $250M valuation.

Approaching $10M annual run rate.

One Founder + AI. Zero employees.

Polsia runs companies autonomously.

It also ran its own fundraising.

I just showed up for signatures.

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

6. Create a CAB (customer advisory board) with your early customers. include them in your cap table then “weaponize” them

[Chase Kim @chasingjohnnn]

Great insights from @samdblond & @MonacoGTM !

Learnings:
1. Focus on demand gen and brand recognition
2. Brand recognition comes from creatives (e.g. Monaco Invitational) that AI cannot do
3. Creatives might not work now but it compounds
4. Keep launching (anything)