Roman Zubenko

Finance for AI (yc f24)

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

We are not here to do what has already been done. Robert Henri

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

@neal_k_patel @codyetc @AGrillz might be worthwhile to look at this for some of your extraction jobs

[Neal Patel @neal_k_patel]

Introducing ScaleDown

15x cheaper. 63x faster. 5.1% more accurate than GPT-5.4 Mini.

Task-specific SLMs for the 70-80% of AI workloads that don't need a frontier model.

From NeurIPS '25 to https://t.co/imZLOYCcTA

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

A lot of innovation happening in the routing space

[Amit Tandon @AmitTandonAI]

Three routing innovations this week.

@FactoryAI routes the model: frontier quality, 25% lower cost.

@Harvey + @FireworksAI_HQ route the advisor: open model primary; frontier model selectively invoked.

Rekursor routes inspectable, customer-owned skills selected at runtime, with a new primitive that shows 100% top-pick correctness across an 18 → 504 skill library while RAG collapses past ~200 candidates.

Different layers. Same wave. Routing is becoming the architecture.

https://t.co/n9piULQ2XT

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

Reminds me of @mprkhrst pizza delivery in early days of @antimetal. Only works if you are the first one

[Turner Novak 🍌🧢 @TurnerNovak]

“The biggest reason this is so effective is that no one has done this in SF…. In order to go viral with paid advertising, you have to try something new. Take risk. Be creative. Otherwise you're paying a premium just to be like everyone else with a billboard on a highway.”

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

Levels of AI app layer companies:
1. Use frontier models to get to PMF
2. Start mixing open source models to get cost under control
3. Fine tune oss model and use it with frontier advisor
4. Train your own foundational model.

Cursor is the only company I know attempting #4 only bc they got capital and expertise from xAI.

[Amit Patel @bloopmit]

Frontier lab IPO rush is making a lot more sense seeing something like this. The greatest competition was always with open weights! Multi agent systems using a smarter “advisor” model to drive workers is something we’ve had success with @finchlegal already. Very bullish on the future of “build / host your own workflow specific agents”

[Alfred Lin @Alfred_Lin]

This quote from Steve Jobs has always resonated with me. An important reminder as we write the chapters of our life's book.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

@ivanburazin 5k Codex bill and an attitude

[Kathryn Wu @kathrynwu1]

I think the biggest thing YC changed for me was reducing noise.

Before YC, startup advice on the internet felt very random.
Everyone sounded smart.
Everyone had opinions.
A lot of it was bluff.

YC made startups feel much more grounded:
ARR, retention, distribution, market size, growth.
There’s a much more standardized way to evaluate whether a business is actually working.

At the end of the day, the best founders I’ve met are usually just trying to build real businesses with real demand.
Not optimize for appearances.

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

If you are pricing your agent product per outcome like ticket resolved or enrichment generated, put cost tracking in place from day 1

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

@tomerlondon Cofounder will be huge for smbs

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

@nicolomagnante @superlogYC @garrytan let's goo

[Aaron Epstein @aaron_epstein]

There's a new playbook being written right now for running an AI-native service business, and @charliewarren is at the frontier. Great advice here for how to do it right.

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

@jaixbhatia We closed out first few customers during f24 doing exactly this!

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

Intel is back. Andy Grove would be proud

[Intel @intel]

This is the new Intel.

Focused. Executing. Building across the full AI stack.

With new products, deeper partnerships, and purpose-built solutions for the AI era.

https://t.co/px7Ho5MTgf

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

YC founders never stop surprising me

[Parth Radia @parthnradia]

https://t.co/NMHB1Q2lv9

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

Tokens/inferencing/intelligence becomes just another resource to manage just like talent, money or raw materials.

We’ll need new tools ti mange it, measure it, procure it, attribute and monetize

[shawn @pronounsuponly]

https://t.co/BunOMUzTpa

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

@patrick_oshag this interview and Stanford course by @apoorv03 https://t.co/CRr6nyBtSL have been the best resources on economics resources on economics of AI

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

@patrick_oshag this interview and Stanford course by @apoorv03 https://t.co/CRr6nyBtSL have been the best resources on economics resources on economics of AI

[Roman Zubenko @romanzubenko]

@arram we need techno optimist manifesto for AI where we argue that every company in the future will be an AI company, and benefits will be accrued not just two 2 models companies.

this is the only other viable competing narrative to communist-UBI vision Dario painted in his essays.