How To Get Your First UsersWhen you're starting out, it isn't enough to just build a minimum viable product. You also need a minimum evolvable product - one that can adapt to the needs of those critical early customers. Ankit Gupta offers an update to the classic MVP playbook. He'll outline strategies for getting your first customers, the power of adaptability and how feedback from early users will ultimately shape the future of your product and your company.
Inside Claude Code With Its Creator Boris ChernyA very special guest on this episode of the Lightcone! Boris Cherny, the creator of Claude Code, sits down to share the incredible journey of developing one of the most transformative coding tools of the AI era.
OpenClaw Creator: Why 80% Of Apps Will DisappearYou've probably already heard all about OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot/Moltbot). The viral sensation is an open-source AI assistant that runs on your own device, connects with messaging apps you already use, and goes beyond chat to actually execute tasks like managing your email, calendars, files, workflows, and more. Now meet the man behind it. YC's Raphael Schaad sat down with Peter Steinberger, the creator of OpenClaw, to discuss the "aha" moment behind the viral personal AI agent, why local-first agents could replace many of today's apps, and how personal agents will reshape the future of software.
The AI Agent Economy Is HereWith the takeoff of OpenClaw and MoltBook, a new agent-driven economy is taking shape. In this episode of the Lightcone, the hosts take a look at the explosive growth of AI dev tools and whether the time has come for builders to make something agents want.
Should you start a startup?Harj Taggar shares his advice on the types of people best suited to be startup founders and how to prepare to start a company in the future.
How to get and evaluate startup ideasJared Friedman shares a framework for how to get and evaluate startup ideas. He shares many examples of YC companies and the inside stories of how they came up with the ideas that turned into billion dollar companies. Even if you have an existing idea, this talk helps founders confirm that their idea is good and/or provide framework for a future pivot.
How Intelligent Is AI, Really?ARC-AGI is redefining how to measure progress on the path to AGI - focusing on reasoning, generalization, and adaptability instead of memorization or scale. During NeurIPS 2025 conference, YC's Diana Hu sat down with ARC Prize Foundation President Greg Kamradt to find out why most AI benchmarks fail, how ARC-AGI reveals the limits of today's models, and why measuring intelligence may be harder than building it.