Ker Lee Yap

Since the YC deadline to hear back for W25 is coming up next week, here’s the story of how we went from 2 students coding in an MIT dorm room to being full-time YC founders building Delve in SF. For all you founders anxiously waiting to hear back, just keep building — you’ll be successful regardless of the decision. -- In Fall 2023, my co-founder Karun Kaushik and I were studying AI at MIT and spending all of our free time building an AI medical scribe to help doctors. We had vaguely heard about YC from a friend who had just gotten accepted but had no plans of applying whatsoever. However when the YC deadline rolled around, we spontaneously decided to put in an application on the very last day. We spent that whole day in Karun’s dorm room typing up the application and filming all the required videos. We finally hit submit the minute of the deadline! By the next day we had already moved on. We went back to the usual rhythm of coding in the dorm room, calling with doctors, attending conferences, etc. If anything, we were even more motivated now to get more traction and be successful regardless. Later that week, while we were eating in the dorm kitchen, I noticed I got an email saying we had a YC interview scheduled. My heart rate spiked. I jumped up out of my seat and immediately told Karun. I never seriously considered YC, but for the first time it hit me that it might actually be a possibility. When the day of the interview rolled around, we did mock interviews with former YC founders and focused mostly on calming our nerves. More important than the actual content of the interview, we wanted to show our excitement for building and hacking together as co-founders. Unfortunately the interview caught us by surprise. The group partners didn't seem to care as much about our actual AI medical scribe. Instead, they seemed more curious about a side idea we had listed in our application that we wrote up in a day. The idea was about streamlining HIPAA compliance (since we had to go through HIPAA for our AI medical scribe). By this point, we were already seriously considering pivoting into this and had made a lot of progress on the idea. The YC interview was our tipping point Not too long after, we got an ominous email titled “YC.” We were freaked out. I could not sleep the entire night. Then, in the middle of class the next day, I got a phone call from Karun with Surbhi on the other end of the line. My heart rate spiked. I ran outside of the classroom. That turned out to be our acceptance call:) -- For everyone out there still waiting to hear back, just keep grinding. Build as if you’ve been rejected and you might just be pleasantly surprised. I’m also always here to help with mock interviews/give advice! We’ve helped a handful of friends through the YC app process and are always here to support other founders!

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🚨🚨 🚨 Unlocking Innovation: The Power of the Adjacent Possible Innovation programs can stall when the team tries to ideate way beyond their collective perspective and frame of reference. Like a software engineer brainstorming genetic modification of mycelia, or a senior executive ideating process improvements which they haven't been participated in for decades. It's challenging, exhausting, and ultimately self-defeating. Enter the concept of the "Adjacent Possible" - a game-changer for innovation. What is it? The Adjacent Possible, coined by Stuart Kauffman, represents the realm of new ideas within reach based on our current knowledge, resources, and capabilities. Why it matters: ➡️ Realistic Innovation: it focuses on achievable advancements, not far-fetched concepts. ➡️ Incremental Progress: each innovation opens doors to new possibilities. How to leverage it: • Constantly explore the boundaries of your adjacent possible. What's in your line of sight is what you know best. • Combine existing ideas in novel ways. Even small perturbations from status quo can generate large innovation leaps. • Stay curious about developments in adjacent industries. Cross-domain patterns create fresh sources of ideas, while also expanding the adjacent possible. Most of all, it takes the 'genius' pressure off the team. No one knows everything, but each one of us knows a lot about something, and we can all drive plenty of innovation potential by focusing on the spaces we know best. Are you exploring your Adjacent Possible? Share your thoughts below! 👇 #Innovation #innovationsystems #AdjacentPossible

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Everyone's talking about “founder mode,” but as it gains traction, founders will start using it as an excuse for poor management. Founder mode isn’t a license to run a company at 5,000 the same way you ran it at 5. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, exemplifies what I like to call “scaled founder mode”. Scaled founder mode is being highly involved in the most important things, that only you can do to drive the company forward. Nvidia is one of the most successful tech companies in the world, with a $3 trillion market cap. And Huang, with a 31+ year tenure, is the longest-serving CEO in the industry. He’s a highly effective manager. And he’s still very much in founder mode. When interviewed by Stripe's Patrick Collison, Huang said “CEOs are pinch hitters. We should be working on the things that nobody else can or nobody else is.” Nvidia’s leadership team of 60 reports directly to Huang. But he doesn’t do 1:1s. This way, the team of 60 is relatively flat, with no silos and no privileged access to information. Not saying that killing 1:1s is the answer to speedy execution. But Nvidia found that this way, everyone contributes to solving problems with equal access to important info. And because Huang sees his primary role as being a custodian of the culture, he eats in the cafeteria with employees every single day. At almost 30k employees, you can’t get much more “in the details” than that.

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Today, I found a fascinating way to think about “Tokens” in LLMs. It came from a conversation between Jensen Huang and Patrick Collison at a recent Stripe event. When asked about the future of compute capacity in five years, Jensen smartly dodged that question a bit, but then gave an excellent explanation and analogy about why tokens are the new forces that will power the next decades of humanity. He explained that we're now producing something unprecedented (and at scale): floating point numbers that possess “value”, which we now call tokens. These tokens are valuable because they encapsulate “intelligence”. People are now taking these tokens and transforming them into English, French, images, videos, chemicals, proteins, robotic movements, etc. And many are working hard to expand the range of concepts and ideas we can create with these tokens. He then goes on to made a compelling comparison between tokens and electricity. In the past industrial revolution, we successfully found a way to convert “atoms” into “electrons” (by boiling water to power electricity turbines). And now, we've discovered a way to convert "electrons" into "tokens" (by using energy to power data centers that train and run LLMs). When electricity was first introduced, few people understood its value. Today, paying for kilowatts is routine. The same will happen with tokens. Right now, only early adopters and builders are paying tokens. Soon, everyone will be paying for tokens on a daily basis to supercharge productivity and power new products and services. Many new industries will be born from and built on top of tokens. When I first heard about this way of thinking, I got goosebumps. Perhaps it’s because Jensen has a good storytelling skill that helps him sell what he builds, but I have to admit this way of thinking gave me a brief surge of pride. I'm proud of humanity's collective effort and creativity, which have taken us from living under rocks to building machines that can "think." That's nothing short but a miracle.

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The newest issue of The Pragmatic Engineer found a surprise uptick in eng hiring in the typically slow summer season - I'm curious to see how the macro environment impacts this uptick as we head into the fall, but I remain hopeful. I asked Gemini to give me the tldr of the article to share with my team (sorry, Gergely Orosz) and found it missed one of the most interesting pieces of the article. Gemini's highlights - Unexpected surge: Tech recruitment has seen an unusual spike in June and July, contrary to typical trends. Increased demand: Startups, especially AI-focused ones, are driving the hiring uptick. Global phenomenon: This trend isn't just limited to the US; Europe is also experiencing increased recruitment activity. Reasons for hiring: Companies are backfilling positions, investing in growth due to improved financials, and responding to increased VC funding. Challenges remain: While the job market is improving, finding qualified candidates and offering competitive compensation remains difficult for many companies. What I found most interesting - The nature of the backfills: the article finds that a lot of new headcount are actually backfills of folks that were "over-slashed" during rounds of layoffs. Not entirely surprising with the "trim the fat" and "rebuild lean" mentality, but interesting nonetheless. Either way, the uptick is encouraging (and don't always rely on Gemini's tldrs). #hiring #startups #VCbacked #softwareengineering

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waking up to a market that’s moving at supersonic speed. AI tokens are leading the way, breaking multiple levels as the bull run restarts. 🚀 but let’s not get ahead of ourselves - it’s a wild ride out there. NEAR Protocol bouncing back, Injective Labs showing promise, Bittensor (Opentensor Foundation) fighting resistance. these are exciting times for AI tokens, no doubt. but what’s driving this surge? and more importantly, how do we navigate it? at MC² Finance, we’re deep into this space, working on personalized portfolio insights and intent-based trading. we see the potential in AI tokens, but it’s crucial to approach with a clear strategy. it’s not just about jumping on the latest trend - it’s about understanding the fundamentals. this market is early, volatile, and full of opportunities. 🌍 my advice? stay informed, stay strategic, and always know your entry and exit points. these tokens could see massive gains, but they could also pull back just as quickly. don’t let the hype cloud your judgment - focus on the long-term vision. p.s. shoutout to the teams behind these projects - they’re pushing boundaries and redefining the space. it’s a tough job, but the innovation we’re seeing is nothing short of impressive. 💡 #Crypto #Tokenomics #AItokens #MC2Finance

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That wraps up #LATechWeek / Los Angeles TECH WEEK by a16z! 🌇 Grateful for the events I attended: 📍 Hustle Fund Angel Squad Meetup: discussed AI w/ Alex Khadiwala and how to wisely angel invest in startups w/ Jovian Chen and Anishek Kamal. Added Blue Ocean Strategies to my reading list courtesy of Cephas Sund, JD, MBA’s recc. 📍 Crafting Tomorrow: AI and Creator Economy Intersect - learned about how AI is used in creative industries + connect with Lancy Zhang of Beacons.ai 📍 So Cal Tech Networking Happy Hour, by WeAreLATech - talked about the creator economy + legal intersection w/ Jane Birman, real estate entrepreneurship, and head wiggling (you had to be there, it makes sense) and how to determine the next steps of careers+lives w/ Robert Resnik and ✨ Khayyam Wakil. 📍 Founders + Funders Power Walk, by Gen She - learning Lauren Fang’s adventurous experience founding a dental medical startup, Robyn Young's insights on helping companies craft fearless brand identity (and their new book coming up!), Kathryn Rucker’s fractional VP of Sales work all across the globe, and Katherine Shiao mindful wellbeing events venture in Seattle. Met with Shreya Kapoor, Audrey Linden, Samprikta Basu too! 📍 LATech Podcast Panel - learned about Chalsea-Blaze Chen’s Dim Sum-oriented socials (I'm underselling this - we got into a really fun discussion about Asian cultural representation in our professional lives just by way of simply getting Dim Sum as brunch), discussed data security with Linda Bella O'Hara AI/tech + VFX w/ Thomas Mathai, and met Gina Levy w/ their wellness platform Kinlia! Reflections: 🌱 Had to remind myself repeatedly “Quality over Quantity”: initially aiming to attend an event every day (tempting given the amount of interesting events) … And then I got exhausted 2 days in. 😅 Breaks are good! Having some days to reflect and rest (esp. since driving 1+ hour per way to Santa Monica area per day) helps me be present for the events I do attend. I’m also encouraging myself to take breaks mid-event, or even call the day early if I feel my energy slipping. 🌱 I walked away from this week feeling pretty set on what I want to pursue next in my career: I still want to continue aiming to be a stronger IC software engineer. That's what appeals to me the most: just building my technical and product development skills to be a better product builder. In other news, I’ll be planning to attend InfoQ's QCon SF this November as a volunteer! If y’all are in the area, let’s meet 😎

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Come join us tomorrow in SF to learn more about the latest updates to run AI workloads on Google Cloud!

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Well sequencer centralization is surely an issue. Maybe base can allow independent sequencers. Also if sequencers fail, can have a fallback mechanism to allow to submit onto Mainnet directly to remove reliance on the centralised sequencers.

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I’ve been keeping a running list on things I wish I knew or did while working in product before transitioning to founding Inari (YC S23) and here's the 2nd part! Note: this pic is me on our 1st day building in SF for YC. Smiling through how fun all the incorporation paperwork was 😂 Mastering growth and distribution 💌 I never truly internalized the adage “first time founders obsess over product and second time founders obsess over distribution” until we launched Inari for the first time last year and initially heard crickets. I hadn’t worked on growth in any of my prior roles and now I probably spend 60%+ of my capacity catching up, learning basic tactics, and experimenting with new channels for Inari. I think we could be much farther along if I had mastered in-product growth and activation tactics, had reps setting up outbound and SEO systems, and built a community and audience much sooner (I also never realized how fun engaging with people online could be 😄). No excuses not being “technical” in 2024 💻 If you’re considering working on a SaaS startup and you can’t code, just go and learn to. With the recent advances in LLMs and coding assistants, there’s literally never been a better time to learn to code, unblock yourself when you run into issues, and build an MVP. There’s nobody on the planet that will care about your product as much as you will. If you’re unable to be deep in the details, identify defects, and make fixes quickly yourself, then the overall clock speed and quality bar of your product will suffer. The quality expectations for ALL startups have increased over the last few years and it’s on you as a founder to keep that rigor and velocity extremely high, so being able to unblock yourself makes a world of difference. Managing your own psychology 🧠 Surprisingly, the toughest part when transitioning to founding was managing my own mental state. There’s a constant internal uncertainty on whether you’re building something that people actually want and spending time on the right priorities. Your view on finances also completely changes. Money used to be a resource I spent on fun discretionary spend but now money feels like “oxygen”. The stakes of each day feels much heavier when you feel like you’re running out of oxygen for your startup which you're pouring your heart into. Overall, be prepared for these internal influences before making the jump! That could be better carving out the right runway, validating your idea or building an MVP before leaving your job, or bumping up your skills around building and selling beforehand.

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🎯Data was, is, and will be the only fuel. Analogy with the fossil fuel is a good one, since the data we have today is as dirty as oil and coal. What big tech companies tried is to put a lot of "garbage" data, and what they did get was fantastic. Yet, we are at the point of diminishing returns. Data is the beginning and the end of this cycle.” Great thread, particularly this comment 👆from Ilija Lazarevic

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I’m incredibly excited to announce Goodfire Ember — the first hosted mechanistic interpretability API, with inference support for generative models like Llama 3.3 70B. This makes large-scale interpretability work accessible to the broader community and is already being used by partners like Rakuten, Haize Labs, and Apollo Research to improve model performance, increase security, and extract new understanding from models. We think this is the start of building a set of tools to accelerate alignment research, as well as unlocking a new development paradigm that harnesses the latent intelligence already present inside models. Try it yourself: https://lnkd.in/eVc34XD2. Read more about our launch: https://lnkd.in/erNbcTmG X thread: https://lnkd.in/ecPu5Mrt If you think aligning AGI is the most important problem in the world, we’re hiring at https://lnkd.in/gapupaYQ.

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A big part of getting into YC is recommendations by alumni. Don't know any YC alumni? Work at a YC startup. https://lnkd.in/gq67hQwN If you've helped YC founders achieve an exit, you've been given the best possible exposition of the YC way. With that experience under your belt and the blessing of the founders, you'll have a strong application to YC. If you want to do a startup, I would completely skip FAANG and just work at YC startups. At a FAANG, you will condition yourself in ways that make it very difficult to do a startup, that would take tens of thousand of dollars of therapy to undo. These are divergent paths.

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Want to do less prompting and apply a more systematic approach to solving hard tasks with language models? Check out our DSPy meetup May 1 in SF. Here's the agenda: 5:30 - 6:00 ▶ Arrival + Networking 6:00 - 6:30 ▶ Lightning talks by our friends at Weaviate and Cohere (along with Mikyo King) to help you understand how to pre-process data at scale, and diagnose & resolve common issues in both RAG and LLM technologies ​ 6:30 - 7:30 ▶ Hands-On Workshop with Stanford researcher Omar Khattab (he built the DSPy framework) 7:30 - 7:40 ▶ Delve deeper and interact with our speakers in Q+A ​ 7:40 - 8:30 ▶ More networking & Happy Hour Register: https://lu.ma/dspy

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🚀 Insights from Pathways to Tech Event #16 🚀 I recently had the privilege of attending the Pathways to Tech event, featuring an incredible lineup of industry leaders: Dennis Crowley - Founder of Foursquare ($150M Revenue) Tariq Afaq - First Engineer at AppLovin ($30Bn IPO) Julian Alvarez - Former SWE at Meta, CEO of Wisdolia ($20K+ MRR) Hamza Ali - CEO of Olostep (Hiring Headstarter Fellows) Erik - ML Engineer Intern at TRC, CS Creator with 75K followers Here are some of my key takeaways: 🔹 Dennis Crowley emphasized the power of team collaboration and the importance of creating emotionally connective products. His reflections on the role of software engineers in the AI age and the challenges of building a product with a potential exit in mind were particularly enlightening. 🔹 Julian Alvarez shared his journey from coding as a kid to founding Wisdolia. His advice on minimizing startup mistakes and focusing on specific user groups to drive business growth was truly inspiring. 🔹 Hamza Ali discussed the challenges of fine-tuning AI models and his mission at Olostep. His insights into using AI to enhance user experience were thought-provoking. 🔹 Tariq Afaq and Erik provided valuable perspectives on scaling tech companies and the role of personal motivation and growth in the tech industry. Favorite Speaker: Dennis Crowley’s discussion on the human elements of startups and impostor syndrome was particularly impactful. His focus on maintaining good health and staying updated with new tools resonated deeply with me. If you missed the event, you can catch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/d5-ZYukg Huge thanks to @ Headstarter for organizing this insightful event! 🙌 #TechEvent #PathwaysToTech #Foursquare #AppLovin #Wisdolia #Olostep #AI #Startups #TechIndustry #Headstarter

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One of the best things about being in San Francisco 🌉 is the ability to drop in on great talks. Last week I had a chance to see NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang (JH) being interviewed by Stripe's CEO Patrick Collison. Jensen is among the longest-serving founder-CEOs in Silicon Valley at the moment (30+ years). With that comes a special clarity of mind and some hot takes. 🌶👇 🗣 Jensen doesn't believe in 'praise in public and criticism in private'. Instead, he reasons that most information in the organization should not be privy to certain people. By giving feedback in public, you allow everyone to learn. 'What is better than learning from your own mistakes? It's learning from someone else's mistakes!!' 🔥 JH also doesn't like to fire people. He would rather "torture them into greatness". He invests in people and he doesn't like to write off his investments. 👨‍💻 Asked whether he likes his job every day, he answers "no". The perfect job doesn't give you happiness 100% of the time. "No great things were done, that were easy all the way." ... "Even if I come home from a day where I did things I didn't enjoy, it could still be have been a great day." 👩‍👧‍👦 Jensen famously has 60 direct reports. "This allowed us to cut out probably 7 levels of management". His subordinates don't necessarily have such large teams. "It doesn't scale down, less senior people need more guidance". Looking at the numbers, this approach allowed NVidia to reach ~2T market cap with ~28.000 people vs. Microsoft's 3T with ~220.000 people and Apple's 2.6T with 160.000 people. ❔ Jensen answers almost every question in the same way: "Let's break it down, let's reason about it". This is a great response on so many levels. First, it allows him to not be put on the spot. Second, it allows him to teach his workforce how he reasons through a problem so that they can emulate it and create alignment. Third, it gives people a chance to point out flaws in his reasoning. He admits he is not right all the time. ON AI 👨‍🔧 "You will not lose your job to AI, your company will go out of business because another company used AI." "If you're not using AI you're doing it wrong." ⏱ The extent to which AI will enter many processes is largely underestimated. Right now we are focused on language - sounds in a time sequence. "Any time sequence can be tokenized." This will include robotic movement. 🥛 JH also expects that we won't be satisfied with foundation models "You're going to want to tune it into perfection because you care so deeply. Say if it's already at 99% you'll want to get it to say 99.3%" This last piece is also why we created Query Vary (YC W22). AI will never feel truly intelligent until it completely understands your data and context. It needs to be taught, regardless of how powerful the foundation model is. Finally, besides insights, it was remarkable how funny Jensen was, cracking a joke at roughly a 1 per 3 min rate. It was a very entertaining talk. #ai #sf

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