Julien Chaumond

Where you build your startup matters — but not for the reasons people think. It's not really about the place. It's about the network. Your company itself is a network — of employees, users, investors. But it's also part of external networks: capital, talent, distribution... Early on, the game is about bonding nodes to your network: → Investors → Talent → Users → Press Once you gain momentum, it compounds. But early, bonding is hard — and proximity matters. You want to be close to capital. Close to talent. Close to the conversations shaping your industry. When you finally build inside the right network, it feels like swimming downstream. You realize you've been fighting headwinds all your life. Historically, big technology shifts have geographic centers: → Israel has world-class AI, DevOps, and DeepTech networks. Miami became a center of gravity for crypto in 2021. Today, the Bay Area is the center for AI: ~70% of AI venture funding goes to Bay Area companies ~49% of startup engineers live here Talent is eager to leave incumbents and join startups. The sheer volume of knowledge here is tripling startup speed. Great companies are built everywhere. But if you're serious about building a world-class company, go where the network is strongest. Full essay here: https://lnkd.in/epyxikav

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Agents & LLMs : YC is calling it out loud and clear... 1) Full-Stack AI – Don’t just sell software to incumbents - replace them entirely with AI-native companies. 2) Designer Founders – Design is a competitive edge. It’s time for designers to build, not just beautify. 3) Voice AI – Phone calls haven’t changed in 100 years. Voice bots are now indistinguishable from humans. 4) AI for Science – Bring AI into drug discovery, chemistry, and materials science to reshape physical industries. 5) AI Personal Assistants – Move from "to-do" lists to “done” lists. Let LLMs handle your tasks. 6) Healthcare AI – $1T+ wasted on admin. AI can fix broken workflows and connect siloed systems. 7) AI Tutors – Every learner deserves a personal tutor. AI can now deliver learning in an interactive, multimodal, and smart way. 8) Robotics Software – Robotics is on the verge of its ChatGPT moment. Build tools to make it real. 9) Future of Education – Reinvent how 1.5B students learn. AI can personalize and scale instruction like never before. 10) AI Home Security – Ring was just the beginning. AI can truly protect and personalize residential security. 11) Internal Agent Builders – Every employee will soon build their own AI agent. Who’s building the infrastructure? 12) AI Research Labs – It’s not just about quick products. YC backs deep, long-horizon AI research too. 13) Voice AI for Email – Your voice. Your inbox. On the go. Build assistants that actually do the work. 14) AI for Personal Finance – Democratize smart, unbiased financial advice. Zero-cost, personalized, and private. To look into this in a different way... 🧠 AI-First Infrastructure & Tools - Full-Stack AI Companies – Rebuild entire businesses - Internal Agent Builders – every employee automate their own work - AI Research Labs – Deep-tech R&D with long-term impact - Robotics Software Tools – next generation of intelligent robots 🎨 Creative & Product-Led Innovation - Designer Founders – Empower product designers to be founders - AI Personal Assistants – Assistants that learn your routines - Voice AI for Email – Use your voice to triage and respond 🏥 Healthcare & Science - Healthcare AI – Automate administrative bloat in the $4T U.S. healthcare system - AI for Scientific Advancement – Speed up research in chemistry, biology, and materials science 📚 Education & Learning - AI Tutors for Everyone – Personalized, multimodal learning for any topic - Future of Education – Reinvent classroom learning using LLMs 📞 Communication & Customer Experience - Voice AI – Replace outdated call centers with human-like voice agents 🏠 Consumer & Residential Tech - AI Home Security – Smart, AI-driven protection 💰 Finance & Wealth Management - AI for Personal Finance – Provide affordable, intelligent, unbiased financial advice at scale. Building with LLMs or agents? there’s never been a better time. https://lnkd.in/e9vCVrGf #startups #founders #entrepreneurs #YC #accelerators #application #AI

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new World of DaaS with my friend Fabrice Grinda . he’s invested in 1200+ startups and shares some wild insights on venture at scale:  🎯 going from 300 pitches → 1 investment/week  🎲 contrarian takes on AI valuations  🏦 how secondary sales generate most of his exits

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Deeptech founders have it tougher than most. When you’re building in AI, clean energy, healthtech or quantum, the playbook looks nothing like SaaS or consumer apps. ⚪ VCs don’t usually back you at the idea stage ⚪ Angels need to believe in YOU as much as the science ⚪ Grants sound like free money, but demand discipline and match funding As Chris Ellis at Innovate UK puts it: “Winning a grant is brilliant — but founders sometimes underestimate what comes next. Most Innovate UK grants require a contribution, and funds are drawn down retrospectively. Grants can be game-changing, but only if you go in clear-eyed.” So, how do you fund the journey from lab bench to a product people love, before VCs are even an option? The answer lies in aligning your fundraising strategy with the three earliest stages: Idea 👉 MVP 👉 MLP. — Curious to hear from anyone raising #deeptech right now — what’s been the toughest part for you?

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FRENCH TECH IS HEATING UP 🔥: Paris-based AI startup Nabla has raised $70m just 1 year after raising $24m! Founded by Alex LeBrun, Delphine Groll, and Martin Raison, Nabla is an AI startup disrupting medical care. It's essentially an AI copilot for doctors and other medical staff that helps clinicians generate notes in seconds through documentation, dictation, and real-time coding support. It's just raised $70m led by HV Capital, a year after raising $24m at a (rumoured) $180m valuation. The quality of french companies is insane right now: 🔥 Mistral AI: the open source LLM backed by Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst & Lightspeed 🔥 Hugging Face: the ML collaboration platform backed by Salesforce, NVIDIA & Google 🔥 Photoroom: the AI image platform backed by Balderton Capital, Y Combinator & FJ Labs 🔥 poolside: the software development AI backed by Bain Capital Ventures, NVIDIA & Harry Stebbings 🇫🇷

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Here’s data on how 98 YC companies are scaling to $100M ARR: A YC founder recently surveyed other founders anonymously, and one data point stood out: Conferences ranked as the #3 growth channel — even for startups. Not shocking… but still wildly underrated. Here’s the reality: It's simply an advantage to meet buyers in-person. - Deals move faster. - Trust forms instantly. - You win more over competitors that aren't there. - And the “cold” in cold outbound disappears the moment you shake someone’s hand. But every team hits the same wall. They meet 200+ people in 48 hours… …and remember maybe 5. Then you’re back at the hotel sorting through business cards, half-written notes, and mental reminders, hoping nothing slips through the cracks. That’s the exact problem we solve at Popl. If conferences continue to be a top growth lever (and they will), then capturing the context in real time matters. With Popl: - Scan a name + company from a badge, business card, or LinkedIn - Instantly enrich contact + company data (work email, phone, etc.) - Sync to your CRM in seconds - Trigger follow-ups while others are still waiting for lead lists - Convert voice notes to text so context is never lost Conferences create momentum. Systems are what compound it. Make events your best GTM channel. Book a demo with us: https://hubs.ly/Q03Y1HPc0

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Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan recently said that in about 25% of current YC startups, AI is writing 95% of the code. We’re in the endgame now — the marketing game. If building becomes faster and cheaper thanks to AI, the hardest part — and the key to success — will be how you position, brand and distribute. Here’s what I’m seeing: #1 Focus on niche markets: Go after $10M–$100M markets. Startups backed by traditional VCs usually skip these because they’re not aiming for a $1B market.But with AI, you can build quicker and leaner — which makes smaller markets not just viable, but strategic. #2 Build something that spreads on its own: You need a product with word-of-mouth energy — something that feels so cool, unique or personal people just share it.Think: lovable.dev, arcads.ai #3 Don’t stop at generic AI use cases: Support agent, email agent, sales agent — they’re good starting points, but crowded already. Use them as a playground, then go deeper. #4 Think ahead: what will AI agents need? When AI agents start running more and more workflows, they’ll need tools, data, services — their own ecosystem. Start building for them, not just for humans. (And no, not generic infra or monitoring — that’s already owned by the big players.) #5 Models will be commodities: So your edge? Marketing, UX, positioning, brand, niche. Just my 2 cents — what do you think?

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