Olivier Godement

Today Stripe is announcing the acquisition of our portfolio company Privy. We originally partnered with 🏕️ Henri Stern and Asta L. in the Seed Round (co-lead with Sequoia Capital in 2021, and have invested in every round since then (joining Paradigm and Ribbit Capital as they led later rounds). Henri’s reputation as a crisp intellectual and rigorous executor from his days at Protocol Labs made us pay attention when we heard he was going to build a new company, and meeting his co-founder Asta gave us the conviction that this was going to be an n of 1 team for the mission. Supporting 75 million accounts, over 1,000 developer teams and billions of transactions - Privy is a key enabling fabric for a plethora of crypto rails-based applications. We are ecstatic for the team, and have been in awe of their execution quality, drive and tenacity that powered them through the inevitable dark hours that arise on any entrepreneurial journey. While discussing the merits of partnering with Stripe together, Henri said something to us that stuck: “it’s not a finishing line–it’s a starting line” - because Privy has also built a core pillar for the future adoption of stablecoins and the enablement of new financial applications. Teaming up with Stripe and working with the Bridge team, will allow Privy to tap into one of the internet's largest ecosystems to further execute on their vision. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gsKppP-y It has been an honour to be on this journey together with Max Segall, Shaun Maguire, Meyer "Micky" Malka, Matt Huang, Caitlin Pintavorn, Electric Capital Avichal Garg, Archetype Ash Egan, Protocol Labs, Box Group, Coinbase Ventures, Joe Lallouz, Juan Benet, Molly Mackinlay, Brad Burnham, Jutta Steiner, Diogo Mónica, Sina Habibian, P Gelenbe, Alexander Lange, Garry Tan, Nicholas Chirls, Charlie Songhurst and many others!

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Another AI company from the Maki.vc portfolio finally out of stealth! 🔥 Impressive “heads down building” so far: Ever – the first AI‑native platform for auto retail – exits stealth with a $31M Series A, bringing total funding to $100M across equity and debt. After leading the seed in summer 2024, we’re excited to continue our support in this round led by Eclipse, Ibex Investors, JIMCO (Jameel Investment Management Co.), Illusian, Joint Effects, Alumni Ventures, Lifeline Ventures, Failup Ventures & APL Ventures. Vertical AI will create multiple kinds of category winners – not just pure software companies, but real-world companies where AI and embedded intelligence form the foundational infrastructure and the core of their execution. Ever is taking on the massive $1.2T U.S. auto retail market and rebuilding the auto retail model from the ground up with its AI-native, full‑stack approach. Ever’s AI operating system automates and orchestrates many of the workflows and hundreds of steps required across sourcing, pricing, merchandising, sales, vehicle operations, and more. This helps Ever solve for the complexity and fragmented operations in auto retail, enabling significant performance gains. Customers might not “see the AI,” but they experience a superior customer journey – faster, more flexible, transparent, and affordable. The team is executing this vision in the real world, with live operations in San Francisco and customers across 40 states, seamlessly spanning online and physical experiences. It’s been a privilege to partner early and work alongside the brilliant founders Lasse-Mathias, TJ Casner, Maximilian and team for the past 1.5 years. As Ever scales rapidly, we are actively recruiting more exceptional talent – particularly in engineering – to join the mission of building the next‑generation auto retail platform. Let’s go! 🔥

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When founders think of their next idea, who they call? Their founder friends. They want to hear feedback, bounce off ideas, get their more experienced friends to join them as mentors or angels. This is how companies got started (and funded) in the original S16 Apartment. This is how I joined 20 founders as angel, including Miro and BORZO. Over the last 6 months, together with our friends at ellipsis we have been quietly building a virtual version of our apartment, where we match founders who are just starting out with superstars who have already made the journey multiple times. We call it Founders for Founders Hub. FFF Hub is the new kind of accelerator. There is no cash or equity commitments upfront. Mentors only get sweat equity if their founders raise a round at our demo day. There is progressive elimination that ensures the group can move super quick. We get a front seat to observe founders in action. More details below and at our freshly launched website! https://fff-hub.com

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🚀 YC-backed startup Central has raised $8.6 million in a seed round led by First Round Capital, with participation from Y Combinator and others, bringing its total funding to $9.1 million. Founded by Josh Wymer, Pranav Kashyap, and Nilay Modi, Central serves hundreds of startups and has processed over $75 million in payroll. Unlike traditional providers like Gusto or Rippling, Central operates as a conversational “teammate” in Slack, allowing users to message payroll and HR tasks that the platform then handles autonomously. With this funding, Central plans to expand its engineering and support teams, develop new features, and enhance integration with the startup ecosystem. 📖 Read the full story → https://lnkd.in/dZnvDSb4 #startup #funding #AI #HRtech #backoffice #payroll #Central #Slack

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12 non-dilutive grants, credits, and fellowships founders should know If you want to extend runway without giving up equity, these are worth bookmarking. Cloud credits and dev tooling Vercel Open Source Program • $3,600 in Vercel credits for open source projects • No equity, no strings • Also active in startup and AI accelerator ecosystems More info: https://lnkd.in/gGzyDDuX Google for Startups Cloud Program • Up to $100K in Google Cloud and Firebase credits in year one • Another $100K possible in year two • Includes training, technical support, and Workspace benefits More info: https://lnkd.in/g9Rd7xTg Early-stage cash grants 1517 Fund Medici Grant • $1,000 cash grant • Fully non-dilutive • Designed for builders and technical founders at the idea stage More info: https://lnkd.in/gmj45yR7 Afore Capital Grants • $1,000 equity-free funding • Backed by hands-on mentorship • Geared toward founders turning early ideas into conviction More info: https://grants.afore.vc/ Edge City Grants • Microgrants from $5K to $15K • Larger development grants up to $40K • Supports unconventional, early-stage innovation More info: https://lnkd.in/gFMuTupe Large fellowships and research funding Activate Fellowship • $100K personal stipend plus $100K R&D budget • No equity taken • Built for scientist-founders commercializing deep tech More info: https://lnkd.in/gEGhBfsA O'Shaughnessy Ventures Fellowship • $100K non-dilutive grant • Focused on ambitious, mission-driven builders • Broad support across tech and research More info: https://lnkd.in/g94ZXy-t 1752vc (Formerly Pegasus) Venture Fellowship • Hands on VC experience • Carry and payout opportunities More info: https://lnkd.in/gjYgd9dD Thiel Fellowship • $200K over two years • Equity-free • For founders 22 and under choosing to build instead of college More info: https://lnkd.in/gQQMsC-Z Astera Residency • $125K to $250K annual salary plus research budget • Zero equity • Full-time residency for founders working on frontier tech More info: https://lnkd.in/gTAzp7VV Da Vinci Fellowship • €150K grant • Non-dilutive • For engineers building high-impact technology in Europe More info: https://lnkd.in/gwbHd8xJ 776 Foundation Fellowship • $100K in non-dilutive funding over two years • Climate-focused • Open to founders ages 18 to 24 More info: https://www.776.org/

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The French YC Mafia has raised more than $221M in total funding. These YC founders are building from Paris and across France while keeping a very Bay Area style culture. Fast feedback loops, small teams, quick shipping cycles and a strong focus on product. The mix of YC speed and French craftsmanship shows up in the rounds they are closing. Using Crustdata’s People Search API and Funding API, we found the most funded YC companies with founders currently based in France: Photoroom - $75.3M - Matt Rouif, Eliot Andres Riot - $45M - Ben N. Finary - $40.9M - Mounir Laggoune, Julien Blancher Formance - $30.8M - Clément Salaün malibou - $9.2M - Maxence Drummond, Alexandre Pernin Bitstack - $9.1M - Alexandre Roubaud, Kabir Sethi Argil (YC S24) - $6.8M - Laodis Menard, Brivael Le Pogam Parallel - $4M - Paul Lafforgue, Thomas Sohet Did we miss anyone who should be in the French YC Mafia?

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Gabriel Jarrosson provides a sharp analysis of #YCombinator's structural pivot, framing it as a shift from founder advocacy to capital optimization. However, the most profound challenge lies even deeper, in the organizational and cognitive limits of the model itself. The core issue isn't just the incentive misalignment between 3-month and multi-year cycles. It's the attempt to solve a complex, multi-stakeholder coordination problem with a static, "lifetime" partnership structure. This assumes you can identify all "known knowns" at the outset and lock them into a permanent configuration—a model that collapses when dealing with the dynamic, emergent reality of a true ecosystem. As the ZYRO Hive planetary-scale governance clarifies, complex systems require a protocol for dynamic, context-driven alignment, not static, temporal alignment. The goal isn't to pick lifetime partners; it's to build a coordination layer where the right contributors—be they individuals, AI, or institutions—can be algorithmically verified and sovereignly aligned for a specific mission, then reconfigured for the next. This is the shift from a rigid "assembly line" model of venture formation to an adaptive "immune system" model. YC's move, while rationalizing their internal structure, highlights the fundamental tension: our 20th-century models of partnership are hitting their cognitive and organizational limits in a world that demands fluid, verifiable, and mission-specific coordination. #VentureCapital #OrganizationalDesign #Complexity #StartupEcosystem #Governance

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As a pre-seed VC, it is so necessary to wire and then get out of the way… But for the times when you need to be an on-call "fractional founder", and help portfolio founders with their 0 → 1 pains (PMF, recruiting, fundraising) — that is the best part of the job.

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YC 🤝 #AmTech   Y Combinator just published their most recent request for startups, and like last cohort, #AmTech is a dominant theme. Founders are flocking to build companies that matter for America: let's break down 5 categories that YC is calling for and how they intersect with #AmTech. –𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. Government is the premier driver of science in America, especially in fundamental like chemistry, biology, material science, and energy. The might of public-funded academia, the national laboratories, research orgs like the National Institutes of Health, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation (NSF), bolstered by AI can usher in a flood of powerful discoveries.    -𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. The public education prize is massive: 50 million K-12 students, with another 13.5 million in public colleges. Education is changing, AI has made that much clear: to build category-defining AI education companies and win the whole market, founders are going to have to navigate selling to government customers. (Starbridge can supercharge their efforts here).    -𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝗜. 67 million Americans are on Medicare and 72 million more are on Medicaid. Government as both a payor and a regulator has never been more influential on the future of healthcare. New innovations around administration (shoutout to Commonweal Ventures portfolio company Proximity Health), care navigation, care delivery, and personalization will be game-changers.    -𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘀. Many of the best immediate use cases for robots are in defense, construction, mining, and agriculture: four sectors where government is deeply involved. Leading robotics companies have more and more opportunities to partner with government partners that can validate their technology, finance their scaling, and procure en masse. -𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗜. Government answers an enormous amount of calls. We're seeing lots of companies tackling 911/non-emergency public safety calls. What about the long tail of other agencies picking up the phone? Voice AI is a new vector for governments to engage their constituents: expect both policy and political tailwinds for more transparent and efficient public services delivery.    Are you building in these spaces? We're investing. Get in touch. #VentureCapital #VC #YC

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What does it take to build a billion-dollar startup today? We just released a new report that sheds light on the evolving profile of unicorn founders — and the findings challenge many old assumptions. 📊 In The Anatomy of Greatness — based on analysis of 1,629 unicorns and 3,512 founders globally — we share data-driven insights on: ✨ Speed to unicorn — AI-enabled startups are hitting $1B valuations faster than ever 🌍 Global democratization of entrepreneurship — unicorns now emerge from 300+ cities in 45 countries 🎯 Changing founder profiles — younger founders, diverse geographies, and varied experience pathways 📉 Persistent gaps — only ~6% of unicorn founders today are women — showing there’s still much progress to make 🔁 Repeat founders & immigrants — both play a meaningful role in building value at scale This report isn’t just about what unicorn founders have — it’s about what they do, how they think, and how the ecosystem around them is shifting. 👉 Read the full article and download the report here: https://lnkd.in/d5BhPnrs

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Elevate Your Startup Journey with YC’s Seed Fundraising Guide Are you a founder gearing up to raise your first round of funding? Dive into YC’s Guide to Seed Fundraising! Penned by Geoff Ralston, President of Y Combinator, this guide is a must-read for any ambitious entrepreneur looking to navigate the intricate waters of seed funding. What Makes It Stand Out? This all-encompassing playbook distills wisdom from icons of early-stage investing: - Paul Graham: Co-founder of Y Combinator, the brain behind many successful startups. - Fred Wilson: A veteran from Union Square Ventures with unmatched insights. - Babak Nivi: Co-founder of AngelList and Venture Hacks, a powerhouse in startup funding strategies. - Sal Khan: Visionary Founder of Khan Academy, reshaping education. - Carolynn Levy: The innovator behind SAFE notes, revolutionizing startup capital raising. Each contributor infuses their expertise into this guide, making it an indispensable resource. What’s Inside the Guide? If you’re on the verge of raising your seed round, this guide will empower you to: - Determine the Right Timing: Understand the perfect moment in your startup journey to start raising. - Quantify Your Needs: Learn how to decide exactly how much capital you should aim to raise. - Screen the Right Investors: Identify investors who are the right fit for your vision and strategy. - Sidestep Common Pitfalls: Avoid typical traps related to valuation that could cost you. - Negotiate with Confidence: Equip yourself with the tactics to negotiate deals like a pro. - Document Prep: Master the essential documentation needed to secure your round efficiently. It’s a mini-MBA in early-stage financing, but without the unnecessary theories or hefty tuition fees. Think of it as a concise, actionable toolkit tailored for founders like you who are ready to take the plunge into the funding world. Why You Should Read It Now: Seizing the right funding opportunity can be pivotal for your startup’s success. With direct insights from the industry’s best, this guide promises not just to demystify the process but to empower you at every step. It’s not just information; it’s a roadmap to your startup’s success story! Ready to transform your fundraising journey? Discover the full guide and let your startup soar to new heights! Credit : Rubén Domínguez Ibar Repost by : Salem Bagami #Startup #Fundraising #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #YCombinator**

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I just read the latest piece on Y Combinator’s new startup “wishlist" which you can find here: https://lnkd.in/gxzfycaK Lists like this are always interesting. They give founders a window into where markets may be heading and where investors are paying attention. And for a lot of early builders, that kind of signal can be helpful. But it also got me thinking about the flip side, based on a conversation we had this morning with Aja Beckett and Tyler Blackwell. What happens when founders start with the idea… but haven’t lived the problem? No judgment in that question. Every founder starts somewhere. But startups are hard enough even when you have experienced the pain firsthand. When you haven’t, the learning curve gets steeper: • You’re learning about the customer while building the product • You’re validating the problem while pitching the solution • You’re earning trust while still understanding the workflow That’s a tough place to build from. It’s why “founder–problem fit” matters so much. Many of the most iconic companies backed by Y Combinator came from founders solving problems they knew personally: • Airbnb — needed help paying rent • Stripe — devs frustrated with payments • DoorDash — saw delivery gaps with local merchants That lived experience creates empathy, urgency, and product intuition that’s hard to replicate from the outside. There’s data to back that up. Research from Harvard Business School shows that founders with domain experience are more likely to succeed in that same industry. And according to CB Insights, the #1 reason startups fail is still a lack of real market need. Which says less about founder talent… and more about how hard it is to truly understand a problem from a distance. Startup idea lists are valuable. They spotlight opportunity. But the founders I see build the most durable companies usually start somewhere deeper… A frustration they’ve felt A system they’ve navigated A problem they’ve lived Because when the problem is personal, the commitment tends to be as well. And in startups, that kind of conviction matters.

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📣 I’m thrilled to share that Stackpack has raised $6.3M in seed funding to build the vendor platform for this new era. Our round was led by Freestyle Capital, with participation from Elefund, Upside Partnership, Nomad Ventures, Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures, Pythia Ventures, Layout Ventures — and senior operators who helped scale Intuit, Workday, Affirm, Snapdocs and xAI and all felt this pain firsthand. We started Stackpack in August 2023 with a simple but urgent belief: vendors are becoming just as important to a company’s success as its employees — but most teams still don’t have a real way to manage them. With AI tools popping up everywhere and budgets shifting to contractors and third-party platforms, vendor sprawl is getting out of control. Sensitive data is leaving the org, compliance risks are piling up, and surprise renewals are blowing up budgets. Finance and IT teams need better visibility, smarter guardrails, and way more control. So what are we building? Stackpack is the first intelligent Vendor Stack Management platform — a system of record that uses AI not just to surface cost and risk, but to act on behalf of the customer. Think: one place to track vendors, manage renewals, flag redundancies, and get instant answers like “How much did we spend on AI tools last quarter?” Just a few months in, we’re already managing: → 10,500+ vendors → $510M in spend → For 50+ fast-growing teams like Every Man Jack, Rho, ZeroEyes, Stride Health, and BizzyCar This raise helps us: ✅ Expand our core platform ✅ Launch new products like Requests & Approvals and an AI Vendor Intelligence Assistant ✅ Grow our world-class team 💫 I’m incredibly grateful to our founding team who got us to this milestone — Ken Brownfield, Richard Rugless, David Stokes, Kelli Wisuri — and to our employees, investors, and early customers for betting on this vision. We’re just getting started! Still wrangling vendors in a spreadsheet? Whether you’re a CFO, IT leader, or just someone tired of vendor chaos—DM me, I’d love to talk! Forever thanks to: David Samuel, Jenny Lefcourt, Maria Palma, Aaron Szekel, Ross Glasser, Nathan Rodland, Serik Kaldykulov, Kent Goldman, Christopher Nakutis Taylor, James Mumma, Zachary Kushel, Elizabeth Murphy, Mike Liberatore, James Barrese, Rob Pfeifer, Elizabeth A., Joseph Floyd, Zach Noorani, Kelli Lampkin, Artin DerSookias, Allison Canton, Aaron K.

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SF VC Takeaway #1: Vertical AI is back on the table, but with conditions. One clear shift I heard in SF on this trip: later stage investors are more receptive to vertical AI than they were even a year ago. Given Fika Ventures invests in vertical AI, I was excited to see this :) I think this is partially due to DeepSeek and realization last year that even foundational models can face stiff competition, but another big reason is hindsight. Several investors I talked with acknowledged they were underexposed to the vertical SaaS wave (especially seeing companies like ServiceTitan, Motive, BuildOps, etc.) and don’t want to repeat that mistake. That said, the enthusiasm is conditional. The excitement tends to come with the caveats around: 1️⃣ Market size (real expansion paths, not theoretical TAMs) 2️⃣ Whether the product compounds into a platform, not just a point solution 3️⃣ How durable the advantage is once incumbents respond (especially since the incumbents today are not stodgy old incumbents, they are often vertical SaaS businesses that move quickly and have distribution) In other words: vertical AI is becoming more a part of the zeitgeist, but it’s being evaluated with a sharper lens than just "industry plus AI equals big outcome.” While the interest is higher than ever, the scrutiny has also increased alongside it when it comes to later stage investment. Most of the time, this can be answered by asking if this category is big enough to justify a multi-billion dollar, standalone player. If not, downstream funding can be hard even with solid business metrics. I'll share 2 more VC takeaways this week on Thursday and Friday, and then next week I'll share my 3 operator takeaways. Stay tuned :) #verticalAI #venturecapital

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YC just published their Spring 2026 Requests for Startups. What stood out isn’t any single category; it it’s the pattern. • AI as infrastructure, not features • Small teams building ops-heavy businesses first • Verticalized marketplaces that generate proprietary data • Software born from real-world service execution • Automation that replaces coordination, not people This matters for us. Even though we’re now a Canadian corporation and no longer YC-eligible, the RFS is a clear external signal that the category we’ve been building in quietly for 18 months is now firmly in focus. Affordable ServiceTech didn’t start as “AI.” It started as a demand-side pain: affordability, quality, accountability. The infrastructure came next. The data followed. The artificial intelligence layer became inevitable. YC’s RFS doesn’t change our roadmap; it validates the timing. That’s why we’re opening our seed round in March. Not because we fit a ‘VC ready’ checklist, but because the market is finally speaking the same language our product already does. Learn more here https://lnkd.in/gP3b_DPM

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So pleased to be supporting you, Mathieu Nohet and Marie Rouquette, PhD! There are many reasons we’re excited to lead baCta's seed round - here's three: ✅ Founder–market fit. As a pair, you bring a rare combination of hard-earned entrepreneurial experience (including selling complex software into local government), deep scientific expertise in CRISPR and microbiome therapeutics, and a clear conviction that AI and synthetic biology will reshape how industrial ingredients are made. ✅ Scale of opportunity. Your vision is to build a global, AI-native industrial biomanufacturing platform. If successful, meaningful parts of the €100bn+ ingredients market can shift away from agriculture and petrochemistry toward a more predictable, low-carbon model. ✅ Early results. Starting with astaxanthin — a high-value red carotenoid with constrained supply — you’ve identified a compelling biomanufacturing wedge. The speed of strain improvement, scale-up evidence and early commercial signals make the progress to date hugely impressive for a company at this stage. Thanks so much to Clement Renault for the introduction.

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We just published our Call for Startups for H1 2026, covering the structural shifts and market opportunities we're tracking most closely. These themes reflect where we're allocating focus and resources over the next six months: ▪️ Compute Starts Acting Like a Commodity – Financial infrastructure for enterprises to hedge GPU capacity and manage compute risk like airlines hedge fuel. ▪️ The Edge Stack Diverges from Cloud – Memory, interoperability, and developer tools purpose built for edge AI deployments. ▪️ AI Infrastructure Shifts from Training to Orchestration – The software layer between models and real work, focusing on governance, cost optimization, and agent operations. ▪️ The Winners of the Infrastructure Supercycle Will Build for Efficiency – Data center innovations around power, water, construction speed, and networking as constraints tighten. ▪️ Energy Continues to be a Bottleneck for AI – Novel power architectures, grid participation, and energy storage solutions. ▪️ Critical Materials As a Constraint to Industrial Power – AI driven modernization across the mining lifecycle from exploration to processing. ▪️ The Legacy Factory Modernization Challenge – Retrofitting legacy manufacturing or building AI native facilities, including robotics and labor force multipliers. ▪️ Full Stack AI Disrupts Professional Services – Outcome based service firms in categories where software historically failed due to workflow fragmentation. ▪️ Infrastructure emerges for managing human-AI hybrid workforces – Platforms for routing work between humans and AI, performance management, and new employment models. ▪️ Acute Care Moves Into the Home – Infrastructure for delivering hospital level care at home via telehealth. ▪️ Medical Malpractice Litigation and Insurance Changes in the AI Era – New underwriting models and prevention layers as AI permeates healthcare. If you're building in any of these areas, we'd love to hear from you. Link to full in comments.

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Ten years in early-stage gives you a different lens. Wally Wang went through Y Combinator as an operator (Pebble) and has invested in YC startups since 2014 — across early-stage and corporate venture. When you’re watching innovation up close for a decade, you start to notice something: most “new” ideas are cycles… but timing and execution are what separates the winners. So, What’s one innovation you’ve watched evolve over the last 5–10 years that people still underestimate?

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