Jun 23, 2025 · 55m · tbpn
We Interviewed the Best Startups From YC Demo Day (June 2025)
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Filmed live at Y Combinator Demo Day, this broadcast features YC CEO Garry Tan and a selection of standout founders demonstrating breakthrough startups in AI agents, physics-informed simulation, generative robotics, user research, education, and mobile app creation.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Daniel directly refutes the common criticism that AI grading is pointless when students also use LLMs, asserting that students genuinely seeking to learn need faster feedback loops.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 46:40 John challenges the utility of AI grading AI outputJohn frames the contemporary homework workflow as an absurd loop where teachers generate prompts with ChatGPT, students answer with ChatGPT, and teachers grade with ChatGPT.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 2:34 Gary Tan shares startling demographic and labor market shiftsGary informs the hosts that YC applications from 18-to-22-year-olds surged by 110% alongside an unexpected spike in CS graduate unemployment relative to humanities majors.
The host holds their own ▶ 36:39 John demonstrates deep mechanical engineering simulation knowledgeJohn breaks down physics ML by referencing computational fluid dynamics, airfoil drag calculations, and inference speedup over deterministic physics equations.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gary Tan on YC Batch Metrics, AI Trajectory, and Founder Agency | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | John and his co-host converse easily with Gary Tan about batch growth metrics and non-GAAP revenue definitions. Gary educates the hosts on macro trends, including a 110% surge in young applicants and surprising CS graduate unemployment statistics. | |
| Agentic Search and High-Scale Recruiting with Plato AI | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | The hosts interview Plato AI's founders on agentic search and recruiting economics. John probes their parallel query architecture and pricing structure, while the founders explain how they index 200M profiles efficiently. | |
| Outset on Scaling Qualitative User Research with AI Moderators | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Aaron Cannon outlines how Outset conducts scaled qualitative interviews. John shows strong familiarity with enterprise research dynamics, Azure model routing, and comparing Outset to traditional expert networks like GLG. | |
| Godella on Physics-Informed Machine Learning for Engineering Simulations | 7 | 5 | 1 | 2 | John demonstrates impressive domain knowledge in computational physics, specifically citing reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and drag modeling. The founders explain their mesh encoding approach. | |
| Morpho AI on Generative Software for Custom Robot Hardware Design | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | The hosts discuss Morpho AI's generative robotic design tool. John asks insightful questions about the OEM ecosystem versus integrators, while the founders explain why simulation-trained models are necessary due to lack of real-world CAD log datasets. | |
| Vibegrade on In-Workflow AI-Assisted Grading and Student Feedback | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | John pushes back on the premise of AI grading by pointing out the circular absurdity of students using ChatGPT to write essays and teachers using AI to grade them. The founders defend the system by highlighting the importance of actionable feedback. | |
| Bloom on Instant Native Mobile App Creation and Distribution | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | John demonstrates strong technical intuition by immediately identifying that Bloom leverages iOS App Clips to bypass App Store distribution friction. The hosts playfully tease the founder during an initial AirDrop demo glitch. |