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Hack Reveals the A16Z-Backed Phone Farm Flooding TikTok with AI Influencers
5 months ago
- Doublespeed, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), uses a phone farm to manage AI-generated social media accounts for product promotion.
- The company was hacked, revealing undisclosed advertisements and allowing the hacker to control over 1,000 smartphones powering the operation.
- The hacker reported the vulnerability to Doublespeed on October 31 but still retains access to the backend and phone farm.
- Doublespeed has not responded to requests for comment regarding the hack.
- The article is for paid members, offering ad-free access and bonus content, with limited free access available.
Hightouch (YC S19) Is Hiring
5 months ago
- Hightouch is a Series C startup focused on growth for customers, business, and employees.
- Core values include ambition, kindness, efficient execution, compassion, impact-driven work, raising the bar, and humility.
- Offers competitive compensation, equity, 401k/retirement plans, flexible PTO, health benefits, parental leave, and professional development support.
- Remote and in-office work options available in San Francisco, NYC, Charlotte, and London with perks like free lunches and commuter benefits.
- Open positions span Customer Success, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, and more across various regions.
- Recognized as America’s #3 best startup employer by Forbes.
Keystone (YC S25) is hiring engineer #1 to automate coding
4 months ago
- Keystone is building AI-native error monitoring to automatically investigate and fix production issues.
- The company aims to free engineers from debugging tasks, allowing them to focus on product design and user understanding.
- Located in SoMa, San Francisco, Keystone has raised $5.2M in seed funding from notable investors and early design partners like Perplexity and Lovable.
- The role is for the first engineering hire, offering significant ownership over product, culture, and technical direction.
- Example projects include working on the core product with the founder.
- Ideal candidates should have experience with TypeScript, React (Next.js), Python, Postgres, Redis, and AWS.
- Compensation includes top salary, significant equity, full health benefits, meals, and an equipment budget.
- Hiring process involves 2-3 short technical interviews followed by an onsite project and culture fit assessment.
Manus AI 100M USD ARR
4 months ago
- Manus has achieved $100M in ARR within eight months of launch, making it the fastest startup to reach this milestone.
- The company's total revenue run rate exceeds $125M, including usage-based and other revenue streams.
- Manus has been growing at over 20% month-over-month since the release of Manus 1.5.
- Launched the first General AI Agent, processing over 147T tokens and creating 80M virtual computers.
- Introduced Context Engineering for AI Agents, now an industry standard.
- Developed innovations like Wide Research and mobile applications from natural language.
- Raised $75M in funding led by Benchmark before launch.
- Currently employs 105 people across Singapore, Tokyo, and San Francisco, with plans to open an office in Paris.
- Hiring across all teams in all four offices.
Marissa Mayer's new startup Dazzle raises $8M
4 months ago
- Marissa Mayer shuts down Sunshine to launch Dazzle, an AI personal assistant startup.
- Dazzle raised $8 million in seed funding at a $35 million valuation, led by Kirsten Green.
- Investors in Sunshine received 10% equity in Dazzle after Sunshine's dissolution.
- Sunshine struggled with privacy concerns and failed to gain traction despite Mayer's high profile.
- Mayer aims to build a product with significant impact, drawing from her experiences at Google and Yahoo.
- Dazzle is expected to launch early next year.
Sauron, home security startup, plucks CEO out of Sonos
4 months ago
- Kevin Hartz and Jack Abraham founded Sauron in 2024 to create a military-grade home security system for tech elites after personal security failures.
- Sauron raised $18 million from investors including Flock Safety, Palantir executives, 8VC, Atomic, and A*.
- The startup combines AI-driven intelligence, advanced sensors (LiDAR, thermal imaging), and 24/7 human monitoring by ex-military/law enforcement.
- New CEO Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, former Sonos CPO, is finalizing product details, delaying the launch to late 2026.
- Sauron targets premium customers first, focusing on deterrence and reducing false alarms, with plans to expand to 'mass premium'.
- The product includes camera pods with multiple sensors, AI software, and a concierge service for threat detection.
- Privacy concerns are addressed via a trust-based system for authorized access and license plate detection for suspicious activity.
- Sauron plans a Series A raise in mid-2026, focusing on sustainable growth and premium service quality.
- High-profile crimes, like the $11M crypto robbery in San Francisco, highlight demand for elite security solutions.
- Bouvat-Merlin emphasizes listening to the team and building credibility while finalizing Sauron’s strategy and product roadmap.
My role as a founder-CTO: year 8
4 months ago
- RevenueCat received a serious acquisition offer in 2024 but ultimately decided not to sell, valuing long-term growth over immediate financial gain.
- The company adapted to industry changes by expanding its definition of 'developer' to include 'vibe coders' and less technical builders.
- RevenueCat focused on hiring, culture, and delegation, with significant efforts in strengthening engineering teams and leadership.
- The founder CTO reflected on personal and professional growth, including meeting goals like shipping an app, networking, and maintaining exercise routines.
- New initiatives like the Office of the CTO (OCTO) were launched to foster innovation and tackle zero-to-one projects.
- The company faced challenges like hiring velocity stalls and early team reassignments but learned valuable lessons in the process.
- Personal reflections included the importance of family support, managing energy levels, and the therapeutic value of weekly company emails.
- Looking ahead to 2026, RevenueCat aims to become a multi-product company with a new backend architecture and continued focus on high-leverage activities.
GoGoGrandparent (YC S16) Is Hiring Tech Leads
4 months ago
- GoGoGrandparent is a digital caregiving platform for older and disabled adults, offering concierge services like rides, meals, and medication management.
- The company is profitable, YC-backed, and fully remote, with a mission-driven team focused on independence for seniors.
- Hiring a Full Stack Tech Lead (remote, US timezone, $100k-$200k) to guide engineering, manage sprints, and oversee deployments.
- Tech stack includes Node.js, TypeScript, MySQL, Vue.js (nice to have), and AWS/Docker (nice to have).
- 6+ years of professional experience in Node.js and Vue.js required.
- GoGoGrandparent addresses challenges seniors face with self-service apps like Uber/Lyft, simplifying ride management.
- The company aims to expand as a 'management layer' for aging-related difficulties, promoting independence.
- Demographic shifts will increase demand, with 11M seniors expected to stop driving in the next decade.
- Early-stage joiners will have significant impact on a growing user base, shaping the future of elder care.
Show HN: MVP Guide for Startup Founders
4 months ago
- Define the problem clearly by identifying who has the problem, how they currently solve it, and why it's painful.
- Pick specific target users, avoiding broad categories like 'everyone'.
- Focus on one user, one flow, and one measurable outcome to validate your MVP.
- Build a landing page with a clear headline addressing the pain point and a call-to-action.
- Set up feedback loops by talking to users weekly and tracking 1-2 key performance indicators.
- Understand what an MVP is: solving for one user, one flow, and one outcome.
- Learn from real examples like Dropbox (used a video and waitlist) and Airbnb (started with renting their own apartment).
- Avoid common MVP mistakes such as building too many features, skipping user research, perfectionism, and ignoring distribution.
- Download a free MVP checklist to validate key items before building.
- Consider professional help if needed, with guarantees like first paying customer in 90 days.
Trellis AI (YC W24) is hiring engineers to build AI agents for healthcare access
4 months ago
- Trellis builds and deploys AI agents to streamline healthcare processes like document intake, prior authorizations, and appeals.
- The company operates in all fifty U.S. states, processing billions in therapies annually.
- Trellis is a Stanford AI Lab spinout, backed by investors like YC, General Catalyst, and executives from Google and Salesforce.
- Employees at Trellis work on impactful projects at scale, engage directly with customers, and have extreme ownership over their work.
- The team includes top talent from various fields, including physics, economics, and AI education.
- Trellis has seen rapid growth, with a 10x revenue increase in recent months and significant market share in specialty healthcare.
- The company develops agentic frameworks for healthcare decision-making, 24/7 AI co-workers, and production-grade AI systems.
- Job requirements include full-stack development experience, expertise in Python/Go, ML/NLP libraries, and cloud platforms.
- Trellis's AI agents reduce time to treatment by over 90%, improve approval rates, and cut administrative costs in healthcare.
- Administrative costs in U.S. healthcare exceed 20%, causing delays and burnout—Trellis aims to solve these issues.
5 Years, 12 Pivots
4 months ago
- Co-founders navigated 12 pivots over 5 years without hating each other.
- Initial pivots included an online coding bootcamp, interactive Twitch ads, SDK for multiplayer games, and more, all without success.
- Entered YC with Gloo, a voice-first Slack/Discord competitor, but lacked founder-market fit.
- Post-Gloo, pivoted through ideas like Clerk for API Keys and AI-powered drive-thrus before settling on custom embeddings.
- Despite growing revenue with custom embeddings, felt uneasy and pivoted again to BAML, a programming language for LLMs.
- BAML faced initial skepticism but gained traction with features like type safety, easy debugging, and multi-language support.
- By 2025, BAML saw significant growth, including 7k GitHub stars, 2.4k Discord members, and adoption by Fortune 500 companies.
- Future goals include reaching 10,000 Weekly Active BAML developers and introducing Turing completeness.
IcePanel (YC W23) is hiring full-stack engineers in Vancouver
4 months ago
- Salary: $170,000 CAD + quarterly profit-share bonus (~$30k-$40k last year)
- Additional compensation: 1% equity, unlimited holiday, health benefits
- Role involves full ownership of building new features from design to maintenance
- Responsibilities include frontend UI/UX, backend API/data design, infrastructure changes, and bug fixes
- Company is building a collaborative diagramming tool for software architects
- Small, profitable team from YCombinator W23 with $4M CAD ARR
- Core values: independence, simplicity, transparency, humility, and fun
- Work setup: hybrid (in-person Tues-Thurs in North Vancouver), not fully remote
- Perks include equity, profit-sharing, flexible work, unlimited holiday, health benefits, learning/conference budgets, team retreats, and quirky benefits like Hot Dog Wednesdays
You can now reserve a hotel room on the Moon for $250k
4 months ago
- GRU Space announced plans to build advanced lunar habitats, including a hotel inspired by San Francisco's Palace of the Fine Arts.
- The company is accepting deposits ($250,000–$1M) for early lunar missions, targeting launches within six years.
- Founder Skyler Chan, a recent UC Berkeley graduate, leads GRU Space with a vision for lunar tourism.
- Chan believes enabling mass space travel is the most impactful endeavor, driving his studies in engineering and computer science.
- Despite skepticism, lunar tourism is seen as a viable long-term commercial activity on the Moon.
Show HN: SnackBase – Open-source, GxP-compliant back end for Python teams
4 months ago
- Open-source Python backend with immutable audit logs, GxP compliance, and row-level security.
- Instant APIs: Define data schema and get fully functional CRUD REST APIs without boilerplate.
- Multi-tenancy support with complete data isolation, ideal for SaaS applications.
- Enterprise security features: RBAC, field-level permissions, OAuth, SAML, and audit logs.
- Quick setup in 5 minutes with no credit card required.
- Includes SnackBase Admin UI with multi-tenancy and audit logs out of the box.
- Collections & Schemas: Define data models with simple schema syntax for validation and auto-generated APIs.
- Permissions Engine: Fine-grained access control at collection, record, or field level.
- Built-in authentication support for OAuth (Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Apple) and SAML.
- Extensible with custom hooks, macros, and business logic in Python.
- Quick Start in 3 Steps: Install, define data, and start building with auto-generated APIs or React Admin UI.
Nao Labs (Open-Source Analytics Agent, YC X25) Is Hiring
4 months ago
- nao Labs is building an open-source AI agent for data analytics.
- They are an early-stage startup, part of Y Combinator Spring 2025 batch and STATION F, based in Paris 11.
- They have an existing product, an AI IDE for data teams, used by 100+ teams, and are launching a new open-source analytics agent.
- Looking for a founding engineer to help build the new product.
- The team has 18+ years of experience in data/AI.
- The role involves inventing a new way to work on data with AI.
- Technologies used include React, Typescript (Front), node.js, Python (Back), and Vercel, OpenAI, Anthropic (Agentic system).
- Offers competitive salary + early equity, flexible start date, mainly on-site in Paris 11 with remote options.
- nao Labs aims to reimagine data work with a specialized AI-powered code editor for data workers.
Jiga (YC W21) Is Hiring Full Stack Engineers
4 months ago
- Jiga connects engineers with vetted manufacturers to streamline sourcing.
- The platform handles quoting, communication, and AI workflows, reducing weeks of work to hours.
- Jiga emphasizes transparency, sharing revenue, valuation, and roadmap with team members.
- Remote and async work culture with annual team offsites for bonding.
- Performance-based work culture without micromanagement or busy-work.
- Commitment to delivering exceptional customer experience.
- Fast decision-making with autonomy given to those closest to the problem.
- Cashflow positive with 3x YoY revenue growth, avoiding desperate fundraising.
- Culture of accountability and proactive problem-solving.
- Focus on hiring top talent and shipping products quickly for iterative learning.
Raising money fucked me up
4 months ago
- The author quit their job to start their own business with a co-founder, Pedrique, after working on a project together for over six months.
- Initially, the author wanted to bootstrap the business but had to raise VC funding due to Pedrique's financial constraints.
- They successfully raised funds from four angel investors, including former bosses, and partnered with Broom Ventures.
- After launching an open-source project, they struggled with monetization and faced internal pressure to grow faster.
- The author reflects on the psychological impact of investor expectations and personal insecurities about failing as a founder.
- They realized they were prioritizing growth over solving real problems, leading to counterproductive decisions.
- The post emphasizes the importance of staying true to one's process and not comparing progress to other startups.
- The author shares personal struggles publicly as a way to stay authentic and hopes their story helps others reflect on their entrepreneurial journeys.
How YC-backed Bucket Robotics survived its first CES
4 months ago
- Bucket Robotics CEO Matt Puchalski drove 12 hours in a rented Hyundai Santa Fe to ensure their booth setup at CES 2026 despite bad weather.
- Bucket Robotics, a YC-backed startup, focuses on automating quality inspections for surfaces using advanced vision systems, eliminating the need for manual labeling.
- The company generates simulated defects from CAD files to train its vision software, enabling quick defect detection on production lines without additional hardware.
- Bucket Robotics attracted interest from automotive and defense sectors, positioning itself as a dual-use company.
- Puchalski, with a background in autonomous vehicles at Uber and Ford, leveraged his industry connections during CES.
- The startup's CES experience was intense but fruitful, leading to follow-up discussions with potential customers and investors.
- Puchalski emphasized that automating surface inspections doesn't threaten jobs but addresses a long-standing industry challenge.
Channel3 (YC S25) Is Hiring
3 months ago
- Channel3 is building a database of every product on the internet using AI to structure messy product data.
- Their vision includes becoming a central node for agentic commerce, similar to Stripe for payments or Plaid for fintech.
- The problem they address is the inconsistency and inaccuracy of product data, which bottlenecks agentic commerce.
- McKinsey estimates the US B2C retail market could see up to $1 trillion in orchestrated revenue from agentic commerce by 2030.
- The team consists of experienced engineers, including Alex (CEO) and George (CTO), with backgrounds in AI and big data.
- Channel3 has indexed over 100M products, has 1500+ developers using their API, and is scoping pilots with enterprise customers.
- They are looking for engineers to help understand and deduplicate products, build world-class search, and optimize for reliability and cost.
- The company raised a $6M seed round in August 2025, led by Matrix with participation from Ludlow, Y Combinator, and others.
- They work in-person in their Flatiron office Monday through Friday, with flexible weekend work expectations.
- Channel3 offers a fast-moving, fun work environment with direct ownership of technical decisions and a clear monetization path.
My first year in sales as technical founder
4 months ago
- Technical founder shares first-year sales experience, emphasizing the importance of paying customers.
- Transition from low-end B2B marketing to high-touch sales process improved customer relationships and revenue.
- Discusses the 'agency trap' and the risks of over-customizing solutions for individual clients.
- Importance of identifying an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) for targeted and effective sales efforts.
- Sales funnel breakdown: TOFU (Top-of-Funnel), MOFU (Middle-of-Funnel), BOFU (Bottom-of-Funnel) with key stats.
- LinkedIn cold outreach highlighted as a valuable tool for finding high-intent leads.
- Tips on conducting sales calls: being genuine, asking questions, and using tools like Calendly.
- Sales as a feedback loop for business optimization and personal growth.

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#startup

Hack Reveals the A16Z-Backed Phone Farm Flooding TikTok with AI Influencers

Hightouch (YC S19) Is Hiring

Keystone (YC S25) is hiring engineer #1 to automate coding

Manus AI 100M USD ARR

Marissa Mayer's new startup Dazzle raises $8M

Sauron, home security startup, plucks CEO out of Sonos

My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

GoGoGrandparent (YC S16) Is Hiring Tech Leads

Show HN: MVP Guide for Startup Founders

Trellis AI (YC W24) is hiring engineers to build AI agents for healthcare access

5 Years, 12 Pivots

IcePanel (YC W23) is hiring full-stack engineers in Vancouver

You can now reserve a hotel room on the Moon for $250k

Show HN: SnackBase – Open-source, GxP-compliant back end for Python teams

Nao Labs (Open-Source Analytics Agent, YC X25) Is Hiring

Jiga (YC W21) Is Hiring Full Stack Engineers

Raising money fucked me up

How YC-backed Bucket Robotics survived its first CES

Channel3 (YC S25) Is Hiring

My first year in sales as technical founder