YC Founder Stories

Sharath Kuruganty

Covering exclusively YC founders, the show offers life-changing stories, tactical growth insights, fundraising advice, tips on how to get into @ycombinator, and more.

Last refreshed: December 26th, 2025 at 3:08 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

Building a startup during COVID, selling a business, and marketing yourself: Ish Baid (Virtually, YC S20)

Today’s guest is Ish Baid from Virtually (YC S20), which was the first ever "Student Relationship Manager" for online schools to bridge the gap between educators and students. Ish previously worked at Facebook as a software engineer and is currently building Reflow AI, creating AI agents that build and run your HR tasks and workflows. Virtually was the first ever "Student Relationship Manager" for online schools to bridge the gap between educators and students. With Virtually, you could track at...

Feb 06, 2024•41 min•Ep. 6

Building a life-changing startup, making your own marketing, and rejection + conviction: Kathryn Cross (Anja Health, YC W22)

Today’s guest is Kathryn Cross from Anja Health (YC W22), which reimagines cord blood banking. Kathryn previously founded Bridge Strategy, a management consultancy helping early-stage businesses grow their Gen Z consumer base and worked at MIT Research Lab and Goldman Sachs. Anja Health is helping pregnant parents save the most personal source of stem cells - from their umbilical cord and placenta - to unlock future disease treatments. Offering cord blood banking, cord tissue banking, and placen...

Nov 06, 2023•24 min•Ep. 5

Arjun Mahadevan(doola, YC S20) - Building in a high-competition space, building in public, and educating customers!

Today’s guest is Arjun Mahadevan from doola (YC S20), a “Business-in-a-Box” for creators. Mahadevan previously worked at Dropbox as a Product Manager and started doola in 2020. doola (formerly StartPack) is a “Business-in-a-Box” for creators. We take care of everything creators need to form an LLC, set up their bank account, accept payments, and manage ongoing compliance and tax filings. We realized how difficult it was to set up the full stack of software and accounts you need to get a business...

Oct 03, 2023•42 min•Ep. 4

Gonzalo Espinoza Graham (Double, YC W23) - Building robots, seeing the future, and leveraging AI

Today’s guest is Gonzalo Espinoza Graham from Double (YC W23), a tool that makes it easy for sales teams to answer very specific questions about their prospects, the kind that ZoomInfo can't answer. Gonzalo’s previous companies include Ninja Delivery (acq. 2022) and Watfly. He is currently the co-founder of Double. Double makes it easy for sales teams to answer very specific questions about their prospects, the kind that ZoomInfo can't answer. We do this by searching the web and using LLMs to co...

Sep 13, 2023•43 min•Ep. 3

Neil Thanedar (Labdoor, YCW15) - When to take VC, the newest types of businesses, and 0 to 1 accelerators

Today’s guest is Neil Thanedar from Labdoor (YC W15), a marketplace where consumers research, find, and buy the best supplements. Neil’s previous companies include Avomeen (acq. 2016) and Air to All (501(c)3 nonprofit). He is currently the founder and solo GP at Utopic Ventures (pre-seed VC fund backing biotech startups led by scientist CEOs) Labdoor is a marketplace where consumers research, find, and buy the best supplements. To verify the purity and potency of these products, Labdoor first bu...

Aug 23, 2023•46 min•Ep. 2

Chris Frantz (Loops W22) - Unscalable marketing, unique outreach, fun onboarding: How Loops succeeded within Y Combinator!

Today’s guest is Chris Frantz of Loops , a simple and beautiful email-sending platform for SaaS companies. Chris’s previous companies include the recently sold Snazzy AI and he previously led marketing at Biteable and strategy at Curiosity. Loops is a simple and beautiful email-sending platform for SaaS companies. It includes a Notion-style block editor for email creation, a beautiful code editor based on VS Code, and pre-built loops for SaaS companies to snap in to increase their revenue and us...

Aug 16, 2023•34 min•Ep. 1

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