Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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In this presentation from Startup School Paris, Y Combinator General Partner Tom Blomfield shares findings from his research on how companies are being built with AI infrastructure placed in from the start.

Apply to Y Combinator: ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: ycombinator.com/jobs

Chapters:

00:00 — Intro
01:53 — Why Roman Legions Built Your Org Chart
03:56 — Humans as the Bottleneck
05:28 — What a Real AI Loop Looks Like
07:51 — The Data Agent That Changed Everything
08:39 — The Self-Improving System
10:32 — Office Hours → Living User Manual
12:22 — The AI Employee With a VM
14:08 — What "Company Brain" Actually Means
15:52 — Humans at the Edge
17:44 — Burn Tokens, Not Headcount
18:29 — Make Everything Legible to AI
19:29 — Simulating Investor Calls