Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In this recent batch talk, YC General Partner Tom Blomfield breaks down how to build a self-improving company using AI. He'll cover how to create a series of recursive, self-improving AI loops and explain why the founders who get this right will run companies that can improve while they sleep.
Chapters:
00:00 — Companies Are Roman Legions
00:54 — Copilots Are the Wrong Mental Model
01:55 — Extract the Domain Knowledge
02:24 — The Recursive Self-Improving Loop
04:12 — The Holy Shit Moment at YC
05:50 — Self-Optimizing Product and Support Loops
06:29 — Burn Tokens, Not Headcount
07:23 — Middle Management Is Over
08:05 — Make Everything Legible to AI
09:40 — Regenerating the YC User Manual
11:19 — Software Is Ephemeral, Context Is Valuable
12:18 — Where Humans Still Matter
Apply to Y Combinator: ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: ycombinator.com/jobs
In this recent batch talk, YC General Partner Tom Blomfield breaks down how to build a self-improving company using AI. He'll cover how to create a series of recursive, self-improving AI loops and explain why the founders who get this right will run companies that can improve while they sleep.
Chapters:
00:00 — Companies Are Roman Legions
00:54 — Copilots Are the Wrong Mental Model
01:55 — Extract the Domain Knowledge
02:24 — The Recursive Self-Improving Loop
04:12 — The Holy Shit Moment at YC
05:50 — Self-Optimizing Product and Support Loops
06:29 — Burn Tokens, Not Headcount
07:23 — Middle Management Is Over
08:05 — Make Everything Legible to AI
09:40 — Regenerating the YC User Manual
11:19 — Software Is Ephemeral, Context Is Valuable
12:18 — Where Humans Still Matter
Apply to Y Combinator: ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: ycombinator.com/jobs
