Hard Tech Companies, Then and Now

Lightcone, Garry, Diana, Harj and I talk about a number of YC’s hard tech companies and just how far they’ve come since Day 1. Below are just some of them - we cover these, and more, in the episode above.<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"/blog/content/images/2024/04/boom-then-now.png/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1537\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"/blog/content/images/size/w600/2024/04/boom-then-now.png 600w, /blog/content/images/size/w1000/2024/04/boom-then-now.png 1000w, /blog/content/images/2024/04/boom-then-now.png 1537w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 720px) 720px\"></figure>Boom Supersonic: Bringing supersonic passenger flights back to humanity. At left, the scale model they had before Demo Day; at right, their prototype jet taking its first flight in March of 2024.<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"/blog/content/images/2024/04/Relativity-then-now.png/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1537\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"/blog/content/images/size/w600/2024/04/Relativity-then-now.png 600w, /blog/content/images/size/w1000/2024/04/Relativity-then-now.png 1000w, /blog/content/images/2024/04/Relativity-then-now.png 1537w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 720px) 720px\"></figure>Relativity Space: 3D printed rockets. For Demo Day in the Winter 2016 batch, they managed to print a rocket engine — a small one, but one that could be fired up and produce thrust. In March of 2023, they launched the world’s first 3D printed rocket into space.<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"/blog/content/images/2024/04/Cruise-then-now-2.png/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1537\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"/blog/content/images/size/w600/2024/04/Cruise-then-now-2.png 600w, /blog/content/images/size/w1000/2024/04/Cruise-then-now-2.png 1000w, /blog/content/images/2024/04/Cruise-then-now-2.png 1537w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 720px) 720px\"></figure>Cruise: When Cruise applied to YC in 2014, Kyle Vogt’s goal of making a self-driving car seemed impossible for a startup. It would take billions of dollars — more than any startup can raise — and Google was already way ahead. By Demo Day, Cruise had a basic car able to drive itself down highways. In 2016, Cruise was acquired by GM for around $1B. GM then did in fact invest billions of dollars into the project, and Kyle brought it all the way to the streets of San Francisco. After knowing the full history, getting to ride to work in a Cruise car was a surreal experience.<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"/blog/content/images/2024/04/astranis-then-now.png/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1537\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"/blog/content/images/size/w600/2024/04/astranis-then-now.png 600w, /blog/content/images/size/w1000/2024/04/astranis-then-now.png 1000w, /blog/content/images/2024/04/astranis-then-now.png 1537w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 720px) 720px\"></figure>Astranis: Building smaller, cheaper telecommunications satellites. They set out to build a functional prototype in time for Demo Day W16 — they pulled it off. By 2018, they had prototypes in space. Now they’ve got a massive satellite-building factory right across the street from YC’s SF HQ, and have multiple satellites in orbit.<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"/blog/content/images/2024/04/remora-then-now-1.png/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1537\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"/blog/content/images/size/w600/2024/04/remora-then-now-1.png 600w, /blog/content/images/size/w1000/2024/04/remora-then-now-1.png 1000w, /blog/content/images/2024/04/remora-then-now-1.png 1537w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 720px) 720px\"></figure>Remora: Retrofitting semi-trucks to capture the CO2 emissions that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. One of our favorite stories about this one: the founders met after one of them came across the other’s PhD dissertation (“Mobile carbon capture from heavy-duty vehicles”) and convinced them to start a company.<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"/blog/content/images/2024/04/Seabound-then-now-1.png/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1537\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"/blog/content/images/size/w600/2024/04/Seabound-then-now-1.png 600w, /blog/content/images/size/w1000/2024/04/Seabound-then-now-1.png 1000w, /blog/content/images/2024/04/Seabound-then-now-1.png 1537w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 720px) 720px\"></figure>Seabound: Also capturing carbon emissions, but for cargo ships. During the batch they were able to get ship owners — many of whom are facing increasingly strict emissions regulations — to sign key LOIs; shortly thereafter, they ran their first pilot program on an actual ship.<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card\"><img src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"/blog/content/images/2024/04/solugen-then-now-2.png/" class=\"kg-image\" alt loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1537\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"/blog/content/images/size/w600/2024/04/solugen-then-now-2.png 600w, /blog/content/images/size/w1000/2024/04/solugen-then-now-2.png 1000w, /blog/content/images/2024/04/solugen-then-now-2.png 1537w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 720px) 720px\"></figure>Solugen: Producing chemicals like hydrogen peroxide with a new process that’s based on synthetic biology. When they applied to YC, they’d managed to produce one small beaker of hydrogen peroxide just to prove they could. By Demo Day, they were making gallons in a garage. Now they produce it in industrial quantities from a full-scale plant in Houston.","comment_id":"66180712eba13d0001fb30bd","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/04/HT.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-04-11T08:51:46.000-07:00","updated_at":"2024-04-11T10:16:18.000-07:00","published_at":"2024-04-11T10:16:18.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"Most people know YC for funding software companies. But some of our most successful companies are the ones doing incredible things in the real world — the hard tech companies. ","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a71097","name":"Jared Friedman","slug":"jared-friedman","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/Jared.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Jared is Managing Director, Software and Group Partner at YC. He was cofounder of Scribd, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2006 and grew to be one of the top 100 sites on the web.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/jared-friedman/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/video/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a71097","name":"Jared Friedman","slug":"jared-friedman","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/Jared.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Jared is Managing Director, Software and Group Partner at YC. He was cofounder of Scribd, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2006 and grew to be one of the top 100 sites on the web.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/jared-friedman/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/hard-tech-companies-then-and-now/","excerpt":"Most people know YC for funding software companies. But some of our most successful companies are the ones doing incredible things in the real world — the hard tech companies. ","reading_time":3,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},"mentions":[],"related_posts":[{"id":"62cf0b63653031000123b2e8","uuid":"89bfea2f-495d-41c0-ab4a-895e8a45ab27","title":"New YC video series: First Five","slug":"first-five","html":"We launched a new video series called the First Five, where growth stage companies look back on their first five hires, customers, and launches. Learn how successful founders determined when and who to hire, found and onboarded their first five customers, and decided what features to include in each launch. In the first episode, YC Managing Director <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/anuhariharan/">Anu Hariharan</a> sits down with <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/tomerlondon?lang=en\%22>Tomer London</a>, the co-founder and CPO of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gusto/">Gusto, to look back on the company’s first five hires.You can watch it on <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyeGB8pd-1w\%22>Youtube now.<iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/UyeGB8pd-1w/" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>","comment_id":"62cf0b63653031000123b2e8","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/07/Screen-Shot-2022-07-05-at-6.00.10-PM-2.png","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2022-07-13T11:13:55.000-07:00","updated_at":"2022-07-13T11:31:54.000-07:00","published_at":"2022-07-13T11:19:38.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"Introducing First Five, a new video series where growth stage companies look back on their first five hires, customers, and launches. In the first episode, YC Managing Director Anu Hariharan sits down with Tomer London, the co-founder and CPO of Gusto, to look back on the company’s first five hires.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a7106f","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"yc","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/yc.png","cover_image":null,"bio":null,"website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/yc/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/video/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71152","name":"Founder Stories","slug":"founder-stories","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/founder-stories/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71171","name":"Work at a Startup","slug":"work-at-a-startup","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/work-at-a-startup/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a711b7","name":"#24","slug":"hash-24","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a7106f","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"yc","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/yc.png","cover_image":null,"bio":null,"website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/yc/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/first-five/","excerpt":"We launched a new video series called the First Five, where growth stage companies look back on their first five hires, customers, and launches. ","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71bcd","uuid":"fc4ee9d2-93ac-4052-9d66-b4ce182dd591","title":"ICYMI: Watch 40+ founders pitch at YC's Work at a Startup Expo","slug":"watch-yc-founders-pitch-from-work-at-a-startup-expo","html":"If you’ve ever wondered what <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/demoday/">YC’s Demo Day</a> is like, YC’s annual <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/events/startup-career-expo-s20/">Work at a Startup Expo</a> is a peek behind the curtain. Founders share what’s unique about their company, business and team, and attendees get to meet founders 1-1 to learn more. Granted, these pitches are geared a bit more towards hiring and engineering, but the stakes are still high and founders share the same energy and drive as during Demo Day. (And hiring a great early team is often as important as raising an early round.)\nWe were lucky to be joined by 40+ founders for this year’s virtual event. There was a wider range of startups, from up-and-coming seed-stage startups like <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13208/">WhatNot and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13290/">Candid Health</a>, to post-Series A companies <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13097/">Pulley and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/13227/">Welcome.

We’re sharing the recording in case people are interested in crafting their pitch, learning about new technology or even joining a YC startup themselves. (Joining a startup is often the best way to learn what it’s like to start your own.) Watch the pitches above, and learn more about the companies and see open positions on YC’s Work at a Startup:\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.workatastartup.com/events/startup-career-expo-s20/">https://www.workatastartup.com/events/startup-career-expo-s20

/n by Y Combinator

Author

Jared Friedman