Our YC Application
Here is one question YC asked us. We will post this here as it’s relevant on why we do what we do at AI Camp.
Question: why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you’re making?
(Michael started the whole project. So we will use his personal experience to tell a story here. We all share similar experiences.)
Our higher education is broken. Students are getting into debt while not getting jobs. I am a victim myself. I cannot see kids going into traps and no one cares for their futures. We must warn them and prepare them so that they won’t get into traps.
This is my second attempt to solve this problem in 8 years. The first one is a job review site like Yelp for jobs. It’s a pure software solution. It failed because it did not generate enough revenue in time. AI Camp is my second attempt trying to solve this problem in 8 years. So I am a bit obsessed with solving this problem.
When I ran out of money, I take jobs that challenge me. I was a growth product manager at Grab and head of data at Blend Labs. I know digital growth, which will help us getting customers at scale. I’ve published data pipelines, deployed data products, built and led teams. I know about AI and how to lead people.
How do I know that people want our products? Because I’ve taught more than 2,000 students about AI. I’ve talked to them. I meet them every week and listen to them. Even though we are a company at (small) scale, I still list my cell phone number on the website so that I will get the chance to talk to my customers.
Parents would say, “bless you Michael!” But that’s not what drives me. We need to change education and not having a system that’s awful for our kids and for our families. When you look at the problems our world face today, you can attribute most of them back to education. Whether it’s the climate change or the social separation we have, the root problem is education. This is the biggest problem of our society today, and I am so glad that we got a chance to solve this.
Seriously, no matter what your decision is for this application, we are here for our students. You will hear us.
