8Spotlight

What happens when your original startup idea doesn't work? In this episode of  8Spotlight , we sit down with  Sid Rajaram , co-founder of  Clodo , to discuss the company's remarkable pivot from an AI assistant for real estate agents to an AI-powered platform that's redefining prospecting. Sid shares the candid story behind a challenging Y Combinator Demo Day, months spent in "cockroach mode," and...

In this episode of 8Spotlight we chat with Wayne Crosby, founder and CEO of OrgOrg. Wayne has a storied history in tech, from selling his first startup to Google and being instrumental in building out G Suite, aka Google Workspace. We go into his background of being an experienced, storied founder and what lessons learned from the past that can be applied to the future. We go deep and discuss the...

In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Gabriel Birnbaum and the team behind Y/n, one of the fastest-growing AI consumer apps redefining interactive storytelling. From a rapid pivot to breakout growth, Y/n has scaled to massive engagement, with users spending hours inside AI-generated narratives. We dive into the journey from early product-market fit to viral distribution, the challenges o...

In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Nick Damiano, founder of Andromeda Surgical, to discuss the future of autonomous surgery. Nick shares how his team moved from concept to live clinical cases in record time, why they built a software-first surgical platform, and how data and autonomy could transform operating rooms around the world. We explore their rapid iteration cycles, global clin...

Today on the podcast, we’re joined by Lawrence Gentilello, founder of Optery, a privacy and data removal platform trusted by hundreds of thousands of individuals and over a thousand businesses. Optery operates a highly scaled B2C business alongside a fast-growing B2B platform, helping people and organizations remove sensitive personal data from data brokers and reduce digital exposure. In this con...

In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Joshua Perk, Founder & CEO of Vector, the company transforming how revenue teams understand buyer intent. Joshua shares how Vector evolved from early product-market fit challenges into a breakout GTM platform: launching SiteID and OffsiteID to uncover contact-level buying signals before prospects ever reach your website. We talk candidly about re...

Biotech is one of the hardest industries to break into...regulated, slow, compliance-heavy, and notoriously resistant to new software. Yet Jin Kim, a solo YC founder, is doing what few believed possible: building a profitable, fast-growing AI platform that transforms how biotech companies run clinical trials. In this episode, Jin shares how he built Miracle, the platform making clinical-trial data...

What if anyone, literally anyone, could build a full app without writing a single line of code? In today’s episode we sit down with Yujian Yao, co-founder and CEO of Floot, a platform building the easiest way for entrepreneurs and non-coders to build apps with AI. Yujian takes us inside the whirlwind of attention after launching, the challenge of keeping users engaged, and what it’s like scaling a...

Can something as complex as property ownership in India finally be simplified? In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Sanjay Mandava, co-founder and CEO of Landeed, the Y Combinator–backed startup transforming how India verifies, buys, and manages property. For decades, India’s real-estate system has been defined by paperwork, bureaucracy, and uncertainty — where proving ownership can tak...

"Can something artificial create something real?" This is one of the questions we tackle in this poignant episode of 8Spotlight with Dorothy Li, the co-founder of RealRoots. A Y Combinator–backed company growing at lightning speed, RealRoots is on a mission to help women form genuine friendships in a world that often makes that harder than ever. RealRoots started with a simple but profound realiza...

In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Noah Palansky, co-founder of Taiv, the company turning everyday TVs in restaurants, gyms, and retail spaces into dynamic, revenue-generating media networks. Since its early days in Y Combinator, Taiv has grown rapidly: now with more than 3,000 signed partners and a freshly closed Series A led by IDC Ventures. Noah takes us behind the scenes of that g...

In the debut episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Josh Gardner, co-founder of Verata, to explore his journey from early career insights to building a YC-backed company tackling big problems in private equity platforms. Josh shares the pivotal moments (I believe the exact words used in this episode are "pivot hell"), tough decisions, and lessons learned along the road to PMF, offering a candid l...