I asked 10 of YC’s fastest-growing founders how they got customers (everything I learned)

I went out and met the 10 fastest growing companies from Y Combinator, from the hottest companies in the current batch to the multi-billion dollar successes from years past. And I pretty much tried to figure out one question: How do they grow so fast? Now, you might think it's really different for each of them, depends on the customer, it's an art, whatever you want to say. But what I found is that there is a right

whatever you want to say. But what I found is that there is a right answer that each of these companies followed. It's very scientific and nearly identical. And if you don't know, Y Combinator is the world's most successful startup creation accelerator. , they've created hundreds of billion-dollar companies. So, I figured where best to learn. Keep in mind, this

where best to learn. Keep in mind, this is all for growing a company in 2026. Everything is different with AI, and so I was pretty surprised by a lot of what I heard here. So, in this video, I wrote out hyper-specific tactical notes that I learned from each of them that I'm going to reference throughout the video. And I pretty much broke it down into a four-step formula

broke it down into a four-step formula for growth in 2026 that I'm going to walk through. , I'll show you hacks to grow your company in lightning speed like all of these founders have done. All right, so let's dive in. So, step one is the most important and is honestly 90% of the game, which is what types of companies are winning in 2026.

types of companies are winning in 2026. So, where better to start to learn from than the fastest growing YC company of 2026, which is Corgi. Corgi has been absolutely crushing it since starting only 2 years ago. They're now a multi-billion dollar company, and they're taking over. I went to

they're taking over. I went to their office to meet the CEO, Nico. And I couldn't film inside, but I'm just going to tell you exactly what I learned. And full disclosure, I know a lot about how Corgi scaled because their sales team has been using Origami to pull leads. At this point, I think there're hundreds of people at the company. Okay, so let's zoom out a little bit. How did two 26-year-old

little bit. How did two 26-year-old founders build a multi-billion dollar company in under 2 years, going from 0 to $40 million a year, and projecting a 10-fold increase from that? Well, let's start with looking at what Corgi does. They're an insurance company. It's pretty much the most boring, hated industry on the entire

company. It's pretty much the most boring, hated industry on the entire planet, and that's the entire point. Because that's what I started noticing across every founder I talked to that's really scaling this fast. They're all the same category of company. Take some massive, dusty, ancient, old industry and rebuild it

ancient, old industry and rebuild it from the ground up with AI. I learned from Nico that insurance is 12% of GDP, which is twice as big as software, the entire industry. And this is what flips everything, right? Because what do people usually build when they build tech products? It's

when they build tech products? It's software for software people. Another dev tool, another SaaS dashboard, another AI wrapper for a startup that already knows how to use AI. Because that's the entire world that the most talented engineers in the world know, it's the software world. Catering is a bloodbath. Every idea worth doing for

bloodbath. Every idea worth doing for software people, with very, very rare exceptions, has been done about 10,000 times already. And you're up against the smartest, most well-funded, most connected, most caffeinated people on the entire planet, who are going to work 7 days a week. So, the whole secret of this point is that you shouldn't compete

this point is that you shouldn't compete with the best. That is a losing formula. You're making yourself in an unnecessarily difficult position. Honestly, the fastest-growing companies that I talked to were not the ones necessarily grinding the hardest. Though, Corgi certainly grinds very hard. They're the ones that picked a much easier fight to win. So,

picked a much easier fight to win. So, when Corgi enters a building, they're competing with a 60-year-old carrier that still uses fax machines. And when they walk in the building, they're the only modern company. So, when I started zooming out on the winners, I realized that overwhelmingly, they're not software for software people. They're this category,

software people. They're this category, rebuilt one of these industries from the ground up. Take another hit from Y Combinator, Lagora. They're worth over $5 billion, and they were founded by two guys from Sweden in their 20s, less than 3 years ago. They didn't even have law degrees. They went into this industry,

degrees. They went into this industry, and there was so little competition that because they followed the rest of the steps in the process, they were able to win. Or, look at another Y Combinator company, Candid Health. Their industry is medical billing, denied claims, insurance, actual fax machines. Or, look at Areni, another fast-growing YC

at Areni, another fast-growing YC company. They didn't even rebuild an entire industry. They just took the front reception desk of dentists' office, and they've grown almost 200% this year. All of these companies have that growth is a non-starter. That's the minimum bar that they're growing. Their AI is handling tens of thousands of

that they're growing. Their AI is handling tens of thousands of calls every single day for these people. I could list off 50 other YC companies in this category, and the funny part is these aren't the companies that , the big ones for software people, like Cursive and Lovable, whatever you want to say. These ones are faster growing, are probably going to be more

growing, are probably going to be more successful in the next 5 to 10 years cuz they have much bigger markets to grow into. And it's great that you don't know them for these people. And it's great that they occupy so much less mind share than these other software products because it's just going to mean that it's that much less competitive for them to keep winning up against them seriously until they're already massive

to keep winning up against them seriously until they're already massive incumbents. So, honestly, which direction you build in is the most important part of the game. If you build in the wrong direction with your idea, you are just going to set yourself up for failure and misery for the next 5 or 10 years. Now, let's say that you picked one of these industries. Okay, but how

10 years. Now, let's say that you picked one of these industries. Okay, but how did these founders who have no degrees, no special training, oftentimes never even worked in these fields build multi-billion-dollar companies in their 20s? Well, that's exactly what I'm going to get into in step two. Because every single one of these founders that I talked to did the exact same thing to

talked to did the exact same thing to build these companies once they knew the space they wanted to build in. And so, step two means getting so close to your customer that it feels illegal. And I know, talk to your customers, I'm sure you already know this. It's the most common advice out there. But, I'm going to frame it in a slightly different way than how it typically gets talked about.

to frame it in a slightly different way than how it typically gets talked about. Because , what you are trying to do is you're trying to go into an industry against people who've worked in it their entire lives. Insurance, medical billing, what have you. There are people who have spent 30 years in this industry. How could you possibly ever know more than that? Well, it's very possible. In fact, you

ever know more than that? Well, it's very possible. In fact, you could know a hundred times more about their industry than them very shortly if you follow this process, which is , you're going to think about this industry and getting to know it like Battleship. When you enter, the whole board is fog. You can't see anything. You can't see the customer's real problems. So, you can

anything. You can't see the customer's real problems. So, you can have a few guesses of where you think the problems might be on the board, but you honestly don't know. And pretending is just going to lead you astray. Every single customer that you talk to is pretty much removing the fog on one small part of that grid. And it's a massive grid, okay? So, most of the

on one small part of that grid. And it's a massive grid, okay? So, most of the shots that you take are going to be misses. It's not going to be a problem when you talk to a customer, the thing that you're trying to build. And that's okay. You're still clearing up the board and you're developing this super deep intuition for the customer profile that you're building a solution for. Because at this point, it's not

profile that you're building a solution for. Because at this point, it's not about the solution, it's about understanding that customer profile on the deepest level you possibly can. And this is where your advantage will come in against other people. Because anyone can be an expert in their own lived experience, but you have to be a psychopath to go out there and talk to

psychopath to go out there and talk to hundreds of people who are already experts when you already at that point are going to believe yourself to be an expert. Because what you're doing is not becoming an expert in that industry, you're becoming an expert in the entire problem space. Where are the biggest problems across the entire board for

problems across the entire board for this customer? What has been solved, what hasn't, what's valuable, what's not? You're pretty much becoming an expert on where the value creation lies. And where value creation lies is where an opportunity lies for a massive company. So, you physically cannot build a multi-billion dollar company unless

a multi-billion dollar company unless you discover one of these untapped squares on the board that you realize has billion-dollar potential for value. That is the first step. So, if you're doing this, you can manufacture 10 years of intuition in a couple months, right? So, how do you do this? Well,