YC Demo Day Made One Thing Obvious

There’s a distinct energy in the Bay, one I haven’t encountered anywhere else in my career. It’s not just that things move quickly, it’s the lack of friction. You meet someone in the morning, and by the afternoon they’ve already followed up, shared a deal, made introductions, or asked the kind of question that forces sharper thinking. The pace isn’t forced, it’s embedded daily business. How incredibly refreshing!

Coming from Europe, the contrast is stark. Back home, ambition often needs to be justified, explained, sometimes even softened. Out there, it’s assumed, as the obvious starting point, not the exception..

At Y Combinator’s Demo Day, +150 startups pitched in a single day. Most were first-time founders, some straight out of Ivy League programs, others who had dropped out to build. Many were sharper than their age or experience would suggest. Naturally, not all will succeed, but the concentration of talent and intent in the room was incredibly inspiring. A number of European founders were pitching too, a welcome reminder that this level of ambition and clarity exists at home as well...

As I left the venue that evening, I passed a young founder standing quietly by the door. No badge, no access, just a stack of printed one-pagers he offered to anyone walking past, hoping to pitch his startup. Quiet, but persistent hustle. I remember him more clearly than many of those who were on stage that day :)

Later in the week, at Stanford University, the format shifted, more technical, more "academic", but the ambition remained. Many were already building companies that felt a year or two ahead of what we typically see.

One thing that stood out to me was how failure is treated and seen. In SF, when something doesn’t work, people shut it down quickly, take what they’ve learned, and move on. There’s no shame in trying, nor failing. In Europe, we still struggle with that mindset and culture. As we say in French, "on n’apprend qu’à ses dépens". Believing that everyone gets it right the first time may be comforting, but it’s rarely true, and deeply unrealistic.

Even the smaller moments during that trip carried weight. One Uber driver told me he had spent 15 years as an engineer at Adobe before being laid off earlier this year, his role replaced by AI tools. As he shared his story, a Waymo rolled past us. A quiet snapshot of the future, both its momentum and its cost...

What stayed with me most was how much the environment shapes the tempo. In the Bay, everything around you seems designed to move you forward. People are ambitious, but grounded, aware of how much they don’t know, given they’re surrounded by others who have done more, and done it bigger & better. You’re not the exception in the room, that pushes you to raise your standards. SF acts as a catalyst, of talent, capital, and ideas. A virtuous circle.