In this talk from Startup School Paris, Encord Co-CEO Eric Landau discusses leaving a lucrative quant career during the most profitable month his desk had ever seen, why PMF for Encord was a slow daily compound, and why founders should ride the emotional rollercoaster rather than fight it.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs
Chapters:
00:00 — Intro
00:31 — Physics, Quant, Founder
01:57 — Quitting at the Worst Possible Moment
03:04 — Why They Believed in AI Early
04:13 — Two Years in the Desert
05:41 — Product Market Fit Snuck Up on Them
06:40 — Three Sales Teams Later
08:35 — From Vision to Physical AI
09:45 — 80% of the Economy Is Physical
10:59 — How They Spot the Next Bet
12:50 — Biggest Use Cases Right Now
14:09 — Finding Needles in Billion Haystacks
15:06 — London HQ, Bay Area Operations
16:40 — Competing Against Scale and Mercor
18:30 — Outro
