Y Combinator Startup Podcast
00:34:07 · Philip Johnston, S3
[00:34:07] S0: are pretty bad. If if you build a new power project for it. [00:34:10] S3: Right. Which is generally what people are doing. Exactly. Just can't get enough power from from the grid. So... Yeah. There's also some evidence actually that adding data centers increases the capacity of the grid, and then prices actually come down over time. That being said, you know, it's sort of a perfect storm. Like, we need intelligence. We need data centers. It's become basically a national security issue, you know, for America and for the West to have access to intelligence as sort of the most important tech tree of the next hundred years. And so for tech policy to sort of put us back into the stone age and possibly lose the war for us, that puts StarCloud in a different position in terms of bringing compute and AI and power online. [00:34:57] S0: Yeah. For sure. It definitely puts us squarely in the national security bucket at that point. [00:35:03] S3: I mean, thank you so much for fighting for the West then. [00:35:07] S0: We're doing our best. [00:35:09] S3: So as one of the fastest growing unicorns in YC history, and to do it as a hardware company, do you have any closing thoughts for people who are, you know, looking at space, looking at hard tech as a thing that they wanna work on? Like, you know, what have you learned, and what would you tell the, you know, just starting out version of yourself based on where you're at now?
00:35:09 · S3, Philip Johnston, S4
[00:35:09] S3: So as one of the fastest growing unicorns in YC history, and to do it as a hardware company, do you have any closing thoughts for people who are, you know, looking at space, looking at hard tech as a thing that they wanna work on? Like, you know, what have you learned, and what would you tell the, you know, just starting out version of yourself based on where you're at now? [00:35:28] S0: Yeah. I mean, I think there's just huge opportunities now coming in with space. We're really at the, like, very early innings with what's gonna be this enormous industry in space. You know, the amount of capacity and launch that's gonna come online in the next five years is is really mind boggling. So, yeah, I would definitely encourage people to to step into that. In terms of advice, like, the the YC advice stands true. It's technical talent and founding team is the thing you need to solve for first, and then everything else follows from there. [00:35:57] S3: Philip, thanks so much for coming on the Lightcone. [00:35:59] S0: Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. [00:36:00] S4: Nice being here.