Daryna Kulya

Y’all gotta know about Daryna Kulya, this girl’s a straight-up startup machine. She’s part of Y Combinator’s S18 batch, which is like the Olympics of tech founders. She’s been around the block, working at big names like Vidyard, Deloitte, RIM, and even helped out at University of Windsor and SIFE Windsor. Basically, she’s been grinding in both the corporate and startup worlds for a while.

But what’s really cool is what she did next. She jumped into the startup scene full throttle. Co-founded OpenPhone, which is a big change in the biz phone space. Think modern, easy-to-use phone solutions for teams, startups, entrepreneurs, the kind of thing that’s been missing in the old-school telecom world. She joined Y Combinator in 2018, crushed her demo, and launched OpenPhone 1.0 on Product Hunt, which blew up. From there, she scaled it to over 100,000 customers. That’s no small feat, it shows she’s got serious product chops and knows how to build something that people actually want.

What’s her secret? She’s all about customer-focused stuff, listening to users, getting early feedback, and zeroing in on urgent needs. She believes in building from scratch but scaling fast, that’s rare as hell. She’s not just about launching; she’s about making sure it sticks and keeps growing. Plus, she’s super active in the startup scene, mentoring, sharing lessons, making connections. Basically, she’s a builder who’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves and figure shit out as she goes.

Her story says a lot about her motivation. She’s driven by creating real solutions, not just chasing fame or cash. Her process from working at big companies to jumping into YC and then crushing it with OpenPhone shows she’s all about having an effect, not just following the herd. Starting something from zero, scaling it to hundreds of thousands of users, that’s the real deal. It’s about hustle, grit, and caring about the user. That’s her vibe.

So yeah, Daryna isn’t just some founder, she’s a legit force in the startup world. She’s proof that if you focus on the customer, build from scratch, and keep hustling, you can create something that changes the game. No Cap, she’s someone I’d definitely keep an eye on.