John Yang

Nah but seriously, check out John Yang – this guy’s the real deal in the startup world. So, he’s a YC W24 batcher, which already says a lot, right? But what’s wild is his whole process.

Started out at MIT, roommates with his co-founder Nithin Parsan – so they’ve known each other forever, which is kinda rare in this game. They jumped into the startup scene together, and John’s been crushing it ever since. He’s got a solid academic background, with published research in big-name journals like NeurIPS, Nature, and PLoS ONE. That’s not just some hobby; he’s legit deep into AI and software engineering, especially around language models and autonomous systems. Dude’s interested in how machines can understand and generate code, evaluate AI, all that modern stuff.

Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. John is currently a first-year PhD at Stanford, working under Diyi Yang – he’s still in the grind, but he’s already built some pretty dope projects like SWE-bench and SWE-agent, which are all about making autonomous software engineering smarter and more reliable. Basically, he’s trying to push the envelope on how AI can help us build better software faster.

But what really makes him stand out is his entrepreneurial side. He co-founded Same, a Y Combinator-backed startup that lets people build products without coding. Crazy, right? Like, democratizing tech creation – no more bullshit about needing to be a coding wizard. And he’s also behind Reticular, another YC startup, which is all about steerable, interpretable AI for protein engineering. Basically, giving pharma companies precise control over AI models to speed up drug discovery – holy shit, that’s advanced stuff.

What does all this say about him? Man’s got mad motivation. He’s not just in it for the fame or the money – he’s genuinely trying to solve big problems, make tech more accessible, and push the boundaries of AI and software. It’s like he’s on this process to not just build cool stuff but to basically change how we create and discover. His background in academia, combined with his startup hustle, shows he’s all about deep tech with real-world impact.

So, yeah, John Yang is one of those dudes who’s not afraid to jump into the deep end, learn everything, and then use that to build stuff that actually matters. The kind of guy who’s gonna be leading the next wave of AI-powered innovation, no cap.