Katya Shteyn

Respect the hustle of Katya Shteyn. This girl is the real deal in the startup world. She’s part of YC W18, so she’s been in the game for a minute, and trust me, she’s crushed it.

So, her process started at the University of Toronto, where she got her B.Sc. in Computer Science. While she was there, she wasn’t just hitting the books, she was also a Teaching Assistant, sharing her knowledge, which shows she’s got some serious leadership vibes from early on.

Fast forward a bit, she jumps into the tech scene, doing a Software Engineering internship at Google in 2015. No cap, that’s huge, Google is the kind of place that turns you into a beast. Then she moved on to Dropbox as a Software Engineer, working there from late 2015 to mid-2017. Basically, she was building the tools that millions use daily, so she’s got that deep engineering hustle.

But what really sets her apart is what she did next, co-founding BioRender in 2017. Think of BioRender as the Figma or Canva for scientists. It’s a super slick platform that makes creating scientific visuals easy and accessible, a total big change for research communication. And get this, it’s backed by YC, so it’s legit, and it’s got users all over the world in 100+ countries. That’s some serious global impact.

What’s wild is that Katya didn’t just stop at tech. She jumped into this problem because she saw a real problem, scientists struggling with clunky, boring visuals. She decided to fix it, and she did. That’s the entrepreneurial spirit right there: seeing a bullshit problem, then building a killer solution.

Her story says a lot. She’s not just about tech for tech’s sake, she’s all about making a real difference. She’s driven by a desire to simplify, enable, and raise how science communicates. She’s proof that the best founders are those who combine solid engineering chops with a clear mission and the guts to jump into the unknown.

Bottom line: Katya is a powerhouse. She’s built a platform that’s changing the way scientists share their work, and she’s doing it with that perfect blend of technical skill and mission-driven hustle. That’s why she’s so important, she’s not just building a startup, she’s solving real problems for a huge community, and she’s just getting started.