Monetization Lessons: Charge Early

Welcome to BIG IDEAS by NEW ECONOMIES — a show where we learn how the most iconic founders have turned crucible moments into global companies. Throughout these episodes, we also discover the trends our guests are most excited about, and the types of businesses those trends could go on to create.

P.S. When you become an annual paid subscriber, you automatically access these best-in-class AI tools for free up to 12 months including Sagekit, Floot and April who are featured in today’s episode — save over $3,000 now!

This episode is sponsored by:

As every founder knows, building companies is tough and finding the right talent is even harder. That’s why we’ve partnered with Oceans.

Oceans connects founders with highly vetted, U.S. caliber talent at 70-80% less hiring costs. I’m talking everything from executive assistants to SEO Specialists, Performance Marketers, Accountants, Financial Controllers, you name it!

So, if you’re scaling and looking for talent that can make an immediate impact, check out Oceans!

In this week’s episode, we discover the hottest YC startups from the latest Summer 25 batch in an office hours format. We find out who they are, what they are building and how you can learn from some of their early mistakes and biggest wins.

Why should you watch this episode?

Ask any founder or investor, and they have undoubtedly heard of Y Combinator — one of the world’s most renowned startup accelerators, with a mighty track record. Founders who raise from them are 45% more likely to raise a Series A and the accelerator just turned 20 years old earlier this year. Throughout that time, they have achieved some incredible stats, including:

* $800B in combined market value has been created.

* 6.5% of YC startups become unicorns.

* A quarter of all YC-backed unicorns achieve a valuation of over $10 billion.

All within just 20 years. So we hope this episode inspires you to go and build as we want to help you build great and huge companies.

Meet the hottest startups

This episode spotlights six breakout YC startups transforming AI, education, construction, and fintech.

What can you expect from each office hours session? We find out:

* Who they are and what they are building.

* How they found their first customers and how to price.

* How each founder is thinking about market opportunity.

* The biggest challenges they have faced so far.

* The biggest wins they have achieved to date.

* Lessons in scaling early and fast.

And much more…

Whether you’re building, planning to build, or already operating — this episode is for you.

Listen & subscribe now across: YouTube // Apple // Spotify

Featured startups in this episode

(1:46) Frizzle

Frizzle uses AI to grade handwritten math assignments for teachers, providing personalized feedback for every student. Teachers spend over 10 hours a week or 25% of all their work grading - Frizzle does it in minutes.

(14:09) Floot

Floot lets non-coders & entrepreneurs build real web apps that actually work. They’re taking a new approach by building everything from the ground up for AI.

(28:36) Sagekit

Sagekit is your AI automation engineer. Stop wasting time learning yet another tool or hiring expensive agencies. Just describe your process and Sage builds custom automations for you. Connect Gmail, Notion, Airtable, Slack, Linear, and lots more.

(51:14) April

April is a voice AI executive assistant that manages your email and calendar, hands free. It’s built for busy individuals who need EAs but don’t have them.

(1:05:25) Cacao

Cacao is building the global dollar app for Brazil - Get paid in USD or stablecoins, spend with a Visa card, and cash out to Pix instantly - made for Brazilians earning from abroad.

(1:18:23) Flywheel

Flywheel AI converts any existing excavators for contractors to enable remote ops to increase safety and productivity.

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