The Lobster Talks Podcast by Lobster Capital Why Voice AI Will Outsell Your Best Reps
A YC insider walked away from the best seat in the Valley… to build “prank call” voice AI that now powers serious enterprise sales.
Simple AI started as a consumer assistant that people used to troll their friends—and turned into a phone agent platform that’s replacing entire call centers.
In this episode of The Lobster Talks, I sit down with Cat, founder of Simple AI and former YC product lead behind Startup School and YC’s co-founder matching tools. We go deep on the real difference between a business and a startup, why YC went all-in on AI before the rest of the market, and how voice agents are quietly becoming the most valuable “employee” in the building.
You’ll hear how a side-project consumer app turned into inbound from enterprises like Omaha Steaks, why B2B isn’t boring when the hair is really on fire, and what the future looks like when calling a business means talking to an AI that actually solves your problem.
In this episode, we cover:
- How Cat went from building Startup School at YC to founding Simple AI
- Why “making money” isn’t enough to call something a startup—and why tech-enabled scale still matters
- The origin story of Simple AI: consumer assistant, prank calls, and the first “holy sh*t” user feedback
- How large enterprises are using voice agents today for inbound sales, support, and real revenue lift
- Why high-quality, high-conversion calls beat “cheap” AI—and how Simple AI thinks about upsell and A/B testing
- B2C vs B2B in voice AI, YC’s early bet on LLMs, and whether this is a winner-take-most market
📌 Watch now and subscribe for more smart, fast, founder-first interviews.
Chapters:
00:00 The Power of Voice AI: Pranks and Beyond
00:34 Sponsor Message: Stable - Your Virtual Business Address
01:34 Introduction to Lobster Talks and Today's Guest
01:41 Meet Cat from Simple AI
01:55 Cat's Journey at YC and the Birth of Simple AI
02:46 Building Tools for Founders at YC
04:25 The Distinction Between Business and Startup
05:49 The Role of Technology in Startup Scalability
09:03 The Visionary Leap into Voice AI
10:58 The Early Days of AI and YC's Influence
15:58 The Consumer Focus of Simple AI
17:49 Real-World Applications of Simple AI
21:00 How Simple AI Works: Practical Examples
22:44 The Power of Simple AI: No Marketing Needed
22:58 Celebrity Endorsement: Reese Witherspoon's Favorite AI
23:41 How Simple AI Benefits Businesses
24:03 AI in Call Centers: A Game Changer
24:39 The Omaha Steaks Case Study
25:45 AI vs. Human: The Upsell Advantage
26:15 Seasonal Workforce Challenges Solved by AI
27:47 The Future of AI in Sales and Support
31:57 The Synergy Between B2C and B2B Products
34:10 The Potential of Voice AI in B2C
44:08 The Competitive Landscape of Voice AI
45:51 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
🎧 Listen on the go:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1u1JyRKH8JYFjhBkvTUOAP
Apple: https://apple.co/4cZ8RMm
My other YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@lobstercap
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