Jessy posted from Y Combinator's Summer 2026 Demo Day that most projects besides hardware were building domain-specific harnesses. Garry Tan replied with the line: "Either you die a system of record or you live long enough to become a domain-specific harness." Ivan Chebykin replied that you live long enough to become a skill. Jerome Tomasini called the harnesses the next generation of vertical SaaS. Natalie Khalil asked when the tools stopped being called wrappers. Other replies wished for a harness or questioned YC's project focus.
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Attendees at YC Demo Day share observations on X about AI project trends.
Jessy posted from Y Combinator's Summer 2026 Demo Day that most projects besides hardware were building domain-specific harnesses. Garry Tan replied with the line: "Either you die a system of record or you live long enough to become a domain-specific harness." Ivan Chebykin replied that you live long enough to become a skill. Jerome Tomasini called the harnesses the next generation of vertical SaaS. Natalie Khalil asked when the tools stopped being called wrappers. Other replies wished for a harness or questioned YC's project focus.
jessy@goodhartproofI was just at YC demo day yesterday. Besides hardware/physical things, everyone is just basically just building a domain-specific harness
ruminations@amphib0ly@goodhartproof i wish someone would build me a domain-specific harness
Garry Tan@garrytanEither you die a system of record or you live long enough to become a domain-specific harness
tigs@luvtiggies@garrytan How come YC doesn't focus on projects that help less technical parts of society leverage technology to its benefit? I know of some good projects that kept getting passed over.
Ivan Chebykin@ichebykin@garrytan @jordanjhamel you live long enough to become a skill
Natalie Khalil@natalienkhalilWhen did we stop calling these wrappers?
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jessy@goodhartproofI was just at YC demo day yesterday. Besides hardware/physical things, everyone is just basically just building a domain-specific harness
ruminations@amphib0ly@goodhartproof i wish someone would build me a domain-specific harness
Alexander Whitelaw@AlexWhitelawCAMakes a lot of sense, seems like the frontier models just get good at everything and the three most obvious non-hardware things to do given that fact are 1. Harnesses to plug models into domains (most advanced examples are probably GTM automation companies, because it's such a…
jessy@goodhartproof@AlexWhitelawCA the key unlock is increasing the surface area of verifiable things
Andrew Vuong@andrewtvuong@AlexWhitelawCA @goodhartproof Bio like biology? Pharm/gene I guess, those two are basically math and coding so shouldn’t be too much of a translation.
Théo@theositjar@goodhartproof This is 100% what people are doing right now even around us in Paris. Harness, tools, and agent stacks for specific usage.
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