✨What if the most radical thing AI can do for us is not DO the things for us, faster and ever efficient, but rather push us to choose what is most meaningful and then make the space for us to do it ourselves? ted.com/talks/avni_patel_tho…

"Why build another company?" they ask. I close my eyes and answer what's in my heart. "What better way to spend your one wild and precious life than in solving - problems, frictions, miseries? Urgent, needed, worthy. That's my faith. My art. My calling."

Today we're launching Milo co-parent for parents, powered by GPT-4. W/ families across country, we've been testing something that tackles invisible load of running a family. Where I can throw all chaos to & have it just taken care of. Bc families are about love, not logistics.

I'm a non-technical founder building a software company. I'm a solo founder. I'm certainly not white or 23. I have young kids. I applied to @ycombinator 3 times before getting in. There are no excuses - just big visions+ even more grit. Womxn - I want to see your applications!

One of the headiest feelings of being in YC is of being around founders who move so freaking fast. One minute you're having a conversation and two hours later they've done the thing and are following up. Inspiring and intoxicating to have that kind of peer group to live up to.

It’s same thing as “my wife’s a better multi-tasker/ more organized/ likes doing that stuff” We’re not. We’ve just had to be bc there was no other choice. There is no way across all families I’ve talked to that the women just happen to be better. Just BS social conditioning.

Man if COVID doesn't kill me, sitting in my chair with back to back to back zoom calls for 8 hours certainly will.

You can’t run your startup using someone else’s playbook. There is only one source of figuring out what works: your users. No shortcuts.

There’s nothing like seeing your product solve a problem for your own family, multiple times a day. 🥰

Hey are you a female founded company applying (or thinking of applying) to YC's next batch? I want to talk to you and help. Raise your hand in this thread.

So many incredible founders applying to @ycombinator for a chance to change trajectory/prob of success of their companies. This was me 5 years ago, with my 3rd attempt, applying for Poppy, my previous company. This is what finally worked: 🧵

Legit speechless that elected officials in this city of all cities saying this. This is not a personal account where I've stashed my $842K or my $1.5M or even $5.2M. These are the funds I've pulled together to fund the people and the progress of the next 18 months.

the hardest part of being a parent and a founder is that I have no idea how to be an obsessed founder while being a present parent and partner. worse than demands on time is the context switching needed in my head. how do others do it?

30 min into @ycombinator demo day is reaffirming two things I believe deeply: 1 - there is nothing as powerful as entrepreneurship to create massive change in the shortest period of time 2 - we're still missing huge groups of people who could and should be doing the innovating.

Ugh whenever I’m on a plane now and I see poor parents trying to soothe a baby crying inconsolably I can’t help but want to offer to help - hold the kid, idk 🤷🏽‍♀️ but man I’ve lived that pain and it sucks.

Twitterverse - one of most unexpected challenges I’ve found is convincing my parents to take this seriously. They’re still talking about going to temple and funerals. I don’t know how to calmly and constructively get through to them.

Just revealed @MyBFF and it's 😍 Excited to make this so much more than a pretty picture and a real access point to a new way of building and connecting and learning.

Into the fire again, 4 years later. Reflections on the eve of doing Y Combinator, the second time around. avnipatelthompson.substack.c…

🦹🏽‍♀️If I have 2 superpowers its that: 1. I'm never afraid to cold DM, email or reach out to someone that I think can help me. Don't respond? Never insulted. Move on. 2. I move fast. Imperfect doesn't faze me. Being left behind does. 💨

Today is YC demo day. It's also my daughter's 8th birthday. Nothing could be more fitting. For the past 5 years, my life's work has been to build technology solutions that make parents' lives easier. My life and my work is one and the same.

This is great list but not one female leader whose POV and leadership is worth learning from? I’d start w/ @zatlyn @CatchKristen @EstherCrawford @KieranSnyder @tiffani @phaedrael @briannekimmel @sarahtavel @ljin18 If we’re hell bent on making lists, let’s make them better.

GPT-4 allows us to solve the challenges of: - school newsletters - soccer emails - family whiteboards - texted bday party invites - sitter payment reminders - ... ... difficult nuanced problems needing great accuracy, specific-to-families problem solving and personal preference.

But it’s 100% bc you know how limited that time is. Pre kids it would have been “bagel”😅. Our # 1 parent hack is sitter every Sunday morning so we get to go workout, have coffee, get some work in and then have a great Sunday afternoon together.

Hardest part of being a founder isn’t doing the things (though a lot of that is hard). It’s withstanding constant 2nd guessing by everyone on all the things - product, pricing, hiring, fundraising. This, I think,is true advantage of repeat founders. Trusting gut above all else.

Female founders. Applications for @ycombinator W20 batch are due in 48 hrs. If you want a review, I’d be happy to review 10 female founded co applications tomorrow. Let’s do this. 💪🏽 ycombinator.com/apply/

A much subtler benefit @ycombinator has given startup world: founders are crazy articulate in their intro pitches. Unfailingly, in < 4 sentences, I'll know what they do, who they serve, what market is + where their traction is. Process is painful, result is 🥳 @mwseibel 🙏🏽

✨Introducing the Milo plugin for ChatGPT. openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plug… Our mission is to help parents make their minutes meaningful. To tackle the invisible load, so we can all spend our precious minutes on what matters most, not on soccer emails, school reminders, endless to dos.

Everyone talks abt benefits of @ycombinator batches in terms of network, advice and investor access, which yes, are all great. But real benefit? 12 wks of intense distraction-free focus on users, building, traction. Forever baking into our co’s DNA that focus, pace and output.

I keep underestimating as a founder how quickly you vacillate btwn poles of: “I’m building biggest best thing to solve all my users problems, I can’t fail 🤓” to “What was I thinking, I know nothing, I have nothing, I’m just going to fail. 😩” And back again. All in one day.

Well friends, I regret to inform you that at 12:24pm today, I became my mother. That was the moment when I took plastic takeout containers and instead of recycling them, decided to wash them so I could pack Diwali sweets in them. 😬😂😩

Saying you'll do a thing.. ...then doing it.. ... in as short a time period as possible. It's a superpower that best founders and operators have honed. One of underappreciated parts of YC - 12 wks is essentially exercise in: 1. Declaring what you'll do that week to your ambitious-as-all-out peers 2. Coming back week after and saying whether you did it or not. After 12wks, have built the instinct for prioritization, execution and speed, which cutting all the distractions. Hardest part is holding yourself to the discipline when you don't have a YC or some other external accountability mechanism. It's why, in our most critical times I implement a "weekly email" to a small group of trusted collaborators. I'm forced to declare an ambitious goal, stay focused on it all week and report back. Declare, do, repeat.

People who are skeptical of the productivity of parents have never seen one crank out work at 6:30am under the ticking time bomb of kids waking up at 7am.

Thrilled to share Modern Village’s first product, just in time for back to school 🤪 Say 👋🏽 to Milo - the modern family calendar with a built-in assistant. We’re working as quickly as we can to add everyone on our waitlist and then open it up to all! HelloMilo.io

Round 1: @zatlyn @CatchKristen @EstherCrawford @KieranSnyder @tiffani @phaedrael @briannekimmel @sarahtavel @ljin18 @MelanieCanva @KatieS @sm

Parents - when you think of teaching your kids "lifeskills", what's on your list? - financial literacy - negotiation/debate - care skills (eg. childcare/eldercare) - empathy - communication/presentation - time mgmt - home/bike care - gardening - fixing things - cleaning/chores

It's AMA time! I, along with fab YC alums are going to answer your @ycombinator Qs. Everything from applying, to the benefit to what's it like. Womxn founders - we want you to flood YC with your applications this batch so let's answer the Qs you have. Ask your Qs below!

Thank you @ycombinator for giving me the chance to tell the tale of entrepreneurship - from fledgling beginning, through messy middle and finally, hard but necessary end. Yes, this an end. But it is not THE end. This is what trying looks like.

I'm supposed to be running payroll today. This is not idle 🍿, wow, isn't-this-crazy-shit-going-down. I could give a shit about the markets and the "bigger picture" (yes I understand how capital markets work). This just became life and death for thousands of founders.

Being a founder is seeing a future no one else can see quite yet and persisting your way to making it a reality in front in of their eyes.

Every single founder needs 4-5 fellow founders they can text anytime, for any reason, and know that friend will drop any thing they're doing (which is always a lot) and be whatever is needed. It's often the distance and the difference between giving up and giving it one more go.

Am convinced that core part of successful travel parenting is having a magic purse/bag that is the source of constant newness. Lifesavers! Tic tacs! Markers! 🍬🍭🖍 Perpetual motion.

We’re building Milo (joinmilo.com) - the first specialized AI for parents. We believe that tech built for parents should work as hard as they do, and should be as dependable. It’s why our mission is to not only build the most delightful Family AI, but also the most reliable. Today, we’re excited to give a sneak peek into how we’re working with OpenAI on their reinforcement fine-tuning alpha, an important milestone in this mission.

Somehow print makes it feel way cooler ☺️

man i've lived decade past 7 days. - week ago: SVB spiral while working to launch - tues: launched to most incredible reception - today: eldest's 11th bday Oh- husband had work trip and kids on spring break 🤪 So took girls w/ me to SF. Best reminder who I do all this for. 💕

I thought I was fine. I thought I’d feel just simple relief after 4 days of waiting for this news. But I had to sit down, overwhelmed, tears running down my face. We’ve been waiting for this for 4 YEARS. Carrying this weight. We have hope again. This is everything.

This sounds very 🇨🇦 of me but: We, who have the privilege to ride this out largely unscathed (income not threatened, access to help, mental health mostly intact) have a massive responsibility to help those that do not.

Is there anything more thrilling to a founder than having a user use your product? If there is I haven’t found it.

Sweetest two sentences I've read in a long time. Shaking with relief. Heartsick for my fellow founders. I have faith that all is not lost and that there is salvaging. But I'm also certain won't be fast enough or enough enough to save all. 💔

Ok. After being wonderfully deluged by so many YC applications by womxn founded companies, I can unequivocally say: 🤩 Wow. The world's problems are getting tackled by some incredible builders. But: we're not telling our strongest stories.

For those building actual products on top of LLMs - it's crazy how greatest challenges aren't capabilities. It's marrying probabilistic "magic" with deterministic reliability. Limericks are great but pj day has to be 100% right. Building on edge means battling this.

✨ Parents can sign up to join as beta families at joinmilo.com. 🕺🏽It's just the beginning of how we're working w/ OpenAI to take their latest and greatest and combine it with the thoughtfulness and nuance required for our families and our communities.

4y ago I was a founder with an idea but without technical skills to make it reality. By standing on shoulders of products making tech accessible to everyone, I could build it into co it was meant to be. Can’t wait to share how anyone can do the same. webflow.com/nocodeconf/sched…

I'm a founder today because of @ycombinator 's OG Startup school and @paulg 's essays. There are so many counter-intuitive insights that can be learned either by living them or by learning them (just like in parenthood, btw). Imo, YC's true superpower is their mission to make this knowledge widely available so that startup founders can innovate from any corner of the world, from any background. Now, with the age of AI upon us, I'm excited that they're investing in again making the insights of the best minds available not just to the lucky 2K in that room, but to everyone. Playing fields are rarely ever even but this sure helps.

Most products and apps are over-designed and under-“solves-the-damn-problem”ed

🔨 Make it work, 💨 make it fast, 💃🏽 make it pretty. Over the next 30 days, joining an atomic essay challenge and sharing some of my fav startup, leadership and brand building insights.

T-3 days to YC and I can feel the pull to immerse myself in all things building and shipping. Already I’m getting impatient with distraction (or is that just the parent in me needing school to start already 😬) Either way: let’s do this. 💪🏽 instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0…

Ugh - my 10yo daughter is entering that phase of "I don't like math/not good at it", w/ her friends feeding it. Too bad that's not an option in our fam 🤣 We're brainstorming weekly playdates to make it "social math" Any ideas of exercises/activities/approaches we could take?

For the past week I’ve been trying to figure out this feeling of utter exhaustion that I can’t shake. I’m working out, eating decently, getting outside. But by evening I’m completely done. I can barely put the kids to sleep and I don’t have energy to read. Anyone else??

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." —Henry Ford If this ain't the story of my past 5 years, I don't know what is. 💪🏽

Best part of Diwali this year? My adorable little helper.

Who wants to work on incredibly impactful problem, building on very frontiers of tech? Oh and learning on steepest learning curve with a team that puts the fun in team 😅. On hunt for folks who are default curious, optimistic and have an exceptionally high bar for their craft.

8 years ago, this minute, this girl made me a mama. She helped me find my calling and purpose in life. She’s sweet and spicy and teaches me about kindness everyday. Happy birthday bug.

There is little more dangerous to founders than accepting “conventional wisdom”. When you’re changing way things are done, convention is the enemy. Instead, dig to the foundation. To first principles. Find those dots + connect them up in new ways. Therein lies breakthrough.

I’ll tell you this for free: There is simply nothing more motivating than solving the biggest problems in your own life. Today I will spend my morning trying to figure out how to juggle childcare w/ my job and this afternoon I’ll work on helping the millions do the same.

For all the flaws and heartbreaking social challenges of living in SF, there is no question that it’s the city that believes in the size and ambition of my dreams. It’s the one place that I don’t have to apologize for the fences I swing for and it makes me believe I can do it.

Oh the irony of the guy who quite literally looks like an unmade bed asking the lil lady, well gosh, how do all those clothes for all those humans in your home get themselves washed? 😑

Since reading this article yesterday I've been filled with a rollercoaster of emotions. It's time we talked about some hard truths. It's time we stopped allowing ourselves to be so egregiously underserved.

Maybe there will come a day when it isn’t the absolute coolest thing to see something I’ve written in print, but it ain’t today. 🥰

And don’t forget. The prize is always the opportunity to continue building the company, not who funds you or which program “accepts” you. Good luck to everyone and let’s keep building. 💪🏽

Because we need this to work for every family, we're releasing a beta, SMS only product today that we want parents to start using and improving with us, with the challenges of their everyday.

I don’t know who needs to hear this but: Your dream is worth waking up at 4am for. It’s worth talking to a thousand people who say no for that very perfect one that says yes. It’s worth spending your one wild and precious life chasing.

Anytime you get a bunch of founders together the air feels electric. All the optimism and resourcefulness and drive. Get hundreds of them together for weeks at a time? Well it’s no surprise that incredible things are built and achieved. T-75 days💪🏽 instagram.com/tv/B7APkwzJdpR…

If we're always going to rely on the people that have done it, to do it, we're in for a whole lot of the same. Make a bet on the people that may have never done it, but they see it differently and their track record is that they've gotten here at all and are doing it anyway.

Whenever I start feeling the swell of overwhelm, I realize I’ve stopped prioritizing with ruthless precision. Founder or parent, constraint is constant. It’s all about what we choose to spend that time on, not seeking more minutes.

My 7yo has created “worksheets” for my 4yo. I dunno man. Either my 4yo is a math wizard (“spectacular!”) or my 7yo is a champion tiger parent. 😬😂🤓 Either way I feel confident my work here is done.

So much about early stage startups is growing/surviving long enough to earn right to work w/ ✨🔥🤩 people that truly accelerate ambition. We just got there this week and I am so many kinds of fired up. ✨ Milo is going to be something so special and memorable. Mark my words.

To hear him talk about the incredible women in his life with such respect...

It's a gift to wake up on Monday mornings and be chomping at the bit to get to work, impatient for anything getting in your way. If you have this, do everything you can to keep it. If you don't, get working on what would make it so.

So many of the hardest startup days are when I can’t see the path forward as clearly. When things are muddled or foggy.🌫 There’s only one tried and true way I know to find my way back to vision, inspiration and insight. Talk to your users. Their words are light and energy.✨

Fitting thought for the times. "Do not wish for an easy life. Wish for the strength to endure a difficult one." —Bruce Lee

Man am I completely, head over heels, in love with my work rn. It's fleeting and temporary, but in start-ups, wins are so momentary and flow is so hard fought for, that when it's there, you celebrate. You share. You revel. So yeah, I love how much I love my work right now.

👩‍👩‍👧‍👦👪👨‍👦Families are the cornerstone of society but foundation has been crumbling for some time. Post-COVID? It's about to topple. Maybe now is time to tear it all down and build it to be future we all want + need to live in. Here are 12 ideas on where to start. In future: 🧵

“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”

Since doing @ycombinator in W16, two of my fav times of the year were Alumni Demo Day. A dress rehearsal for the founders but also a beautiful pay-it-forward for alums to come back and support the current batch. Since 2020 it’s been remote but it’s back in person and so very excited to support F24 founders.

You know what's f'ing amazing? We live in this magical time where I, w/ a basic but really practical Javascript/React foundation, can create a map component in 10 min w/ Google's super easy to follow documentation and API access. Thanks @LambdaSchool. #everyoneabuilder

It’s the big little things but: When it’s 7:30am and you’re racing to pack backpacks and you can’t remember if it’s bring 👟/🎻/📚 day, it’s an incredible feeling knowing you built something to solve for that. 😊

Mithai run. We can’t celebrate together in person, but we still keep the tradition of dropping off sweets at friends’ houses.

Damn but kids are the most incredible miracles. Sneaking in to watch their sleeping perfection before I go to bed ... they are every reason to fight the fights and build the things. Sleep well my sweets.

Genuinely curious about this because most bullish people about homeschooling seem to be 1. people without kids or 2. men w/ wives that would be doing the homeschooling. I have yet to see either homeschooling companies being built by women or mothers strongly advocating for it.

Never underestimate how important it is to work with "good natured" people. Shit breaks. People step on all the toes. Pressure compounds. Assuming positive intent and moving on is an incredible asset. Also just so much more fun.

If there’s a more energizing form of motivation than talking to a fellow founder (esp building for these times) I haven’t found it. 💪🏽

The truest thing I can say about entrepreneurship is that you will feel highest highes and lowest lows in the same week. Sometimes same day. True of this week where I hit a bottom I haven’t see for a while, while today has been incredible. Key is to not put store by either.

The truest thing is can share as someone who as gone through this is: When your vision and ambition involves tech, whoever is writing the code is building the very foundation upon which the rest of your company will rise or crumble.

Our girls are now 9 and 11 but we moved back to Vancouver (where my parents live), eight years ago. We had tried to make Boston and even Seattle work but with two jobs and two kids, even 3 hour drive away wasn't enough. Was not optimal for my career but we decided it was easier for me to travel to SF while optimizing stability for the girls (also helped financially, culturally and life-ly). This was and has been 100% right decision for us and for that phase of our lives (eg. kids were 1-10 yo) But I would ask these questions to make sure right for you: 1. Do both sides see their role of grandparent vs. childcare the same? Often kids (us) assume their parents will naturally fill the fill in childcare role). Many of our parents are "done raising kids" and want to just enjoy being grandparents (or their health isnt what it was to run around toddlers/lift preschoolers) - we had to work through boundaries and definitions in the early years; think of it as building a bench with different roles to be filled - full time care is very different from every Wed stay-overs which is different from "in a pinch" care. Define your needs, figure out who fills each. Mainly: don't assume the childcare bit and make sure you have the convo with each individual grandparent/fam member. 2. What impact to work life are you willing to bear? For me, constant travel to SF was tenable bc same time zone, quick flights but has def not been ideal. Could also make it work bc I was where my team was each week. But if you're so stressed or absent that you feel like you're not getting the time at home that you need, or if you're not feeling effective, it's not worth it. It seeps into marriage and relationship with kids. 3. How important to your family values is multi-generational community? I was most surprised about how nice it was to feel "continuity" when having my kids meet and be with people I grew up with/their kids, esp in Indian community. The intangibles of community can sometimes offset the friction of the work side. If you do do it, I would frame as a 1-2 year experiment. If it works, great, if it doesn't, you have a set timeframe to go back or figure next out. Above all, I'm most proud of the relationship our girls have with their grandparents. It's something I never had and in these crazy early years, we found a way that gave them that while also freeing my husband and I to go build companies. Happy to share more details as we've the nuances for years.

Home after my weekly commute to SF for the week. And though I squeeze the girls extra hard bc I miss them in my core every day, above all I am filled w/ gratitude. How lucky am I that I can be a mother and a founder. That I have the support to do and be both.

Grateful for a Monday where the focus can be on the work we're all doing to build the solutions to the big challenges in our lives. Thanks to Kurt and @geekwire for sharing more on what we're building with Milo and why it's so damn important right now: geekwire.com/2020/poppy-foun…

So conflicted right now. For ten years we’ve moved around my cases from business school. And it’s supposed to be time to say goodbye to them. Realistically I will never reread them. As it is, I’ve dug in to find an old case maybe 1 or 2 times. But my knowledge is my faith.

Prob shouldn't be sharing yet but feel like I'm bursting. ✨You just send all the chaos to Milo, we sort that shit out for you. Just tip of what happens when you thoughtfully pair AI with a human expert (aka another parent). AI can have the job none of us parents asked for.

The best founders I know are a wild blend of unbridled optimism, constant paranoia and impenetrable will.

It occurs to me that we’re all so focused on teaching our kids to achieve that maybe we should be spending more time on teaching them how to build a life worth living.

The remote control was wrapped in Saran Wrap.