Bernard Aceituno (Stack AI): Lessons from YC, Pivots & Scaling

This week, we sat down with Bernard Aceituno, co-founder & CEO of Stack AI.Originally from Venezuela, Bernard’s journey took him from a PhD at MIT to building Stack AI, fresh out of Y Combinator. We covered a lot, including:✅ How Stack AI is revolutionizing AI agents—connecting data sources & tools securely✅ The real value of YC beyond the hype (including how their first customers came from a YC WhatsApp group)✅ The role of AI agents as a new software category—automating tasks, interacting with tools, and storing memory✅ How operationally heavy industries (banks, logistics, healthcare) benefit most from AI automation✅ Stack AI’s go-to-market strategy—leveraging content, inbound leads, and pilot projects to scale✅ Why raising money is a distraction and shouldn't take more than two weeksIf you’re building in AI—or thinking about it—this one’s a must-listen.Key moments:Introduction (1m13)YC / Start of the story (8m07)Vision with Stack AI + AI agent definition + how they integrate into (18m50)How companies figure out their best use cases with Stack AI, and managing data privacy (23m40)Data privacy with StackAI (27m12)Targeting industries - horizontal VS vertical and selling (29m55)Mistakes made with StackAi (36m37)Stack AI internal growth (40m35)The future of the AI space among startups + raising money (44m55)Resources Bernardo recommended: The hard things about hard things (Ben Horowitz)