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 AIWhy “making money” isn’t enough to call something a startup—and why tech-enabled scale still mattersThe origin story of Simple AI: consumer assistant, prank calls, and the first “holy sh*t” user feedbackHow large enterprises are using voice agents today for inbound sales, support, and real revenue liftWhy high-quality, high-conversion calls beat “cheap” AI—and how Simple AI thinks about upsell and A/B testingB2C 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 This podcast episode is sponsored by Stable. Click here to sign up for a virtual address:  https://dashboard.usestable.com/onboard/begin?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=influencer_lobster&promoCode=lobster50