8Spotlight

In this episode of 8Spotlight we chat with Wayne Crosby, founder and CEO of OrgOrg.Wayne has a storied history in tech, from selling his first startup to Google and being instrumental in building out G Suite, aka Google Workspace. We go into his background of being an experienced, storied founder and what lessons learned from the past that can be applied to the future.We go deep and discuss the redefinition of organizational productivity, the evolution of work and collaboration, the shift to hyper-personalized software stacks, and tackling customization and speed in software development.

In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Gabriel Birnbaum and the team behind Y/n, one of the fastest-growing AI consumer apps redefining interactive storytelling.From a rapid pivot to breakout growth, Y/n has scaled to massive engagement, with users spending hours inside AI-generated narratives. We dive into the journey from early product-market fit to viral distribution, the challenges of scaling AI infrastructure, and the vision behind building the “Entertainment Machine.”If you’re interested in consumer AI, product velocity, and the future of digital entertainment, this is one you don’t want to miss.

In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Nick Damiano, founder of Andromeda Surgical, to discuss the future of autonomous surgery. Nick shares how his team moved from concept to live clinical cases in record time, why they built a software-first surgical platform, and how data and autonomy could transform operating rooms around the world. We explore their rapid iteration cycles, global clinical rollout, and the long-term vision of enabling every patient to be treated with the precision of the world’s best surgeon.

Today on the podcast, we’re joined by Lawrence Gentilello, founder of Optery, a privacy and data removal platform trusted by hundreds of thousands of individuals and over a thousand businesses.Optery operates a highly scaled B2C business alongside a fast-growing B2B platform, helping people and organizations remove sensitive personal data from data brokers and reduce digital exposure. In this conversation, Lawrence shares how Optery scaled to eight figures in recurring revenue centering company values, navigated growing pains in user acquisition, expanded internationally, and built a product roadmap centered on AI-powered privacy protection—all while remaining seed funded and capital efficient.

In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Joshua Perk, Founder & CEO of Vector, the company transforming how revenue teams understand buyer intent.Joshua shares how Vector evolved from early product-market fit challenges into a breakout GTM platform: launching SiteID and OffsiteID to uncover contact-level buying signals before prospects ever reach your website. We talk candidly about rebuilding focus, navigating retention, raising conviction capital, and why the future of go-to-market belongs to Contact-Based Marketing, not accounts or guesswork.A must-listen for founders, operators, and anyone rethinking how modern growth actually works.

Biotech is one of the hardest industries to break into...regulated, slow, compliance-heavy, and notoriously resistant to new software.Yet Jin Kim, a solo YC founder, is doing what few believed possible: building a profitable, fast-growing AI platform that transforms how biotech companies run clinical trials.In this episode, Jin shares how he built Miracle, the platform making clinical-trial data ingestion and visualization plug-and-play for biotechs. We talk about his unusual path from USA Olympic Archery Team to MIT, and how the precision and discipline of archery shaped his founder mindset.A rare, honest look at what it takes to build a deep-tech company in a regulated space, and how one founder is doing it alone.

What if anyone, literally anyone, could build a full app without writing a single line of code?In today’s episode we sit down with Yujian Yao, co-founder and CEO of Floot, a platform building the easiest way for entrepreneurs and non-coders to build apps with AI.Yujian takes us inside the whirlwind of attention after launching, the challenge of keeping users engaged, and what it’s like scaling a product used by people who’ve never built software before. He also opens up about the unexpected turbulence, including Floot’s YouTube channels being wiped without warning, and what it’s taught him about resilience, velocity, and building in public.

Can something as complex as property ownership in India finally be simplified?In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Sanjay Mandava, co-founder and CEO of Landeed, the Y Combinator–backed startup transforming how India verifies, buys, and manages property.For decades, India’s real-estate system has been defined by paperwork, bureaucracy, and uncertainty — where proving ownership can take weeks and disputes can drag on for years. Landeed is changing that. Using AI and deep data integrations, they’ve created a “blue tick for property,” bringing instant verification and transparency to one of the world’s largest and most fragmented markets.Sanjay shares the journey behind building Landeed: from surviving regulatory setbacks and app de-listings to signing enterprise partnerships, working with the Government of India, and launching their groundbreaking AI TSR platform. He also opens up about what it takes to lead through chaos, why India’s property problem demands innovation over imitation, and how Landeed’s mission is expanding to serve millions of global Indians investing back home.It’s a conversation about trust, technology, and tenacity — and a look at how one founder is redefining what ownership means in the world’s fastest-growing economy. As Sanjay puts it: “When we show up, we win.”Tune in to hear how Landeed is turning India’s property maze into a map of opportunity, one verified title at a time.

"Can something artificial create something real?" This is one of the questions we tackle in this poignant episode of 8Spotlight with Dorothy Li, the co-founder of RealRoots. A Y Combinator–backed company growing at lightning speed, RealRoots is on a mission to help women form genuine friendships in a world that often makes that harder than ever.RealRoots started with a simple but profound realization: women experience constant disruption in their social circle. From moving cities and changing jobs to marriage, motherhood, and beyond, maintaining deep connections has become an uphill battle.Dorothy and her team built an AI-powered matching engine that helps women reconnect, rebuild, and root themselves in authentic friendships. This episode is for anyone who ever struggled to make friends as an adult, or wondered where technology fits in our most human experiences...you might leave more hopeful than you started.

In this episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Noah Palansky, co-founder of Taiv, the company turning everyday TVs in restaurants, gyms, and retail spaces into dynamic, revenue-generating media networks.Since its early days in Y Combinator, Taiv has grown rapidly: now with more than 3,000 signed partners and a freshly closed Series A led by IDC Ventures. Noah takes us behind the scenes of that growth, sharing how Taiv built and scaled a product that works for business owners, advertisers, and consumers alike.For anyone interested in startups, media, or the future of advertising, this conversation offers a candid look at what it means to build a category-defining company from the ground up.8Spotlight is brought to you by Eight Capital, a pre–Demo Day YC fund with a portfolio of 200+ companies. Each episode shines a light on the founders and startups shaping the future.

In the debut episode of 8Spotlight, we sit down with Josh Gardner, co-founder of Verata, to explore his journey from early career insights to building a YC-backed company tackling big problems in private equity platforms. Josh shares the pivotal moments (I believe the exact words used in this episode are "pivot hell"), tough decisions, and lessons learned along the road to PMF, offering a candid look at what it really takes to turn an idea into impact.