Qasar Younis is the co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a leading vehicle intelligence platform that helps companies develop and deploy autonomous systems at scale. In June 2025, the company raised $600M at a $15B valuation. Before Applied Intuition, Qasar was the COO and a group partner at Y Combinator, and earlier founded TalkBin, which was acquired by Google. He’s also held engineering roles at General Motors and Bosch.

In today’s episode, we discuss:• The two founder traits Silicon Valley undervalues• How to get 1–3 extra months of work done every year• Lessons from YC on pattern matching and founder feedback• The battle-tested startup formula Qasar used at Applied• Why co-founder fit is make-or-break• Applied’s playbook: vertical SaaS, product-led GTM, and leveraging VC networks• Why Applied went multi-product in the early days• Contrarian takes on startup culture, compensation, and cost control• Why domain expertise is making a comeback• And much more…

Referenced:• Applied Intuition: https://www.appliedintuition.com• Ansys: https://www.ansys.com• Bilal Zuberi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bzuberi• Bosch: https://www.bosch.com• Elad Gil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladgil• General Motors: https://www.gm.com• “Google’s Acquisition of TalkBin”: https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/25/google-acquires-talkbin-a-feedback-platform-for-businesses-thats-only-five-months-old/• “High Output Management”: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884• Kyle Vogt: https://x.com/kvogt• Marc Andreessen: https://x.com/pmarca• “Only the Paranoid Survive”: https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Strategic-Inflection/dp/0385483821• Paul Graham: https://x.com/paulg• Peter Ludwig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwludwig• Sam Altman: https://x.com/sama• TalkBin: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/talkbin• “The History of the Standard Oil Company”: https://www.amazon.com/History-Standard-Oil-Company-Volumes/dp/1519455860• Waymo: https://waymo.com• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com• Zoox: https://zoox.com

Where to find Qasar:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qasar/

Where to find Brett:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson

Where to find First Round Capital:• Website: https://firstround.com/• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital• This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast

Timestamps:(01:26) Two founder traits Silicon Valley undervalues(04:23) Gain 1-3 extra months of productivity yearly(05:52) Why founders should read outside the startup canon(07:27) Lessons from YC(13:44) Why it's harder to start than to quit(15:52) The moment you become a real founder(20:24) How great founders master luck(21:46) Qasar’s battle-tested startup formula(25:37) The founding insight for Applied(31:42) How Applied expanded beyond automotive(38:05) Why Applied went multi-product early(45:45) What no one says about startup secondaries(49:02) Why being cheap is a startup superpower(51:04) The myth of "competition doesn’t matter"(53:50) Early scrappiness: The Sunnyvale house setup(54:50) Why domain knowledge is making a comeback(58:32) The mentors who shaped Qasar