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Building a Multi-Billion Dollar Hard Tech Company | Qasar Younis, CEO of Applied Intuition | Ep. 9

(If you enjoyed this, please like and subscribe!) I had a blast sitting down with Qasar Younis, Co-Founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a company that’s on a mission to accelerate the world’s adoption of safe and intelligent machines. The company builds software that makes it faster, safer, and easier to bring autonomous systems to market. Last valued at $6B, Applied Intuition has raised a total of $602M since its inception in 2017 and plays a critical role in both the commercial and defense sectors. Previously, Qasar was a Partner and COO of Y Combinator, the renowned startup accelerator that has invested in companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Stripe, among others. Prior to Y Combinator, Qasar founded a technology firm, which was later acquired by Google, and worked as an automotive engineer at General Motors and Bosch. Younis has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Kettering University (formerly known as General Motors Institute) and an MBA from Harvard Business School. We covered: - Radical pragmatism - Roots of the automotive industry - Complexities of being dual use - Fostering an intrinsically contrarian culture - Evolving with your work Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:31) Psychology of starting a company (17:04) Love for the automotive industry (22:54) Autonomous vehicle landscape (25:45) Deep partnership with customers (28:49) Complexities of being dual use (34:44) Culture being intrinsically contrarian (40:01) Gen AI and humanoid robotics (42:28) More noise than signal in investing (44:14) Evolving with your work (47:43) Companies working is a state in time Linktree: https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod Twitter: https://x.com/jaltma Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Qasar YounisguestJack Altmanhost
May 14, 202551mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Applied Intuition CEO on hard tech, culture, and defense markets

  1. Qasar Younis describes the mid-career decision to leave Google and then Y Combinator, weighing starting a fund versus founding Applied Intuition, and ultimately choosing the work he’d enjoy most with the right co-founder and domain fit.
  2. He outlines Applied Intuition’s platform strategy—tools, an operating system layer, and autonomy—framing it as a “Microsoft for moving machines” across cars, trucks, construction equipment, and defense systems.
  3. The conversation emphasizes domain expertise as a competitive moat in industrial markets, plus the operational realities: safety-critical constraints, long product lifecycles, and deeply embedded customer relationships.
  4. Younis also shares culture and management beliefs—radical pragmatism, debate-driven truth-seeking, in-office intensity, decisiveness with imperfect information, and maintaining an uncompromising quality bar—alongside reflections on family and personal values.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Mid-career is a decisive window for committing to a path.

Younis frames life as a limited number of “five-year Post-its,” arguing your mid-30s combine enough credibility to choose among paths with enough runway left to build something enduring.

Founders and investors require different psychologies.

He characterizes great investors as more independent and academic, while great founders are highly opinionated, often disagreeable, and compelled to correct what they see as wrong—traits that are hard to sustain as a non-boss.

“Radical pragmatism” means integrating feedback without losing agency.

He credits a willingness to take feedback (e.g., robotaxi skepticism) while still evaluating where “the market could be wrong,” treating big decisions as clear-eyed tradeoffs rather than identity bets.

Applied’s platform strategy is broader than autonomy.

He positions autonomy as one component of machine intelligence, alongside core software/compute architecture (centralized compute, “defragging” systems) and interaction layers (e.g., in-cabin and human-machine coordination).

Industrial domain expertise compounds into a flywheel moat.

Younis argues few Silicon Valley teams truly understand automotive/industrial ecosystems; deep familiarity with OEMs, suppliers, lifecycles, and buying processes accelerates product decisions and credibility with customers.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

“All of our values can be reduced to radical pragmatism.”

— Qasar Younis

“No problem can withstand the constant onslaught of thought.”

— Qasar Younis

“Decisiveness, decisiveness, decisiveness. You’ve got to make decisions as a leader without all the information. And then, by the way, they’ve got to be right.”

— Qasar Younis

“I feel more myself today than I’ve ever felt.”

— Qasar Younis

“No matter how successful you become… if your kids don’t like you, you’re a failure.”

— Qasar Younis

Leaving YC vs starting a fundFounder vs investor temperamentRadical pragmatism and feedback-takingApplied Intuition’s three product areas: tools, OS, autonomy“Microsoft for moving machines” platform analogyAutomotive and industrial domain expertise as moatDual-use strategy and defense procurement realitiesIn-office culture decisions during COVIDContrarianism vs mainstream Silicon Valley normsHumanoid robotics/gen-AI hype vs business modelsFounder identity, quality bar, and long-term valuesAdvising founders: knowing when you’re on the wrong mountain

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