YC Root Access

This AI Startup Is Taking Over Phone Sales

In this episode of Founder Firesides, YC Managing Partner Jared Friedman talks to the founders of Simple AI (S24), Catheryn Li & Zach Kamran, who just raised a seed round of $14M. Simple AI gives businesses an AI sales agent that handles inbound calls end-to-end and outperforms their human reps. Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

JFJared FriedmanhostZKZach KamranguestCLCatheryn Liguest

Feb 18, 2026·37m·Watch on YouTube ↗

📖 CHAPTERS

1. 1

   What Simple AI does: an AI voice agent that completes phone sales end-to-end

   Cat explains Simple AI’s core product: a natural-sounding AI that answers inbound sales calls and completes the entire purchase workflow without a human. The agent can explain products, answer questions, and collect billing/shipping information to place orders.

2. 2

   Real customers already using it: Omaha Steaks and beyond

   The founders share that major brands still drive significant revenue over the phone and are already deploying Simple AI. Omaha Steaks is highlighted as a flagship customer where calls to the website number route to Simple AI.

3. 3

   Founders’ origin story: meeting at YC’s internal software team

   Cat and Zach describe how they met while working at Y Combinator, building core software used by founders and YC operations. They outline YC’s “secret weapon” of software and data supporting applications, interviews, compliance, and portfolio management.

4. 4

   Idea #1: building a “better Siri” consumer assistant—and why it was confusing

   Their first attempt was a consumer AI assistant that could both chat and take actions (Uber, DoorDash, calendars, etc.). Users struggled to understand the system’s boundaries when it could do many different tasks, pushing the team to narrow scope.

5. 5

   Idea #2: consumer voice AI that makes outbound calls for you (and goes viral)

   They pivoted to voice AI that could make phone calls on a user’s behalf—booking reservations, scheduling appointments, and negotiating. Viral stories included negotiating with multiple car dealerships, waiting on hold for a refund, and even celebrity/press attention.

6. 6

   Why the consumer calling app didn’t become a durable business

   Despite being impressive, the consumer product lacked frequent repeat use—people used it for rare, high-friction tasks and then churned. In user interviews, many loved it but wouldn’t pay, while business users started asking for inbound-call handling.

7. 7

   The crucial bridge to B2B: inbound calls and the Omaha Steaks prank-call moment

   A surprising path to their first major customer came from the consumer onboarding experience: business leaders heard the voice quality and imagined it in their call center. Omaha Steaks’ CEO used the app to prank-call his COO, triggering the realization it could transform their peak-season operations.

8. 8

   Idea #3: “AI voice that sells” for phone-first direct-to-consumer businesses

   The company’s current focus is an AI sales agent for inbound calls, especially for DTC companies with complex or high-ticket products. Omaha Steaks’ seasonal surge (15x staffing) and training challenges make automation a revenue-protection and growth lever.

9. 9

   Deploying in the real world: integrating with legacy systems and on-prem infrastructure

   They describe the gritty operational work of implementing Simple AI inside a legacy enterprise environment. Omaha Steaks runs critical workflows on AS/400-style terminals and on-prem servers with limited deployment windows, requiring custom integration and close collaboration.

10. 10

    Teaching the agent the business: SKUs, promos, and the true complexity of phone commerce

    To sell effectively, the agent must understand deeply nested product catalogs, bundles, discounts, and regional marketing variations. The founders explain how they extracted operational knowledge by partnering with marketing, IT, and leadership across the company.

11. 11

    Performance advantage: higher upsells, A/B tested scripts, and personalized experiences

    Simple AI is framed not as labor replacement but as revenue optimization and customer experience improvement. They claim the agent outperforms trained human reps on upsells and enables rapid iteration via prompt changes and A/B testing, including voice/accent personalization.

12. 12

    Customer experience upgrades: no rushing, better conversations, and long-term memory

    With AI, average-handle-time pressure can be reduced, enabling more natural conversations and better service. The agent can remember preferences and personal details across calls, creating a “magical” returning-customer experience and better targeting for offers.

13. 13

    Company traction and strategy: launch timing, funding, team growth, and a premium approach

    They share that the current product launched around February last year, and the company has since scaled headcount and raised capital. Because the product drives revenue, Simple AI can invest heavily in quality—latency, naturalness, and robust behavior—rather than competing on cheapest cost.

14. 14

    Technical moat and roadmap: latency, evaluations, fine-tuning, transcription, turn-taking, and guardrails

    Zach outlines the hard engineering behind production-grade voice agents: sub-600ms responses, evaluation suites, customer-specific fine-tuning, and specialized models for pain points like address transcription and end-of-turn detection. They also emphasize orchestration and guardrails to prevent hallucinations and ensure orders/payments are handled reliably.

15. 15

    Founder lessons: follow user demand, talk to customers early, and iterate through pivots

    In closing, they reflect on moving through three ideas and learning new domains quickly. Their key advice is to start talking to users immediately, treat small early usage seriously, and let customer pull guide you—echoing examples like Brex’s pivot from VR to corporate cards.