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Catheryn Li

Catheryn Li

Founder & CEO at Simple AI; ex‑Y Combinator product lead

catheryn
San Francisco, California
Joined June 2024
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5.8K connections
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AI Startup Founders
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YC Leadership Staff
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Early-Stage Investors
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YC Product Engineers
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Simple AI Team
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AI/ML
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First Harmonic Team

Summary

Product and engineering leader for founder‑facing platforms: At Y Combinator she led the software team that shipped Startup School, the YC Library, and the Co‑Founder Matching platform — tools designed to help founders form teams and learn YC's playbook. Her work combined product thinking with hands‑on engineering to deliver features used by large founder communities. ycombinator+2
Founder & CEO building voice‑first AI products: As co‑founder and CEO of Simple AI she is building AI phone/voice agents (consumer and enterprise product) that automate calling tasks — product launched through YC and publicly promoted as a phone assistant that can book appointments, wait on hold, and operate across languages. ycombinator+2
Strong technical foundation with consumer‑product engineering experience: Trained at MIT (CS, math, music) and early engineering internships/research at places like Quora, Quizlet, Yext, the Broad Institute and MIT Media Lab, followed by product engineering roles at Facebook/Instagram and then YC — a background that blends systems/product engineering, research exposure, and product leadership. weekday+1

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

What do people want in a co‑founder?

October 21, 2021

Analysis of data from YC's co‑founder matching platform describing founder preferences (skills, location, time commitment, interests) and early matching trends.

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Y Combinator Launches Co‑Founder Matching Platform

July 1, 2021

Announcement and explanation of YC's co‑founder matching platform: how it works, motivation, and early metrics.

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Announcing the YC Startup Library

August 6, 2020

Post announcing the launch of the YC Startup Library (a consolidated resource of YC content for founders); part of her published YC posts about founder resources.

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Hobbies

Music and singing (studied music as part of her MIT degree). weekday+1

Notes

ZKZach Kamransaid they've seen
CLCatheryn Li
make a big positive impact in their organization while leading as a senior executive.

Mar 27, 2026

MTMichael Tansaid
CLCatheryn Li
is someone they'd trust to set strategic direction and lead a large organization successfully.

Mar 16, 2026

JFJJ Fliegelmansaid they've seen
CLCatheryn Li
bring together strong technical abilities with genuine interests in fields like philosophy, literature, or classics.

Mar 4, 2026

MTMichael Tansaid they've seen
CLCatheryn Li
accomplish something truly notable as an early stage founder.

Feb 20, 2026

DADhruv Agrawalsaid they've seen
CLCatheryn Li
excel at building strong relationships and networks in the professional community.

Feb 9, 2026

MTMichael Tansaid
CLCatheryn Li
is one of the most impressive C-level leaders they've known at an early-stage startup.

Jan 29, 2026

DADhruv Agrawalsaid they would trust
CLCatheryn Li
to lead a complex AI/ML engineering effort.

Jan 3, 2026

FPFedor Paretskysaid
CLCatheryn Li
is one of the most impressive AI founders they've worked with at the start of their journey.

Dec 6, 2025

FPFedor Paretskysaid they would trust
CLCatheryn Li
to lead engineering for growth at a fast-paced, rapidly scaling startup.

Dec 6, 2025

ZOZach Oceansaid
CLCatheryn Li
is a founder who has made a real difference in the AI space.

Nov 25, 2025

LSLavish Salujasaid they would be excited to team up with
CLCatheryn Li
as a cofounder for a new consumer AI venture.

Sep 5, 2025