Thomas Chan

Today, we are killing Workday, SuccessFactors and Ashby. Recruiting software was built to track hiring. Recruiters still do the work: finding people, reviewing applications, running interviews, taking notes, doing reporting, and chasing calendars. Lantern (YC F26) is an agentic recruiting platform with connected agents that do the work for you. It learns your hiring taste, searches a billion professionals, and shares context across sourcing, screening, interviews, and scheduling. Every interview and hiring decision makes the next search better. Teams can start with Lantern on top of their existing ATS, or replace it entirely. We have processed over 2 million candidates for companies including Crypto.com, Hyatt and Eight Sleep. @ycombinator @LanternAI__

agree. the side project tells u more than the CV ever will. what someone builds when nobody asks is the best signal in hiring

this guy created FastAPI. a job post still wanted 4+ years of FastAPI experience from him, 1.5 years after he built it 6 years later, hiring tools still treat a bad requirement as a good reason to reject someone rejecting ppl faster doesnt help if the filter was wrong to begin with

to everyone applying to yc w27: i thought getting in would make life easier. it brought >100 intro calls a week and leads we couldnt have dreamed of it also made everything way harder yc didnt make building lantern easier. it just took away our excuses

today we're launching People Infrastructure for Agents the problem: every people stack you pay for was built for a human with a mouse, and your agents hate using your mouse, with all those separate logins and invoices introducing Lantern's People Infrastructure for Agents: -> 70+ popular tools (people data, company signals, deep research, outreach) behind one connection -> CLI native, built for codex, claude code and grok bot -> your agent describes the job, Lantern picks the tools, finds the human, explains the fit and reaches out via Linkedin, email, iMessage -> one wallet instead of 6 separate subscriptions Tell your agent "setup people.lantern.md", and get started with our generous free tier let's give agents the ability to contact ANYONE in the world ;) @LanternAI__ @ycombinator

ytd herman said we should knock on doors like it's 1995 in 3 hours he designed personalized brochures, handwrote every prospect's name on the cover, planned the route, and pulled a talent list for each of their open roles you cant filter for that with keywords on a CV p.s. if a lantern brochure with your name on it shows up at your door, it was herman

"how do you plan on killing ashby and workday?" a prospect asked me this on a call yesterday, after seeing our launch video i said: they track the hiring. lantern does the hiring

lantern.md/analytics

you shouldn't have to wait until you're back at your desk to manage your hiring pipeline so now you can run sourcing on the go with @LanternAI__ on the iPhone Duo our engineers worked very hard over the weekends to ship a duo-native interface try it on your new iphone duo today

i bet bumble didnt realize it just became a gtm channel herman pitched using the app as outreach for lantern his setup: company jacket pic + a bio for lead qualification day 1: 6 matches, 4 convos, 1 meeting booked not scalable. but he says we should "do things that don't scale" should i stop him?

yc's notes on 3 founders: "decided to reject, not good enough" "a bit immature, stuck in their heads" "not impressed, feeling like no progress" they went on to found segment (sold to @twilio for $3B), bland ($100M raised) and greptile (series a by benchmark) same notes also said: "these guys are probably good, but need some time to become great" lantern has shipped a lot. some landed, some didnt. some days it feels like no progress "no progress" isnt the end state. we just needa keep grinding

what i like here is that cognition saw what he could do and made the effort to get him on the team. an mit junior isnt some hidden underdog. but he still didnt have the "5+ years of experience" most companies keep insisting on. sometimes the best person for your team doesnt look like the person you planned to hire.

i asked herman to walk away from j.p. morgan for a crappy startup couldnt match his pay. no title, no playbook. we've shipped 7 products and changed pricing 10+ times since he joined what i did promise: real ownership, speed, honesty since then he's closed hyatt, haeco and 6 of the top 50 universities early stage needs missionaries, not mercenaries 🏮

YC's founders told me to stand up straight not about posture. most startup ideas get bent by fear of competition (Airbnb started as airbed + host + breakfast) pg's fix: face the big guys head-on, just do the obvious things well my attempt: people.lantern.md

we're giving your agents the power to contact ANYONE in the world skip separate Apollo, Clay, Hunter & Prospeo subs. connect Lantern to your agent and get verified contact data back no API keys, no extra subscriptions. works in Claude Code people.lantern.md

we hit $1M ARR but the sales process deserves less credit than you think most closing problems are actually top-of-funnel problems early on you won't out-convert funded competitors. you out-volume them ;)

Teaching Lantern your hiring bar takes about fifteen minutes. I think of that calibration as a line through the hiring work. On your side, you set the standard: what exceptional looks like on your team for this role. On Lantern's side, it tests that standard against the talent m

One assessment before the final round: take-home or live working session. A take-home shows what someone produces with time and focus. A live session shows how they reason in real time. Your pick says what you trust as evidence of skill.

Many in hiring believe an experienced reviewer can spot a strong resume at a glance. I disagree. No two reviewers look for the same thing, and bias creeps in. Lantern's Application Review reads each applicant against your team's criteria. lantern.md