From College Dorm to Y Combinator: How Spur's Founders Built an AI-Powered Testing RevolutionIncase you are interested in long form podcast : https://youtu.be/kJyVIcx7X1g?si=TRfsH0vhitV1HXPaToday I'm writing a post about a dear friend who in the AI startup buzz world has raised money and having had a conversation with them both as a podcast and in person, I'm sharing their journey through my lens.From College Dorm to Y Combinator: How Spur's Founders Built an AI-Powered Testing RevolutionThe tech world is buzzing with AI, and one company is making waves in the often-overlooked world of software testing: Spur. On this week's episode of "Coffee with Bagel," we sat down with Sneha (CEO) and Anushka (CTO) of Spur, two Yale graduates who turned a college project into a Y Combinator success story. Their journey is a masterclass in innovation, perseverance, and the power of a strong founding team.The Spur Story: From Social Calendar to AI Testing PowerhouseSneha and Anushka's story begins in college, where they initially conceived Spur as a social calendar. However, their passion for AI and their experience in the Yale NLP lab led them to pivot towards a far more impactful solution: an AI-powered test automation platform. Using AI web agents, Spur revolutionizes the way companies test their software, eliminating the tedious manual processes and brittle automated scripts of the past. (00:05:00)Their journey wasn't without its challenges. After completing internships at tech giants like Figma, DeepMind, and Meta, they realized their desire for something more independent and personally driven. This led them to a two-week intensive coding sprint in a New Haven Airbnb, solidifying their commitment to Spur. (00:08:00)Conquering Y Combinator: A Tale of Authenticity and Concise PitchingTheir next hurdle? Y Combinator. This prestigious accelerator program is notoriously competitive, especially for applicants from India. Sneha and Anushka shared their experiences, highlighting the importance of a concise and authentic pitch. Their one-minute pitch video, recorded on Zoom due to illness, focused on their prior work, including 3 months of development and 40-60 user interviews. (00:15:00)Their advice for aspiring Y Combinator applicants? Focus on your team's chemistry and qualifications in the first 20 seconds. Y Combinator prioritizes the team's execution and market potential over the initial idea itself. A large, venture-scalable market is crucial. (00:20:00)The Y Combinator experience itself was transformative. The three-month program, with its bi-weekly sprints and intense focus on output goals (like MRR and customer acquisition), pushed them to iterate rapidly and learn from other startups. The collaborative environment, despite the inherent competitiveness, fostered mutual support and accelerated their growth. (00:25:00)Spur's Technology: Agentic AI and Self-Healing AutomationSpur's core technology is its AI-powered, agentic, and self-healing test automation. This means the AI acts like an intelligent robot, navigating websites and adapting to UI changes, unlike traditional automated scripts that break easily with updates. (00:12:00) This unique approach addresses a major pain point for companies: the time-consuming and often frustrating process of maintaining test scripts.Overcoming Challenges and Navigating the Future of QABuilding Spur wasn't without its technical challenges. Sneha and Anushka discussed the difficulties of creating a truly self-healing AI agent, the importance of prompt engineering, and the ongoing need to educate customers on Spur's capabilities. (00:35:00) They also addressed the hypothetical threat of competitors reverse-engineering their technology, highlighting their competitive advantages in expertise, execution, and continuous AI innovation. (00:40:00)Looking ahead, they discussed the impact of AI on the future of QA. While AI won't replace QA teams, it will significantly augment them, allowing testers to focus on higher-level tasks and strategic thinking. (00:45:00) Spur empowers QA professionals to become automation engineers, enhancing their skills and job security.Key Takeaways from Spur's Journey:•Build a strong team: A collaborative and complementary co-founding team is invaluable.•Focus on execution: Y Combinator prioritizes the team's ability to execute and deliver results.•Talk to your customers early and often: Avoid building a product in a vacuum; get constant feedback.•Iterate rapidly: Don't strive for perfection; launch quickly, fail fast, and learn from your mistakes.•Know your product's value: Pitch with confidence and demonstrate the problem you solve.Sneha and Anushka's journey with Spur is an inspiring example of how a strong team, a compelling vision, and a willingness to adapt can lead to remarkable success. Their story is a must-read for any aspiring entrepreneur, especially those in the burgeoning world of AI.Badri, Anushka (CTO, Spur)Although impressed how AI is changing QA teams work, I have first hand seen an entire team being laid off from work in my past experiences and how much AI is actually impacting lives in good or bad way of its own kind. The world of technology is never constant and not keeping up is a core problem every tech enthusiast is aware of to date. But, seeing multiple different companies and the trends of how AI is changing in each sector certainly instils a small amount of fear in me which is making me think further on how much more effort I may need to put to keep up.Hi, Im Badri, I call myself a "Wonderer" of many things and have a strong burning desire to get my curiosity quenched. I would like to extend an invitation to you to look at the world the same way as to however you deem fit and enjoy life as it may come.Welcome to the journey, fellow Wonderer.With warmth and wonder,BadriChief Wondering OfficerJoin our discordCollaborate on Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ns98npeHW5u766zE1MnBk?si=HedhHIozSbGucPCr0U6pEARead this on on my Medium