Each year, tens of thousands of startups apply to Y Combinator. This highly selective accelerator program provides funding and mentorship to early-stage companies, including famous startups like Airbnb, Stripe, Instacart, Reddit, and more.
For founders, earning a spot in the program is a sign they’re building something with the potential to change the world. Over the past several years, a growing number of those founders have shared something powerful in common: they’re Spartans.
From AI to EdTech to productivity and entertainment, Michigan State University alums have earned their place among the world’s most promising startups. These founders represent a continuing wave of Spartan innovators bringing creativity, grit, and real-world impact across world. Among them:
Cloudant
Mike Miller ('99)
Cloudant's distributed database-as-a-service (DBaaS) allows developers of fast-growing web and mobile apps to focus on building and improving their products, instead of worrying about scaling and managing their databases on their own.
Friday
Advait Paliwal ('24)
Friday is building the assistant that learns how to predict the action that you will take on your emails, and does it for you.
Hightouch
Josh Curl ('15)
Hightouch is the leading Composable CDP and AI Decisioning platform allowing marketing teams to activate their data warehouse to build 1:1 customer experiences with data and AI agents.
Lavo Life Sciences
Derek Metcalf ('18) and Scott Swarthout ('17)
Lavo Life Sciences runs simulations of drug molecules on computers. Pharma companies use these simulations to guide their experiments and ultimately save time and money in the lab. This will de-risk and expedite clinical trials and FDA approval.
Nasdisc
Cam Korzecke ('19)
Nasdisc is a marketplace for the $4 billion worth of records purchased every year. The goal is to make a space for artists to easily distribute their music.
Obie
Aaron Letzseier ('12) and Ryan Letzseier ('09)
Obie has simplified real estate investment insurance for landlords, property managers, agents, and investors across the U.S. With expert-backed coverage, intuitive tools, and embedded technology, Obie delivers fast, reliable insurance solutions designed to fit how real estate professionals work today.
Observee
Rajmeet Chandok ('24)
Observee is specializing in building and deploying Vision Language Models (VLMs) and Vision Language Action Models (VLAs) for edge computing environments.
OfOne
Adam Proschek ('13)
OfOne is building software to automate order taking at fast-food drive-thrus. Using conversational AI, we help restaurant chains operate more efficiently and level-up their customer experience.
YouLearn
David Yu ('24)
YouLearn is reshaping how students learn by using AI to create personalized, adaptive learning experiences.
Though their companies differ, each founder shares a common bond as Spartans, driven by curiosity, collaboration, and bold thinking. The Burgess Institute has become a launchpad for ideas that compete at the highest level, helping Spartans develop the mindset and skill set to navigate real-world startup challenges.
The growing presence of Spartans in Y Combinator shows the strength of MSU’s entrepreneurial community. From classrooms in East Lansing to demo days in Silicon Valley, these founders prove that Spartans do not wait for opportunities. They build them.
This legacy of innovation shows that Spartan entrepreneurs are shaping the future, building companies that can make a global impact, and setting standards for the next generation of founders.