Y Combinator's Pete Koomen on AI as organizational infrastructure
In brief
- Pete Koomen, Y Combinator General Partner, leads AI and startup infrastructure initiatives
- AI tools enable non-technical users to manage complex data in modern finance operations
- Koomen co-founded Optimizely, scaling it to $100M annual recurring revenue
- Y Combinator built internal agent infrastructure to test AI capabilities at scale
- LLMs democratize data access, letting finance teams build custom tools without deep technical expertise
Building AI Infrastructure From Within
Koomen helps lead Y Combinator's work on AI and startup infrastructure. The firm hasn't just been advising portfolio companies on agent systems—it's been testing them internally. Y Combinator has recently overseen internal efforts to build agent infrastructure from the ground up, giving Koomen and his team firsthand insight into how these systems behave at scale.
This hands-on approach reflects a broader conviction: AI isn't just a feature or a tool. It's infrastructure. When organizations treat it that way, they unlock capabilities that were previously locked behind technical expertise or expensive consultants.
From Optimizely to Agent Infrastructure
Koomen brings real operational credibility to this conversation. He previously co-founded Optimizely, which he led to $100 million in annual recurring revenue. He understands what it takes to scale a company, manage complex data workflows, and empower teams to move faster.
That experience shapes his view on AI. The real value isn't in replacing people—it's in giving them leverage. Finance teams, in particular, deal with sprawling datasets, reconciliation work, and reporting that's often manual and error-prone. AI tools change that equation.
The Non-Technical User Revolution
AI tools at Y Combinator empower non-tech users to manage complex data. That's not trivial. It means a finance manager can ask a question about cash flow trends, build a custom report, or automate a reconciliation task without writing code or filing a ticket with engineering.
LLMs are democratizing data access in ways that reshape how work gets done. Organizations that move fast on this shift will find their finance teams can focus on strategy and analysis instead of data wrangling. That's the real win.
