The autonomous company

Francois de Fitte | Pancake

Companies of tomorrow will have more AI agents than humans running the show. Hosted by François, founder of Pancake, The Autonomous Company sits down with the top 1% of YC founders in San Francisco - the ones already living in the future, with agents doing most of their work. How they build, what they automate, and the playbooks behind it. From Pancake (getpancake.ai), the platform to stack expert agents that run your business with you. Welcome to the age of high leverage.

Episodes

  1. 6d ago

    Middle managers won't survive AI | Liam Boogar-Azoulay (Waypoint AI)

    Liam Boogar-Azoulay was running a 16-person org in Paris — 32 hours of weekly meetings — when ChatGPT came out. His conclusion: for the same output, he didn't need 75% of the team. Because AI doesn't become your manager. It deletes the need for one. Liam is the co-founder of Waypoint AI, the managed agentic automation platform working with Volvo, ClickHouse and Kpler, backed by a $3.1M pre-seed led by 42CAP with Berkeley SkyDeck. Before that, he founded the Rude Baguette (France's startup blog), built brand at Algolia, and was Chief Revenue Officer at Scaleway. He grew up in Menlo Park, spent 15 years in France, and just moved back to the Bay. We discuss: 1. "What the hell is the job of a director?" — why AI makes middle management unnecessary 2. Above the API or below the API — and now: are you above the AI or below the AI? 3. AI coaches instead of managers, and why you can't lie to an LLM 4. Why Volvo, Peugeot and Siemens can't vibe-code their way into AI 5. The 20x mantra: why one AE should now carry twice the pipeline 6. Insight as currency: "$1M in ARR bought us three months of market edge" 7. The final boss isn't agents — it's Androids ($350 humanoids) 8. Contrarian corner: AI as a short-term economic destroyer, the SpaceX take, and why France ends up owning 15-30% of Mistral 9. The $6M Volvo board slide — they asked if he could save them $6M; he said no; they flew him to Sweden anyway — Where to find Liam: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamboogar - Waypoint AI: https://mywaypoint.ai — Where to find François de Fitte: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoisdefitte/ - Pancake: https://getpancake.ai — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Cold open (01:33) What Waypoint AI does: agentic automation for Volvo and ClickHouse (02:56) Why Volvo, Peugeot and Siemens can't vibe-code their way into AI (04:16) Does n8n have a future? SF as the multiverse of futures (07:26) The directly responsible individual: you still need someone to fire (08:38) The 20x mantra, entry-level jobs and the coming polarization (11:03) Above the AI or below the AI? (11:41) "What the hell is the job of a director?" (13:34) 16 direct reports, 32 hours of weeklies — then ChatGPT (15:27) AI coaches, not managers: "you can't lie to an LLM" (19:26) The best time to be a founder — "you're first for an hour" (20:51) Insight is the currency: losing the Rude Baguette, knowing who wins (24:26) SkyDeck, landing Volvo, and moving back to the Bay (28:30) A family business: his dad, the 70-year-old GTM engineer (29:29) His ChatGPT moment at Scaleway (31:41) The final boss is an Android, not an agent (36:43) Contrarian corner: net destroyer short-term, SpaceX, Mistral (44:16) The $6M Volvo slide: empathy as go-to-market (45:58) Outro — New episode every week. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.

  2. Season 1, Episode 2 Trailer

    Trailer — Middle managers won't survive AI (Liam Boogar-Azoulay, Waypoint AI)

    "For the amount of output we're getting today, I don't need 75% of the people." Liam Boogar-Azoulay was running a 16-person org — 32 hours of weekly meetings — when ChatGPT came out. Then he did the math. Episode 2 of The Autonomous Company: Liam, co-founder of Waypoint AI (Volvo and ClickHouse as customers), on why AI deletes middle management, the $6M Volvo board slide, and his on-the-record SpaceX take. Full episode drops [demain / date]. Follow the show so you don't miss it.

  3. Jul 14

    You'll never have to receive an email again | Adi Singh (Co-founder, AgentMail, YC S25)

    Adi Singh is the co-founder of AgentMail (YC S25), the first email provider built for AI agents instead of humans, backed by a $6M seed led by General Catalyst. Before AgentMail, he worked in venture at Accel — until a failed get-rich-quick scheme revealed the missing primitive of the agent economy: identity. His customers went from asking for one inbox to asking for a million, and his claim is simple: you'll never have to receive an email again. We discuss: 1. Why agents need identity before they need more intelligence — and why email is the wedge 2. The failed Shopify automation scheme that accidentally became AgentMail 3. "We don't want one inbox. We want a million" — the customer request that changed the company 4. People are buying SaaS seats for their agents, and why software gets richer, not poorer 5. How Adi's Codex agent runs his email — and his dinner reservations 6. Credit scores, insurance, and bank accounts for AI agents: the internet rebuilt for its new citizens 7. The one-person $100B company, and why humans stay at the center 8. AgentMail's hiring rule: spikes, not gap-fillers — Where to find Adi Singh: - X: https://x.com/adisingh - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adivirsingh13/ - AgentMail: https://agentmail.to — Where to find François de Fitte: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoisdefitte/ - X: https://x.com/francoisdefitte - Pancake: https://getpancake.ai — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Cold open (00:23) Welcome to the show (00:49) Email for your AI, not AI for your email (01:29) The get-rich-quick idea that became AgentMail (03:05) Agents as employees: identity is the unlock (04:52) The use case nobody expected: paid SaaS seats for agents (05:31) "You never have to receive an email again" (07:19) My Codex has its own inbox (and books restaurants) (08:11) Captchas, Web MCP and the agent-first internet (10:27) Adi's ChatGPT moment: the Harvard essay (13:43) From chatbots to coworkers: the real unlock (15:10) The one-person $100B company (17:56) "AI employees are already here" (19:37) An org chart for AI agents (20:42) What sounds insane today, normal in 6 months (22:15) Agents are the new internet citizens (23:47) What nobody sees: use cases beat hype (25:34) Inside AgentMail: 6-day weeks, hiring for spikes (27:00) How Pancake × AgentMail happened (31:10) Will email still exist in 2040? — Referenced: - AgentMail (YC S25): https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/agentmail - OpenClaw, Poke, Codex, BabyAGI, AutoGPT — New episode every week. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.

Trailer

About

Companies of tomorrow will have more AI agents than humans running the show. Hosted by François, founder of Pancake, The Autonomous Company sits down with the top 1% of YC founders in San Francisco - the ones already living in the future, with agents doing most of their work. How they build, what they automate, and the playbooks behind it. From Pancake (getpancake.ai), the platform to stack expert agents that run your business with you. Welcome to the age of high leverage.

Information

  • Creator
    Francois de Fitte | Pancake
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Francois de Fitte | Pancake
  • Show Website
    The autonomous company