A teammate with a Mac, a phone, and a place in your company. Backed by felicis, initialized capital, khosla ventures, & y-combinator
443236852K369
Tags
<500KAI agentProduct launchExplainerSeries AB2BUS
TLVC Rating
3.00
Hook
Editing / Creativity
Copy
Sentiment of launch
Distribution strategy
Community Rating
No ratings yet
to rate this launch.
Automat's launch, Ace, is an AI coworker that enterprises hire the way they'd onboard a person. Ace comes with its own Mac, iPhone, email address, phone number, and logins, and teams reach it over the surfaces they already use, including email, Slack, Teams, text, WhatsApp, doc comments, and phone calls. Automat is positioned as an enterprise agentic process automation company founded by two ex-Google engineers to replace legacy RPA with AI agents , so Ace sits alongside the company's managed automations work that competes with UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism.
The launch frames Ace against general-purpose "computer use" agents like Instinct and Muse, with the pitch that work and compliance were designed in from the start rather than bolted on after a consumer demo. That matters now because Automat sells into regulated verticals like mortgage, banking, insurance, legal, and healthcare, where an agent needs auditable identity, scoped credentials, and a managed runtime before it can touch a real workflow. Pricing is positioned around outcomes rather than per-seat, which fits the "hire a teammate" framing.
The company was founded by Lucas Ochoa and Gautam Bose, who went through Y Combinator in the W23 batch, with Pablo Lleras as CTO. The Series A was led by Felicis with Initialized, Khosla, and Y Combinator participating , which is the backing that makes this launch worth tracking for anyone watching the shift from scripted RPA to agent-driven back-office work.
Comments (14)
Sign in to join the discussion.
P
Priyanshu B.10d ago
Giving the agent its own phone number is the detail that actually matters. Vendors won't talk to a webhook but they'll absolutely call a 415 area code.
L
Linnea F.10d ago
Who's hiring forward deployed on this btw? Got a candidate out of a logistics startup who shipped agents to actual warehouses, DMs open.
M
Makoto Harada10d ago
Every SaaS seat sold after today is a lame duck. You're paying humans to click buttons an agent could've clicked while you slept.
Z
zara10d ago
The launch video edit is tight but the voiceover sounds like it's apologizing for existing. Let Ace narrate its own launch next time, feels on-brand.
T
Tolu A.10d ago
Impressions on the launch tweet look healthy but the reply ratio is suspiciously low for a YC launch. Either the muted bots are working overtime or the copy didn't land a hook.
D
Denis Lavrov10d ago
So when Ace sends a phishing email from its own inbox, who gets the SOC2 ticket. Asking as the person who'd have to answer it.
M
Mehrad T.10d ago
Every "it just gets work done" demo I've seen was a scripted happy path with three humans off-camera. Show me Ace handling a Workday login that MFAs mid-task.
C
Chioma O.10d ago
Rewriting your tagline for free: "Hire Ace. It already has a laptop." You can venmo me later.
Y
Yuki N.10d ago
Any public API for giving Ace tools, or is it closed garden? Would love to know rate limits before I plan a workflow around it.
R
Rafa Mendes10d ago
The agentic workforce market is actually tiny once you subtract the companies that will never let an LLM near their email. Enjoy fighting over the same 300 design partners.
A
Amara K.10d ago
Dumb question but if Ace onboards like a new hire, does it also get a W2 and a Slack intro thread. Half joking.
S
Soundar V.10d ago
First-tap UX on the landing page is clean but the "meet Ace" modal fires before I know what Ace does. Fix the sequencing and conversion probably jumps.
B
benoit10d ago
Curious how big the team is behind Ace. Four people with Claude could ship 80% of this, change my mind.
H
havelok10d ago
The best hires don't need onboarding, they need a reason to care. Good luck giving an agent one of those.
Work With Us
Book an intro call to explore our suite of services. We might have a waitlist.
Automat AI
A teammate with a Mac, a phone, and a place in your company. Backed by felicis, initialized capital, khosla ventures, & y-combinator
A teammate with a Mac, a phone, and a place in your company. Backed by felicis, initialized capital, khosla ventures, & y-combinator
Tags
TLVC Rating
Community Rating
No ratings yet
to rate this launch.
Automat's launch, Ace, is an AI coworker that enterprises hire the way they'd onboard a person. Ace comes with its own Mac, iPhone, email address, phone number, and logins, and teams reach it over the surfaces they already use, including email, Slack, Teams, text, WhatsApp, doc comments, and phone calls. Automat is positioned as an enterprise agentic process automation company founded by two ex-Google engineers to replace legacy RPA with AI agents , so Ace sits alongside the company's managed automations work that competes with UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism. The launch frames Ace against general-purpose "computer use" agents like Instinct and Muse, with the pitch that work and compliance were designed in from the start rather than bolted on after a consumer demo. That matters now because Automat sells into regulated verticals like mortgage, banking, insurance, legal, and healthcare, where an agent needs auditable identity, scoped credentials, and a managed runtime before it can touch a real workflow. Pricing is positioned around outcomes rather than per-seat, which fits the "hire a teammate" framing. The company was founded by Lucas Ochoa and Gautam Bose, who went through Y Combinator in the W23 batch, with Pablo Lleras as CTO. The Series A was led by Felicis with Initialized, Khosla, and Y Combinator participating , which is the backing that makes this launch worth tracking for anyone watching the shift from scripted RPA to agent-driven back-office work.
Comments (14)
Giving the agent its own phone number is the detail that actually matters. Vendors won't talk to a webhook but they'll absolutely call a 415 area code.
Who's hiring forward deployed on this btw? Got a candidate out of a logistics startup who shipped agents to actual warehouses, DMs open.
Every SaaS seat sold after today is a lame duck. You're paying humans to click buttons an agent could've clicked while you slept.
The launch video edit is tight but the voiceover sounds like it's apologizing for existing. Let Ace narrate its own launch next time, feels on-brand.
Impressions on the launch tweet look healthy but the reply ratio is suspiciously low for a YC launch. Either the muted bots are working overtime or the copy didn't land a hook.
So when Ace sends a phishing email from its own inbox, who gets the SOC2 ticket. Asking as the person who'd have to answer it.
Every "it just gets work done" demo I've seen was a scripted happy path with three humans off-camera. Show me Ace handling a Workday login that MFAs mid-task.
Rewriting your tagline for free: "Hire Ace. It already has a laptop." You can venmo me later.
Any public API for giving Ace tools, or is it closed garden? Would love to know rate limits before I plan a workflow around it.
The agentic workforce market is actually tiny once you subtract the companies that will never let an LLM near their email. Enjoy fighting over the same 300 design partners.
Dumb question but if Ace onboards like a new hire, does it also get a W2 and a Slack intro thread. Half joking.
First-tap UX on the landing page is clean but the "meet Ace" modal fires before I know what Ace does. Fix the sequencing and conversion probably jumps.
Curious how big the team is behind Ace. Four people with Claude could ship 80% of this, change my mind.
The best hires don't need onboarding, they need a reason to care. Good luck giving an agent one of those.