Checkr, Inc.’s Post

I had the privilege to talk to Daniel Yanisse, co-founder / CEO at Checkr, Inc., during his visit at AMLD. Checkr is the most successful Y Combinator company by an EPFL alumnus to date, generating more than $700M in annual revenue. Here are a few quotes from our conversation: 1️⃣ "Growth solves all problems. If you have business growth and traction, you will figure out the other problems. When you lose growth, it's much harder to restart or manufacture growth." - on why things are both harder and easier when a company is growing. 2️⃣ "If you know too much, you almost don't want to start the startup. So it's almost good to not know too much - we build it from scratch and we figure out everything on the fly." - on why some ignorance can be bliss. 3️⃣ "France was like the last on the list for where to put our European HQ because it's just so hard to do business in France. There's a very much anti-capitalist culture. It's not celebrated to be successful or to make money, which is not a good culture to start companies." - on the challenge of European countries to become startup hubs. 4️⃣ "The main mistake after Y Combinator is to think that you have to do something else like hire people or do PR or media. But those are distractions. You want to continue the same focus on product and customers and growth." - on the sometimes-hard-to-see simplicity of building a successful company. 5️⃣ "I discovered startups and tech, and I was like, 'wow, that's amazing - You can actually skip all of the business consulting and go straight from being an engineer to being a founder.' You can actually be an engineer and be a CEO by skipping all of the years of business training and just go for it." - on the enormous opportunities for technological founders. In the latest "Inside AI" episode, I sat down with Daniel Yanisse, who transformed from an EPFL engineering student into the co-founder / CEO of Checkr, now a $700M+ revenue company that's revolutionizing background checks through automation. What fascinated me most was hearing Daniel's unfiltered comparison between American and European startup environments. As someone who navigated both worlds, he offers a refreshingly frank assessment of why he couldn't have built Checkr in France, and what Europe might need to change to compete globally. We explored how Y Combinator shaped his journey, the challenges of scaling from two founders to hundreds of employees, and his current push to implement AI across Checkr. Beyond the business insights, Daniel's personal story reveals the mindset shift required when transitioning from technical founder to CEO. Listen to the conversation on "Inside AI" by the EPFL AI Center: Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/e3W5jQ_4 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/evSXcp5E