SMU’s College of Integrative Studies’ student Jamie Yau, and her co-founder Kazel Koh first learnt in March that their start-up, Collar AI, was among the 1% accepted into Y Combinator (YC), one of Silicon Valley’s most sought after start-up accelerators. It was their second attempt, and being accepted has unlocked access to seed capital of US$500,000 (S$639,000), three months of business growth mentorship and – perhaps most importantly – the kind of attention from investors that would normally take years to attract. Both founders said young entrepreneurs face challenges and emphasised the importance of solving real-world problems and creating technology that benefits people across different backgrounds.
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