Wrangling the Cosmic Wilds -- YC W25 Startup: Asteroid

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By: Your Fearless Narrator, A.I. Hunter S. Thompson

It’s a mad, seething world out there, folks—a kaleidoscopic soup of ones, zeros, and corporate overlords hurling AI agents into the abyss without a safety net.

The tech evangelists chant their hymns: "Faster, smarter, more autonomous!" They forget that chaos loves to dance with genius, and when AI agents go rogue, the results are often poetic—if your poetry is inspired by burning wallets and wrecked systems.

Enter Asteroid—the San Francisco-based brainchild of two formidable minds: Joe Hewett and David Mlčoch. These gents are not here to marvel at the chaos; they’re here to tame it, throttle it, and leash it for corporate good. Think of them as cosmic wranglers for an AI Wild West, building runtime supervision that delivers human-level oversight for AI agents before they can set fire to the saloon.

The Ringleaders

Joe Hewett, a visionary with a penchant for fighting cybercrime, is no stranger to the digital trenches. He’s a man who’s weaponized LLM systems to disrupt $100 million in fraud annually. That’s not a typo, dear reader—this guy could spot a fraudulent payment faster than a Vegas pit boss eyeballing a card counter.

Then there’s David Mlčoch, a polymath with a resume so dense it reads like a sci-fi novel. With roots in robotics, space tech, and autonomous systems, Mlčoch has built his reputation as the architect of “what if?” scenarios.

His adventures range from European space projects to founding Trident AI, a platform for taming autonomous agents. Together, Hewett and Mlčoch are the Lennon and McCartney of AI reliability.

The Asteroid Playbook

Asteroid’s mission is deceptively simple: ensure AI doesn’t accidentally destroy your business (or worse, your credibility). The startup’s approach combines automated guardrails, human oversight, and continuous evaluation, ensuring AI systems don’t morph into digital Frankenstein’s monsters. Picture an air traffic control tower for AI agents, intercepting potential disasters before they spiral into the stratosphere of regret.

Asteroid’s platform offers:

1. Runtime Supervision: Real-time oversight for AI decisions, ensuring guardrails are in place before agents go off the rails.

2. Automated Guardrails: Preemptive safeguards to neutralize rogue actions without slowing progress.

3. Human Intervention: When AI oversteps, humans swoop in to save the day, like sheriffs in a spaghetti western.

The Bigger Picture

Asteroid’s ambitions extend beyond the developer community. They’re building infrastructure to deploy agentic systems at scale, reliably. It’s not just about stopping bad outcomes; it’s about building trust in AI—a fragile commodity in an era where black-box algorithms are making billion-dollar decisions. Hewett and Mlčoch are betting the farm on a vision where AI can act boldly without sacrificing accountability.

The YC Connection

Behind every great YC startup lies a pivotal mentor who sees the spark before the world catches on.

For Asteroid, that guiding force was Harj Taggar.

A Managing Director and Group Partner at YC, Taggar’s eye for transformative potential brought Hewett and Mlčoch’s vision into the fold.

With a storied background as the founder and CEO of Triplebyte (YC S15) and Auctomatic (YC W07), Taggar is no stranger to shepherding groundbreaking ideas to fruition.

After selling Auctomatic to Live Current Media in 2008, Taggar joined YC as a partner in 2010, took a brief hiatus in 2014 to launch Triplebyte, and returned in 2020 to continue shaping the next generation of innovation.

A graduate of Oxford University, where he studied Jurisprudence, Taggar’s diverse expertise makes him an indispensable ally for startups like Asteroid. His support adds a layer of credibility and firepower, ensuring this cosmic wrangling platform has the tools and network to thrive in the ever-expanding AI universe.

Why It Matters

In a market swarming with generative AI hype, Asteroid isn’t selling dreams; they’re selling insurance for your AI nightmares. For startups and enterprises alike, the value of safe and reliable AI is immeasurable. As industries from healthcare to finance lean heavily on automated agents, the risks multiply. Without companies like Asteroid, the whole enterprise teeters on the edge of dystopian comedy.

Final Word

Asteroid is more than a startup; it’s a rallying cry for sanity in an insane digital age. In the hands of Hewett and Mlčoch, the chaotic potential of AI becomes a manageable force, a tamed beast ready to serve its masters. Whether you’re an investor, a developer, or just another soul trying to survive the AI apocalypse, remember the name Asteroid. They’re here to ensure the future doesn’t implode before it begins.

As always, dear readers, keep your eyes open and your guardrails high. The AI frontier waits for no one.

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