I’m Glad I Gave up My Goldman Sachs Dream: Y Combinator AI Startup CEO

This as-told-to essay is predicated on a dialog with Raymond Zhao, 23, the cofounder and CEO of Structured AI, which is in Y Combinator’s Fall 2025 Batch. His internship, funding, and acceptance to YC have been verified by Enterprise Insider. Golman Sachs declined to remark when contacted by Enterprise Insider.

This piece has been edited for size and readability.

Working at Goldman Sachs was my dream, however I rapidly realized it wasn’t for me when I interned there as an analyst in the summertime of 2024.

AI, however, feels thrilling. Most of the nice AI corporations of the subsequent decade are being constructed proper now, and I wish to be part of that.

Once I spoke to pals making an attempt to interrupt into the trade, nonetheless, I saved listening to about this bizarre dilemma: in some circumstances, it was simpler to raise money for a startup than land an entry-level job in AI.

I skipped the graduate job hunt and cofounded Structured AI. We’re now a part of the Y Combinator Fall 2025 Batch and, together with the $500,000 we received by means of YC, have raised about $1 million in pre-seed funding. Every single day, I really feel energized.

I believed working at Goldman Sachs was my dream

In 2021, I moved to the UK from Australia to check arithmetic and statistics at the University of Oxford. I wasn’t positive what profession I wished to pursue. I had wished to be an architect, however after doing work expertise at a agency once I was 18, I spotted it wasn’t as thrilling as I might hoped.

Scholar societies had been an effective way to get an perception into totally different industries, and the concept of working in finance sounded engaging: good pay, respect, and good, hardworking colleagues. As a math scholar, it felt like essentially the most prestigious route I might comply with, and lots of the individuals I seemed as much as worked at Goldman Sachs.

I utilized for the summer time 2024 internship at Goldman Sachs in London. It was extremely selective, involving a web based take a look at, a digital interview, a superday of back-to-back conversations, and a follow-up interview. Once I lastly received accepted, I used to be actually excited, however inside a month, it grew to become clear that I wasn’t passionate in regards to the work.

I labored lengthy hours, typically staying within the workplace till midnight and infrequently coming in on weekends to complete work. Different interns cared deeply about monetary markets and did analysis of their spare time, however I did not.

After ending the internship, I spent a while backpacking in Southeast Asia and occupied with what excited me. In 2024, I returned to Oxford for my Grasp’s and spent the yr determining what to do subsequent.

As a member of the enterprise capital society, I met my future cofounder, Isabel Greenslade, and a community of VCs and founders. I spotted I wished to launch a startup so I might construct one thing myself and steer the boat.

Within the closing yr of my Grasp’s, I joined the AI society. Isabel and I spent the yr ideating and pivoting till we ultimately discovered a working concept. By way of the AI society, we met our third cofounder, Brandon Smith, who found an issue in his contracting work that sparked the concept of StructuredAI.

We determined to construct a copilot for the preconstruction engineering world. Engineers spend quite a lot of time on very repetitive guide workflows, quite a lot of that are text-based, like paperwork and constructing varieties. We constructed AI brokers to help them.

I did not count on to boost $500,000 for our AI startup so rapidly

Once I was near graduating with my Grasp’s, I wasn’t job-hunting. I simply wished a startup concept to work. We applied to Y Combinator for the summer time 2025 cohort, however weren’t accepted.

Throughout my closing week at Oxford in June, I skipped courses and went to San Francisco for an AI startup convention. I hadn’t deliberate to boost cash, however my founder pals inspired me to attempt whereas I used to be there. I began speaking to buyers, and we managed to boost about $500,000.

Making Structured AI financially viable so rapidly was an enormous shock, and we had been capable of give attention to it full-time. We spoke to dozens of engineers to raised perceive the issue we had been dealing with and construct a gross sales pipeline. I feel that helped us with our second software to YC.

We began YC’s Fall Batch in September. There are quite a lot of younger founders, some beneath the age of 21, and a few who dropped out of college. It is a tremendous, super-ambitious neighborhood.

Individuals warned us YC can be intense, and it’s. It is an actual dash, and everybody works across the clock. We have turned our front room in our Airbnb in San Francisco into an workplace, with three displays and lengthening desks.

On a standard day, we get up anytime between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m., get espresso, and work for the entire day. We’ll conferences, taking calls, and going to occasions within the night. I am not sleeping that a lot, usually six hours, and I would like a stable eight.

On the finish of the cohort, in early December, we’ll do Demo Day, the place pitch our progress onstage to a gaggle of buyers. The stress is actual, however good work comes out of it.

To me, the largest danger isn’t taking one

If in case you have an concept for a startup that is conserving you up at evening, I like to recommend making an attempt to launch it. If you can also make it work and have the urge for food for danger, startup life will be very rewarding.

For me, it was a calculation between constructing one thing in AI and the returns going on to me, versus taking a company job, the place you’ll be able to wait years for a promotion.

YC is without doubt one of the most unique golf equipment within the startup world. I am residing a dream — one which got here to me later down the road. Now, the subsequent one is to construct an enormous firm.

The largest danger these days isn’t taking one.