Bloom (YC X25)

Less than a year ago, I asked my cofounder to take a bet on a crazy idea. Tonight, that idea is on a billboard in Times Square. Our journey didn’t start with Bloom (YC X25). Before YC, Sirian Maathuis and I were torn between staying with Fireview or starting from scratch. We had long, emotional calls, trying to decide what mattered more: improving what we had, or building the tool we always wished existed. (as you can see in the call’s screenshot) It was January 15th, 2025. I had spent the Christmas holidays building a few promising prototypes, and the Y Combinator deadline was just three weeks away. I was so obsessed that during one call with Sirian that day, I said: “We’re at a shift that maybe happens once or twice in a generation: Most people who’ve never coded would be thrilled just to see a button on a screen they built themselves. I just can’t stop thinking about it. I think I’ve got the Bloom virus!” That’s how I convinced Sirian Maathuis to take the leap and go all in on this idea. Our goal was simple: let anyone turn an idea into a working app in minutes. Y Combinator believed in that vision — and now we’re in Times Square. Bloom (YC X25) was born from urgency. We wanted to move faster than we could explain our ideas. That’s why the billboard says, “This ad took longer to make than your next app.” We meant it LITERALLY Have an idea that keeps you up at night? Tell me below — I’ll send you free credits to build it.

I’ve never imagined creating a brand-new app in under 2 minutes. 🤯 But I did yesterday... just with AI. I was testing this new tool called Bloom (YC X25), where you describe what you want in plain text and it builds it for you. So I typed: “Build an app called Event Tracker to log events, people I meet, and follow-ups.” Two minutes later, it was there... a working app with pages for events, contacts, and tasks. Something that would’ve taken hours (or a developer) before. It’s wild how Vibe Coding will change what “building” means. You don’t need to know how to code, you just need to know what you want to create. 👇 Link to Bloom in the comments. #AI #Innovation #NoCode #Networking

Biggest update I’ve ever shared… Bloom (YC X25) raised $3.4M to unlock the creator economy for software. Let’s be honest: web apps are easy, but building and sharing mobile apps sucks - XCode builds, apple developer reviews, TestFlight invites… all make going from idea to an app on users’ hands a slow and painful process. With Bloom you can make a full-stack mobile app by talking into your phone and then share it instantly with a link. Bloom started last Christmas. After landing in Barcelona to visit family, I immediately asked my mom where I could buy a monitor. She was confused, but I was on a mission: I needed those two weeks to run experiments on an idea that had been floating around in my head for months – could I build a mobile app that builds mobile apps? I wanted to see if this pipe dream was technically feasible. I came back to Zurich with something promising, but nothing definite. In mid-January, I had a critical conversation with my co-founder Sirian Maathuis. We were making steady progress with our previous product, Fireview, but I couldn't shake this feeling about Bloom. "This could be extremely big," I told him. "It could change the world. It's probably the coolest product we could ever build." With the YC application deadline just three weeks away, we pivoted and scrambled to build an MVP. After submitting our application at midnight, Sirian stayed up until 4 AM recording our demo. Once David Lieb saw our application, things moved fast and we got to spend three intense months in San Francisco with YC. We closed our round 5 days before demo day and didn't have a deck - our product demo did all the talking. This $3.4M round is led by Moonfire, with participation from Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund. We're also backed by an incredible group of founders and operators Thomas Wolf (Founder/CSO, HuggingFace) Bob van Luijt (Founder/CEO, Weaviate) Jamie Turner (Founder/CEO, Convex) Theo Browne (Founder/CEO, T3Chat) Evan Bacon (Expo) 𝝠 Cedric van Putten (Expo) Colin M Evans Evans (OpenAI) Ron Besseling (Whatsapp) Clive Ayonye (Meta) Robert Gaal (Google, Vesper) Nick Lenten (Founder/CEO, Ahead Health) Helena Gagern (Founder Embassy) Chris S. (serial founder & YC alum) Gianmaria Sbetta (Google) Rubén Domínguez Ibar (Founder, VC Corner) Special thanks to those who believed in us from the beginning: Founderful Campus, Andrew Daniels, Chase Myers, S2S Ventures, Jamie Turner, and David Lieb. We're now back in Europe, building out the founding team that is going to redefine how the next wave of apps is built. If you’re someone that loves building product, solving complex problems and working on the future of software, we’d love to talk. There's so much to build, and we're just getting started. 🚀 Join us to unlock the creator economy for software. If you want to fast track your application or know anyone who would be a fit, comment with “Join Bloom”