4 Questions Every Founder Must Answer to Get Into YC
James Beck, co-founder of YC S26 startup 6thSense, on building touch for robots and the four questions YC really wants answered.
James Beck · Co-Founder at 6thSense (YC S26) · San Francisco · 26 min · 2026-07-10
About this episode
6thSense is building a nervous system for robots — tactile gloves and stereo cameras that teach machines to feel and touch, for work like surgery and precision picking.
James dropped out of med school on his first day. He grew social pages for brands, founded a health-tech startup, and now builds hardware in San Francisco.
What we cover
- Why he talks to 15 strangers a day, and how knocking on roughly 100 doors in SF turned into a major deal
- Why hardware does not have to move slowly — and why 6thSense pushes to move faster than software startups
- The four questions he says actually decide a YC application
- What giving robots a sense of touch unlocks in surgery and logistics
Key takeaway
Distribution is a habit, not an event. Talking to strangers daily compounds faster than any growth tactic.