About
Catheryn Li is co-founder and CEO of Simple AI. She previously led software engineering at Y Combinator for four years, overseeing Startup School and related internal platforms, and holds degrees in computer science and mathematics from MIT.
cat @catheryn_li
thanks Gemini! very educational https://t.co/jF6d6VaSLY
Jul 2, 2026 · ♥ 6
cat @catheryn_li
In Chinese we have a saying, 画蛇添足. It means adding feet to your drawing of a snake (doing more work to make things worse). Someone had to decide to write code to add this validation. cc @zapmail_ai https://t.co/R5ieUnNkkw
Jun 19, 2026 · ♥ 16 · ⇄ 1
cat @catheryn_li
I, too, did not have the vision https://t.co/vqBRPgtmL9 https://t.co/dn4xWKvO7t
Jun 17, 2026 · ♥ 380 · ⇄ 10
Founder at Simple AIYC S24
Intro paths
Catheryn went through Y Combinator (Summer 2024) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.
Their group partner at YC was Diana Hu, General Partner at Y Combinator — the partner who ran Simple AI's batch and knows the company first-hand. YC profile ↗
In turn, Catheryn can intro founders to Simple AI's investors below.
Simple AI's investors · 4
Co-founders at Simple AI
Experience
- Simple AICo-Founder & CEOcurrent2024 — present
- Y CombinatorHead of Product - Pre-Batch2021 — 2023
- Y CombinatorProduct Engineer2020 — 2021
- FacebookSoftware Engineer2018 — 2020Menlo Park, CA
- MIT Media LabUndergraduate Researcher2018Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- QuoraSoftware Engineering Intern2017Mountain View, CA
- Quizlet, Inc.Software Engineering Intern2017San Francisco
- Broad Institute of MIT and HarvardUndergraduate Researcher2016Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- FacebookSoftware Engineering Intern2015Menlo Park, California, United States
Education
- Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyBachelor of Science, Computer Science and Engineering2014 — 2018
- University of OxfordStudy Abroad, Mathematics and Computer Science2017
Skills & more
+12 more
Product ManagementTeachingArranging MusicLeadershipOrganization SkillsPublic SpeakingPythonObjective-CJavaSwiftMicrosoft OfficeHTMLLanguages Chinese Mandarin · English
From Catheryn's professional profile.
Founder mafias
Y Combinator mafia8,668
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 8,661 more
Massachusetts Institute of Technology mafia464
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 457 more
University of Oxford mafia203
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 196 more
Same school
Also attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology1,289
+ 1,283 more
Also attended University of Oxford912
+ 906 more
Shared employers
Also worked at Simple AI1
Also worked at Y Combinator335
+ 329 more
Also worked at Facebook482
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+ 476 more
