Founder hub
Cole Dermott
About
Cole Dermott is co-founder of Locus, a YC F25 company building payment infrastructure, supply and earning tools for AI agents, after a Coinbase internship on stablecoin engineering and a Waterloo CS degree. He gives an unusually candid read on agentic payments: a several-trillion-dollar market in ten years but only 50K to 100K in daily volume today, with around 40 players fighting over it, and explains why Locus is creating its own demand with Locus Founder, an AI agent that builds and runs inte
Best quotes
In a market that's defined by essentially what you know, that's more valuable than anything.
AIs are numerous but identical. Individual human taste is something built by lived experience that an AI can't replicate.
The approach we're taking is very, very different. Uh the approach we're taking is we're incredibly focused on creating our own demand by giving use cases that are actually feasible and achievable right now for people to do.
FAQ
What is Locus and which YC batch is it part of?
Locus is a company co-founded by Cole Dermott that operates in the agentic payments space. It is part of the Y Combinator F25 batch.
What is Locus Founder?
Locus Founder is an AI agent product that builds and runs internet businesses for users completely driven over text. It can make payments, receive payments, send emails, run outbound campaigns, and manage ads.
Why did Cole Dermott choose a consumer approach rather than purely B2B?
Cole explains that in agentic payments, market demand has not fully caught up yet. Historically, payment companies like Stripe and crypto adoption started grassroots with individuals rather than big businesses.
What was Cole Dermott's background before founding Locus?
Cole studied computer science at the University of Waterloo, participated in Waterloo Blockchain, and worked as an engineer at Coinbase doing stablecoin engineering and working on the Coinbase business platform.
Episode
Related topics
Want the system behind these conversations?
Book a call with Charles. Sales, partners, or investors — pick the door that fits.
Book a call