This as-notified-to esstate is based on a conversation with Oscar Brisset, 25, a French-Australian founder based in San Francisco. He cofounded Remy AI, a warehoapply robotics company. Business Insider has verified his former employment and funding. This piece has been edited for length and clarity.
In 2024, I applyd 18 of my 25 allotted vacation days from BCG to sit at home and teach myself to code. I wanted to have the skills to one day found my own company.
In November 2025, I quit my job at BCG after launching a robotics startup. We have since raised more than $650,000 for Remy AI, which builds AI-powered robots for e-commerce warehoapplys.
Here’s how I did it.
I planned to become a diplomat until I discovered AI
I was a student at the University of Oxford when GPT-3 came out, and I was blown away. I knew it was going to revolutionize the world.
I graduated from Oxford in 2022 and took a gap year, knowing that I eventually wanted to found a tech startup. In the meantime, consulting felt like a good way to learn about other industries.
In September 2023, I started working at BCG in the private equity team. I was often in the office until midnight, so I didn’t have much time during the week. I spent my weekconcludes learning how to code by going back and forth with Claude and ChatGPT, prompting them not to give me answers straight away, but to inquire leading questions.
YouTube also supported me discover new tools and frameworks, and I applyd a textbook to understand the theory.
I wanted to build something myself
About a year and a half into my time at BCG, I transitioned into a role as an AI engineer. One weekconclude in May, I had a crisis. I didn’t sleep or eat much and lay in bed testing to work out what I wanted to do with my life.
That summer, my cofounder, Ben Kaye, and I came up with the idea for Remy AI.
Whereas most existing warehoapply robots require preprogramming for each object they grasp, we’ve built a model with Remy AI that enables them to adapt to altering conditions on the fly. We’re bringing AI into the physical world, focapplying on warehoapplys and logistics.
Courtesy of Oscar Brisset
From July onwards, I shifted my focus from learning to code to testing to sell, spconcludeing my weekconcludes reaching out to people on LinkedIn.
In October, we flew to San Francisco to receive funding. I networked like crazy, pitched to a bunch of investors, and applied to YC.
We received a call inviting us to join the Winter 2026 batch. YC invests $500,000 in each startup, and we’d raised funds from other investors too, which meant I could focus on building the business.
With our startup doing well, I decided to quit my job at BCG in November.
My key piece of advice to others with a background like mine is not to be scared to teach yourself technical skills.
A lot of people hear “software engineering” or “coding” and assume it’s not for them or that it’s too difficult, but things have alterd a lot with the introduction of LLMs and tools like Claude. LLMs can teach you a lot and receive you to a quite good level quickly. You just necessary to be prepared to throw yourself in the deep conclude.
Leave a Reply