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steven haney

T2 · manager / operator

Founder of Paper, an AI-native design tool. Previously founded Modulz (acquired by WorkOS) and created Radix UI, a popular React component library. Designer-engineer hybrid focused on creative tooling and designer-developer workflow.

5 calls·4 names·80% bull·last heard 4 days ago·Y Combinator
track record

no scored calls yet — needs a stated position or a categorical verdict, with a matured window vs SPY

top calls

highest conviction · one per company
1sthigh conviction
$PAPERPaperposition

Paper founder describes agent-native design tool gaining traction against Figma

Paper uses HTML/CSS as its rendering engine, making it natively compatible with AI agents that understand web technologies, eliminating the design-to-dev handoff by making code the single source of truth. Early traction shows it cracking the design tool market alongside Figma and Sketch per Ramp subscription data.

Y Combinator2026-08→
2ndhigh conviction
$CURSORCursor

Cursor endorsed as primary coding agent harness by Paper founder who uses it daily for production code

Cursor's Composer 2.5 model and agent harness (spinning up sub-agents, not lazy) make it the preferred coding agent for precision work; Paper team uses it extensively alongside Claude Code for all development.

Y Combinator2026-08→
3rdmedium conviction
$WORKOSWorkOS

WorkOS validated as 'amazing auth identity company' by founder who sold previous startup to them and uses them for Paper

WorkOS earned trust as acquirer of Steven's previous company (Modules/Radix UI) and continues as Paper's auth provider, signaling strong product-market fit in enterprise authentication.

Y Combinator2026-08→

most discussed · click a bar to filter

recurring themes

5 total
$WORKOS
WorkOS
MEDsteven haney·Y Combinator·4 days ago
WorkOS validated as 'amazing auth identity company' by founder who sold previous startup to them and uses them for Paper
WorkOS earned trust as acquirer of Steven's previous company (Modules/Radix UI) and continues as Paper's auth provider, signaling strong product-market fit in enterprise authentication.
"We sold this company to work OS which is an amazing auth identity company. We use work OS for paper"
50:30
$PAPER
Paper
HIGHsteven haney·Y Combinator·4 days ago
YC-backed Paper emerges as first credible Figma challenger in decade with agent-native design tool
Paper's HTML/CSS rendering engine makes it uniquely compatible with AI agents, enabling designers to work at agent speed while maintaining human taste; Ramp credit card data shows Paper already ranking alongside Figma and Sketch in actual designer subscriptions.
"we're big fans of Figma... maybe there's time for a new tool to focus on the designer and just really spend a lot of time there's so much change with AI with agents uh can we buil…"
1:07
$CURSOR
Cursor
HIGHsteven haney·Y Combinator·4 days ago
Cursor endorsed as primary coding agent harness by Paper founder who uses it daily for production code
Cursor's Composer 2.5 model and agent harness (spinning up sub-agents, not lazy) make it the preferred coding agent for precision work; Paper team uses it extensively alongside Claude Code for all development.
"I find cursor is a really good harness. It it's not too lazy. It'll often spin up sub agents to get jobs done. Um so I jump around a bit. So here it gave me kind of like three dif…"
22:57
$LINEAR
Linear
MEDsteven haney·Y Combinator·4 days ago
Linear's design aesthetic encoded into AI models creating homogeneity that new tools must differentiate against
Linear's influential design language got absorbed into AI training data, causing models to over-replicate its patterns (purple gradients, cards, bold fonts); this creates both a baseline and an opportunity for tools like Paper to help designers escape the 'agent look'.
"Linear made this style great and then I think it got encoded into the models for the next, you know. Yeah. I that's one of the things that's interesting is in isolation these thin…"
36:54
$PAPER
Paper
HIGHsteven haney·Y Combinator·4 days ago· position
Paper founder describes agent-native design tool gaining traction against Figma
Paper uses HTML/CSS as its rendering engine, making it natively compatible with AI agents that understand web technologies, eliminating the design-to-dev handoff by making code the single source of truth. Early traction shows it cracking the design tool market alongside Figma and Sketch per Ramp subscription data.
"Paper is a design tool. It's an agent native design tool and what that means is we use HTML and CSS as the actual rendering engine and that makes it very easy for agents to use be…"
1:07