YC S25 Cohort
Kevin entered the YC orbit through Dedalus and Princeton-in-SF logistics before he ever had a formal founder title.
Dedalus Labs is an active YC S25 startup building agent infrastructure from Princeton, NJ. Source: Dedalus Labs Kevin joined as founding engineer during the gap semester that Bet on Yourself frames as a deliberate early-career wager. Source: Bet on Yourself
The social entry predates the job. May 2025: Nicky organized a Princeton-in-SF thread for YC Startup School, building spreadsheets, after-party RSVPs, and a 20+ person contact list. Kevin contributed his name and attended the Anthropic party while Nicky ran logistics for everyone else. Source: Nicky He
By Fall 2025 the relationship shifted to Dedalus x HackPrinceton sponsorship and housing coordination in SF. January 2026 message volume jumped when Kevin landed full time. Source: Nicky He
The cohort story is not "Kevin got into YC." It is "Kevin attached to a YC company while still a Princeton student and learned forward-deployed engineering inside that gravity well." Source: Forward Deployed
Timeline
- 2025-05-30 | First Nicky/Kevin messages via Princeton-in-SF / Startup School thread. Source: Nicky He
- 2025-09-13 | Dedalus x HackPrinceton sponsorship exchange. Source: Nicky He
- 2026-01 | Kevin full time at Dedalus on gap semester. Source: Kevin Liu
- 2026-05-31 | Story page compiled. Source: compiled from wiki graph