Post by University of St.Gallen

A dash to Silicon Valley: Leon Iwanowitsch and Ontora (YC P26) begin their adventure at Y Combinator 🚀   What happens when an HSG student meets his future co-founders through an entrepreneurial network — and a last-minute application turns into a move to San Francisco? It’s incredible!    Leon Iwanowitsch, Master’s graduate in Master in Business Innovation (MBI-HSG) - Universität St.Gallen (HSG), is currently spending his first month at Y Combinator with Ontora, the startup he co-founded with David Korn and Maximilian Arnold, and already onboarding first customers.    For those new to the start-up world: Y Combinator is one of the most influential start-up accelerators globally. Its programme has helped launch companies such as Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox, Reddit, Coinbase and Twitch. Start-ups accepted into YC receive funding, intense founder coaching and access to a global network of entrepreneurs and investors.    Ontora’s story began with a shared observation: in many organisations, valuable knowledge stays in people’s heads — but rarely reaches the places where corporate decisions are made. This is their solution: an AI Agent that enables C-suite leaders to interview every employee to uncover process bottlenecks across their organisation – within hours, not months.    The guys first connected through the extended START Global network. After a start-up tour to Stockholm in early 2026, one call was enough to make it official: they would build Ontora together. The YC application? Submitted at 4:59 a.m. — one minute before the deadline. A week later, the acceptance arrived. Accepted on Friday, resigned from old employer on Sunday, moved to San Francisco a few weeks later.    Now, the team is in San Francisco for three months of focus, feedback and acceleration.    For Leon, the HSG connection is more than a line on a CV. Through his Master in Business Innovation and his role as Head of Investor Partnerships at START Global, he learned to connect technology and business — and to focus on what matters most when everything is moving at once.    This is part 1 of our series following Leon and Ontora during their time at Y Combinator.    Because sometimes, the path from St.Gallen to the impact into the global start-up scene starts with one idea, one network — and one very late application.