The archive · AI & Models · Product decision · 2025–2026
Den's agent-workspace bet: PH May #3, 'Cursor for knowledge workers' from YC S25
Two founders bet teams will replace Slack and Notion with one workspace where anyone builds and runs AI agents — Product Hunt #3, YC S25, 23K waitlist.
Den (getden.io)
What the business is
Den is a multiplayer AI workspace: a Slack/Notion-like platform where teams build and collaborate with AI agents in natural language, run them on schedules or events, and review their work in one place.
How it started
Linus Talacko co-founded Lyrebird Health at 19 and scaled it past 50 people, where he watched engineers get 10x leverage from Cursor while teammates handled repetitive work by hand. With Justin Lee, who built agents at Atlassian, he started Den in 2025, joined YC's Spring 2025 batch, and launched the product as 'Cursor for knowledge workers'.
What happened
Den hit Product Hunt's May 2025 monthly #3 with 979 upvotes. At YC Spring 2025 Demo Day in June 2025, TechCrunch called it one of the hottest companies in the batch, reporting that its agents could replace Slack and Notion. The product added natural-language agent building, scheduling and 80+ integrations, and the public site grew a waitlist past 23,000 by September 2026.
How it ended up
Still live: public beta at getden.io, run by the two co-founders with a growing waitlist and active agent-building product; YC profile remains active as of 2026-09-02.
Background
Den is a multiplayer AI workspace that looks like Slack and Notion rebuilt for agents: teams create AI agents in natural language, work with them in real time, run them on schedules or external events, and review what they produce without code. The company's own framing is 'Cursor for knowledge workers.'
The founders saw the gap firsthand. Linus Talacko built Lyrebird Health from age 19 past 50 employees and noticed engineers could ship features during a lunch break with Cursor while the rest of the team drowned in repetitive tasks. With Justin Lee, an agent builder from Atlassian, he founded Den in 2025 on the bet that everyone — not just engineers — deserves 10x leverage, delivered through a shared workspace rather than a developer tool.
Den launched into YC's Spring 2025 batch, hit Product Hunt's May 2025 monthly #3 with 979 upvotes, and TechCrunch's Demo Day roundup called it one of the hottest companies in the batch. By September 2026 the product is in public beta with 80+ integrations, a natural-language agent builder and a waitlist past 23,000.
What has to be true
- The bet targets the unserved majority: Cursor proved 10x leverage works, but only for engineers — Den repackages that leverage for everyone else.
- A shared workspace, not a coding tool, matches how non-engineers already work, making agents an extension of the team rather than a separate workflow.
- Natural-language agent building plus a visible review loop lowers the trust barrier to letting agents do real work.
- YC S25 and the Product Hunt #3 launch gave Den distribution while the category was still being defined.
What can be applied
Copy the leverage, not the tool: Den applied Cursor's '10x for one persona' playbook to everyone else, betting the shared workspace — not the editor — is where agents actually get adopted.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Den is live in public beta at getden.io with a two-person founding team, 80+ integrations, scheduled and event-driven agents, and a 23,566-person waitlist. The open question is adoption: whether teams actually replace Slack and Notion with an agent-native workspace, or whether agents end up living inside the existing collaboration stack instead.
Sources
- Den: Cursor for knowledge workers
- 11 startups from YC Demo Day that investors are talking about
- Product Hunt Monthly Top | 2025-05
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