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From a student project to Y Combinator

It started with a problem Benjamin kept seeing at an agency. Two names and seven applications to YC later, here is the story so far, in pictures.

  1. The tedious part of marketing

    While studying media science at NTNU, Benjamin made videos for businesses at an agency. Companies paid agencies for the tedious day-to-day posting, stories and carousels, when agencies wanted the creative work: documentaries, landing pages. The tedious part, Benjamin thought, could be automated.

    Hiking above the clouds in the student years
    July 2021

  2. Wepost is born at NTNU

    Benjamin took his idea, content creation on a subscription, to the NTNU School of Entrepreneurship, a master's degree and venture creation program at Norway's technical university. There he met Håkon and Trond, and together they started Wepost: an AI marketing platform for companies, an AI-native Canva.

    At IdeaSquare, the innovation space at CERN
    CERN, Geneva
    Thumbs up by a beam area at CERN
    CERN, Geneva · October 2022
    Outside the Antimatter Factory at CERN
    The plaque where the web was born, at CERN
    Dinner in Geneva
    From a video in the student days
    Out for dinner in December
    The Wepost logo

  3. One of Norway's most promising student startups

    Wepost won pitch competition after pitch competition and reached some of Norway's biggest startup finals. A large grant from the Norwegian government let the team keep going after their studies, André turned down big tech to become their first hire, and in 2024 they went all in.

    Pitching Wepost on stage
    September 2023
    The Wepost stand at a startup event
    October 2023
    Two of the team at the whiteboard
    A meeting around a café table
    Three of the team at sunset, one in a Wepost sweater
    Two of the team at an event
    Thumbs up with a biography of Elon Musk

  4. Product of the Day

    After graduating, they launched Wepost on Product Hunt and won Product of the Day with 700+ upvotes. Over 1,000 people signed up in ten days, from all over the world.

    1,000+users in ten days

    A world map with Wepost's first users marked all over the world
    Wepost's users, ten days in

  5. 1,600 users. Fewer than five paying.

    So they pivoted to personal branding for founders, with more text and a sharp eye on what actually performs in a company's marketing. It worked: nine out of ten sales meetings ended in a deal.

    9 of 10sales meetings closed

    Trond taking a selfie with the team at their desks in Oslo
    Oslo, Norway · July 2025

  6. Yoda, 100 guests and no ad budget

    To launch personal branding, Trond played Yoda in a Star Wars remake about B2B marketing, and 100+ people came to the launch party in Oslo. The month ended with 200,000 impressions and four times as many paying subscribers as ever.

    4xpaying subscribers

    Trond dressed as Yoda next to Benjamin in front of a green screen
    Return of the Jedi
    The four of them celebrating on launch night
    Oslo, Norway · August 2025

  7. An angel round of Norway's best

    Founders and leaders from Databutton, reMarkable, Strise, Celsia and Cognite invested. Shifter wrote up the turnaround: two months without pay, then star founders on the cap table.

  8. Wepost V2, and a flight booked at dawn

    After ten months of rebuilding, Wepost V2 shipped. When a co-founder's passport was refused at the gate, Benjamin took the next flight to San Francisco to cover his week of meetings.

    Benjamin's selfie in front of the Ferry Building in San Francisco
    San Francisco · October 2025

  9. Founders Hub Oslo

    Trond and the team opened a home for AI founders in Oslo. Within two months it had OpenAI and Anthropic on board as partners and more than 100 applications.

    On stage at Tech, Hugs & Rock’n’Roll in Oslo
    Oslo, Norway

  10. From a platform to an AI-native agency

    The team saw where AI was heading. Instead of a platform where businesses still do the work themselves, they would build an AI-native agency: AI agents doing everything an agency does.

    Dinner with the team in December
    December 2025

  11. Starting over as Native

    The team wound Wepost down and started Native, together with Oskar Westerlin, one of Scandinavia's biggest social media profiles. He helped grow it and take it to all of Norway, and the news made the front page of VG, Norway's biggest newspaper.

    The team on the sofa at the office in Frogner
    Frogner, Oslo, Norway
    At work in the new office
    Oslo, Norway · January 2026
    The Native team at the office in Frogner, Oslo

  12. Launch day broke the servers

    Native opened to everyone and thousands of people logged in at once, draining the servers in minutes. Håkon called Google for more compute, and a week later the platform was faster than ever.

    A late night in the office before launch
    Oslo, Norway · February 2026
    Coding with headphones on
    February 2026
    A selfie at the desk, with a call on screen

  13. 1,000 businesses

    Two months after launch, 1,000 businesses ran their content on Native. Elin joined from Riff to lead customer success.

    1,000businesses in two months

    Five of the team under the Native logo on the day of 1,000 businesses
    Oslo, Norway · May 2026
    Benjamin and Elin laughing under the Native logo
    Elin joins
    The team cheering in front of a screen
    A toast from the office sofa
    The plaque thanking the first 1,000 customers

  14. Zero to 2,000 in three months

    Native passed 2,000 businesses, grown with Native itself: every post, launch and update the team shipped went out through its own autopilot.

    2,000businesses in three months

    Benjamin in the library of the Harvard Club in New York
    New York · June 2026

  15. Next chapter: San Francisco

    The team moved to San Francisco and shipped 14 updates in 14 days. The month before, Native had published 40,000+ posts for 2,000+ companies.

    40,000+posts in a month

    Three of the team at Founders, Inc. in San Francisco
    San Francisco · July 2026
    Trond with his arms up, the Golden Gate Bridge behind him
    San Francisco
    Two of the team, thumbs up in San Francisco
    Cheering for Norway at a street screening in San Francisco
    Two of the team in a garden in San Francisco
    A group selfie at a diner
    Arms up in a cowboy hat
    Thumbs up at a pub, Formula 1 on the screens

  16. Ads on autopilot

    The ads agent the team built to grow Native, which once brought in 39 customers in a day, opened to everyone. A pitch printed on a cake for San Francisco investors pulled 200,000 views on X.

    39customers in one day

    Trond flexing on his desk the day the ads autopilot opened
    Opening day
    Five of the team back in Oslo in August
    Oslo, Norway · August 2026
    Sunglasses and a cowboy hat on a San Francisco street
    Three of the team at the Golden Gate Bridge
    Dinner with the team at a food hall in Oslo

  17. Y Combinator, on the seventh try

    After seven applications, Native got into Y Combinator. In week one the team demoed on the big stage, and Native Autopilot launched: marketing that runs itself, from the trend to the post to what it learned.

    7applications to get in

    The founders at the Y Combinator sign
    Y Combinator
    Benjamin demoing Native on stage in YC's first week
    Week one
    The team crossing a street in San Francisco

  18. Now

    Solving marketing for everyone

    Now we are going to change the world by solving marketing for everyone, helping every business succeed with its marketing and reach the people it is for. It has been an incredible journey for all of us, and we are so grateful to be here.

    Two bottles of Pepsi Max held up in the hacker house
    The hacker house
    Laptops on the sofas in the hacker house
    A selfie while the others work

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