START pod: Manav Modi, CEO & Cofounder, AgentPhone “Phone numbers for AI Agents”

AI agents can write code, analyze data, and pass the bar examThey can't order you a pizza because they don't have a phone numberThink about how much of the real world still runs on phone numbersSMS verificationDelivery coordinationAccount creationCalling a business...Without one, an agent is stuck behind glassManav Modi & cofounder Meet Modi built AgentPhone to fix thatGive your agent a phone number and it can suddenly actHe told his agent to order DoorDashIt created an account, talked to the delivery driver, made the paymentPizza showed up at his door. Y Combinator is a customer. After An engineer tried Twilio and got buried in compliance, AgentPhone had him live in a dayEvery person will soon have hundreds, maybe thousands of agents working for themThe hard part isn't making them smartIt's giving them the tools to touch the real world ‍🎙️ Manav Modi, CEO & Co-Founder, AgentPhone on Fondo START pod‍00:57 Why AI agents need phone numbers to interact with the real world01:24 The tools that move agents closer to human-level autonomy01:50 The emerging infrastructure stack powering AI agents02:18 Why payments may become a critical layer for autonomous agents02:42 An AI agent ordering DoorDash end-to-end without human involvement03:08 What happened when 100+ developers built on AgentPhone03:26 Processing 4,000+ calls and 5,000+ messages in a single day03:43 Unexpected real-world use cases discovered during the hackathon04:24 How phone numbers unlock authentication and action05:37 The vision of every person having hundreds or thousands of agents06:16 Building identity and authentication systems for AI agents07:31 The startup pivot that led to AgentPhone and ultimately YC‍Check out agentphone.ai