How Cancer Built the Mindset to Raise $6.8M in a Year | Pensive, Yoon

Yoon, CEO and co-founder of Pensive, shares his journey from being diagnosed with thyroid cancer at 18 to raising a $6.8M seed round led by Mayfield Fund. Pensive is an AI learning platform that reduces instructor grading time by 60–90% without sacrificing accuracy. Yoon describes how his cancer diagnosis shaped a '10-year mortality' decision-making framework, how he validated the AI grading product with a Figma mockup before building it, and how he personally flew to universities across the US to sign the first 10 college customers. He also outlines Pensive's vision to become an AI-native learning institution and urges founders to pursue bold, humanity-empowering problems.