A couple of months ago, the founders behind YC-backed social app Candle were in “pivot hell,” cycling through more than a dozen ideas after joining Y Combinator’s Fall 2024 batch, while the clock on their seed money ticked down.
Alex Ruber, previously an engineer at Apple, and Parth Chopra, formerly an engineer at Asana and Twitter, had built multiple projects together, including Encore, a conversational AI shopping tool that got them into YC and with which they raised $2 million.
However, while the tech worked, the unit economics didn’t, according to Ruber.
“The secondhand shopping space is a tough market to begin with,” Ruber told TechCrunch in an interview. “To win, you either become like Google Shopping or build a really strong marketplace like Whatnot or eBay. That wasn’t a target we wanted to pursue.”
What followed were months of rapid experiments between last December and April, with pivots around ideas in areas like fashion and sports, none of which stuck. “We tried more than 10 different ideas in the span of four or five months,” Ruber said.
The pressure began to strain their own relationships with friends and partners, a familiar story for many early-stage founders. Ironically, that tension sparked the idea that would finally click.
The first version was simple: a swipeable deck of questions designed to spark conversations with their partners. Then an intern, now marketing lead at the startup, shared a TikTok about the app that went viral, unexpectedly gaining traction in Europe.
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Downloads surged, feedback poured in, and the team leaned into the momentum. That early prototype has since evolved into Candle, a lightweight, gamified app that helps couples and close friends stay connected.
Image Credits:Candle
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