How the first founder from Tajikistan got into Y Combinator and is building a startup in the US

The first founder from Tajikistan to get into Y Combinator is developing the startup Wayco in the US — an AI company in the MedLegal space. In an interview, he talked about creating the startup, raising investment, and the specifics of entering the American market.

Iqbol Temirkhojayev, city — New York, Founder/CEO of Wayco, Instagram, LinkedIn

How it all started

Throughout my life, I have created several startups. I started programming and competitive coding at the age of 11. I became an olympiad prize winner three times, won national competitions, and received awards from the President of Tajikistan.

I also launched various projects in the EdTech sector, collaborated closely with the United Nations as part of its initiatives, and generally engaged in startup creation since childhood. When I was younger, many publications about me and my projects appeared in Tajik media.

Eventually, I decided to apply to Y Combinator with my new company and go through the selection process. Today, I am developing the Wayco startup — a company at the intersection of medicine and law in the US. Essentially, we are creating an AI company in the MedLegal space, operating at the intersection of healthcare and legal services.

Startup launch

The idea for this startup came to me because I saw many inefficient processes in both the legal and medical sectors around the world. I believe that one of the biggest opportunities opened up by the current wave of artificial intelligence development lies precisely in creating solutions at the intersection of healthcare and law. Therefore, I decided to build a company in this direction.

Many details about Wayco remain confidential for now. We are not yet ready to publicly talk about our partners, clients, and distribution partners. However, one of our key partners and investors is U.S. News — one of the largest platforms in the US with recommendations and consumer services.

The Wayco team itself is still small — less than five people, including engineers and key project participants.

Target audience

Our product is aimed at several categories of users simultaneously, since we are essentially creating two different products. First of all, these are law firms specializing in personal injury cases, medical clinics, and the victims themselves — people who have suffered injuries or been involved in accidents.

For victims, this is primarily a consumer product, while for law firms handling personal injury compensation cases, it is a B2B solution.

As for the number of users and clients, we are not currently ready to disclose this information publicly. We have hardly talked about Wayco in the media space so far. 

Incubation programs

In January, I joined Y Combinator and became the first startup founder from Tajikistan to get into this accelerator. It was an incredible experience that gave me the opportunity to learn a lot from other entrepreneurs from all over the world.

Wayco is still a young startup, so we haven't had the chance to participate in many competitions yet. However, getting into Y Combinator was already an important achievement for us.

Challenges

If we talk about difficulties, I think most entrepreneurs from Central Asia entering the US market face the same problem — the need to deeply understand the new market. The American market is very different from what we are used to in Central Asia, especially in such fields as healthcare, law, and other professional industries.

Also, one of the main challenges at the start of Wayco for me was understanding the industry: how the legal market, personal injury compensation field, and the medical system in the US are structured. But the more time you spend in this environment, communicating with professionals and immersing yourself in the industry, the better you begin to understand it. It is a completely different world compared to Central Asia.

One of the main pieces of advice I can give to aspiring startup founders — launch earlier. This was one of my mistakes: I took too long to bring the product to market and launch it publicly.

The earlier you launch, the faster you will make mistakes, get feedback, and understand what really works. And most importantly — create what people really need. Build a product that solves real problems and that users really want to get.

Achievements

If we talk about company achievements, we passed the selection into Y Combinator, closed a seed investment round with the participation of U.S. News, Innovo, and a number of other international funds. We also established partnerships with several strong law firms and medical organizations in the US.

Today, the company operates between two main locations — New York and Atlanta. For now, we are primarily developing the B2B direction, but in the future, we plan to launch a product for private users as well.

As for personal achievements, I have received many awards throughout my life. I became a winner of national competitions in Tajikistan, won gold medals, won startup hackathons, competitive programming olympiads, and various entrepreneurial competitions.

The company has already closed its Seed investment round, although its details have not yet been announced publicly. Among our investors are U.S. News, Y Combinator, investors from the OpenAI ecosystem, as well as funds and private investors from the UK, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, the US, and Japan.

Among the investors are also the founder of Kayak, early investors in companies such as ElevenLabs, Groq, and Gamma, the first investor in Kalshi, and a number of international venture capital funds. We have a very diversified investor base representing almost all regions of the world.

Plans

By the end of the year, our main goal is to have as much impact as possible on the US market. Despite the fact that I am from Tajikistan and represent Central Asia, Wayco is primarily an American company.

We want to help as many law firms, medical organizations, and end users as possible. We are talking about people who have suffered injuries or been involved in accidents. Our goal is to make the interaction processes between all participants much more efficient using artificial intelligence.

Today, managing cases related to injuries, medical incidents, and legal support often takes a lot of time and requires significant resources. We want to simplify and optimize these processes, automate them using AI, and make support for injured people more accessible and effective.