How to Build, Deploy & Monetize Secure AI Agents | Cathy Di, Dedalus Labs (YC S25)

Catherine Di is the co‑founder and CEO of Dedalus Labs, a YC startup building the infrastructure layer for agentic AI that lets developers build and deploy complex agents in just a few lines of code.

In this conversation, she talks through the technical problems behind agent security, deployment, and MCP-based tooling, and how her team is approaching them with a developer-native platform. We also get into the story of applying to YC, participating in the S25 batch, and raising an $11M seed round co-led by Kindred Ventures and Saga Ventures. Catherine shares what changed in the market, what investors actually asked about, and how her thinking on agents, protocols, and infra has evolved along the way.

Before Dedalus Labs, she studied Computer Science at Princeton University and was Co‑President + Incubator Leader at the student-run Hoagie Club.

01:01 - Dedalus Labs

03:57 - MCP and AI Agents

06:49 - Build, Deploy, Monetize AI Agents

08:14 - Security Concerns

12:12 - The future of AI Agents

15:32 - YC and Fundraising

28:09 - Final Advice and Book Recs

Cathy’s Socials:

•⁠ ⁠X: https://x.com/itsCathyDi

•⁠ ⁠⁠LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathydi/