Lance Expands Beyond YC W26 to Build Computer Use Agents for Legacy Hotel Systems

Lance is automating back-office and front-desk workflows for more than 50 hotels across brands like Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt. Founded in 2026 and backed by $500K in seed funding from Y Combinator's W26 batch, the three-person San Francisco company builds autonomous AI agents designed to handle inbound calls, close sales, and coordinate operations.

Rather than forcing hospitality operators to overhaul their existing tech stack, Lance develops computer use agent technology that interacts directly with legacy desktop systems, including DOS-based hotel software.

Automating Operations on DOS-Based Software

Many hotels still rely on decades-old software and manual pen-and-paper handoffs to manage guest requests, reservations, and back-office logistics. Lance bypasses the absence of modern web APIs by deploying desktop-level computer use agents that can navigate existing software interfaces, make real-time decisions, and execute multi-step tasks.

In an interview on the START pod, co-founder Gavin Brennen explained the technical constraints of building for hospitality:

"We have an even more unique situation because if you're trying to build things on DOS, like you're not even able to do web agents, right? You have to have like things that live on the computer itself... The other thing has been just to be a platform layer on top of these old antiquated softwares that can kind of get information together and have that centralized dashboard and area so the agents can go and act on things."

Brennen noted that his father had worked at Marriott for nine years, exposing him to the operational friction of legacy software where simple requests, such as delivering fresh towels, could take 45 minutes to process. Lance's agents intercept guest inquiries by voice or message, identify room assignments, and automatically dispatch tasks directly to on-duty staff. Beyond receptionist agents and operations agents, the company develops sales agents designed to manage event and group booking pipelines.

The Founding Team

The company was founded by three UC Berkeley alumni with technical and product backgrounds in AI agents:

• Caleb Chan, Chief Executive Officer: Previously Head of Product and Founding Engineer at Silicon Valley Commerce through its nine-figure exit. Chan earlier held product roles at Google and Salesforce focused on voice and AI agent technology, and holds a degree in computer science from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
• Gatik Trivedi, Chief Technology Officer: Founded and exited MedTec Innovate, conducted speech and language research at Stanford, and studied in the UC Berkeley Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology (M.E.T.) program. Trivedi previously built agent infrastructure at GI Partners and evaluation metrics for large language models at Knowtex (YC S22).
• Gavin Brennen, Chief Operating Officer: Formerly built AI agents at Domo and worked in customer-facing and product roles at SmartSuite and Zeus.

Hands-On Deployment and Technical Hiring

To expand across hotel chains, Lance couples software with forward-deployed engineering and on-site operational rollouts. On the START pod, Brennen described how the company approaches client implementations by tailoring agent configurations directly to property workflows: "If you want big contracts, you got to solve big problems. And big problems are usually really custom to the specific client that you're working with."

The company is scaling its technical core in San Francisco. To build out the underlying system infrastructure, Lance is hiring a Member of Technical Staff ($160,000–$260,000) to develop and maintain core product infrastructure and AI functionalities, alongside a Product Engineer ($150,000–$250,000) focused on product roadmaps and hospitality user requirements. Early engineering talent is also being recruited through a Software Engineering Intern role ($6,000–$8,000 per month) to work on voice and messaging pipelines and backend infrastructure that enables agents to run multi-step actions across hotel software.

Operations and implementation require physical presence. The company is hiring a contract Deployment Specialist (Contract) ($7,200 per month) to travel to hotels across the United States, managing on-site implementations and training staff on Lance's products. At the executive level in San Francisco, Lance is recruiting a Chief of Staff ($140,000–$200,000) to lead business operations across legal, compliance, and finance, as well as an Executive Assistant ($80,000–$130,000) available onsite or remotely across the US.

Commercial adoption is supported by a Founding Growth lead ($100,000–$140,000) who will produce marketing collateral and case studies, accompanied by a GTM & Content Marketing Intern ($5,000–$8,000 per month) working directly with leadership on short-form video and distribution channels.

Open Roles at Lance

See all open roles at Lance