Conifer

YC company profile

Least cost routing system to reduce 70%+ token spend

There are thousands of models, providers, and harnesses, each with its own pricing and strengths, leaving an overwhelming number of choices when it comes to managing token spend and intelligence. Conifer uses intelligent routing and orchestration logic to handle the full path of each query: model selection, provider choice, and cache management. It all runs inside your existing harness, so tools like Claude Code and Codex work without changing your setup. By centralizing where inference occurs, Conifer lets companies save on their inference bill while leaving teams free to focus on what they are building.

• YC batch: Summer 2026
• Founded: 2026
• Team size: 4
• Location: San Francisco
• Country: US
• Status: Active
• Industry: B2B
• Stage: Early
• Tags: Developer Tools, B2B, Security, AI
• YC partner: Gustaf Alstromer

Founders

Charles Muehlberger — Founder/CTO

Founder at Conifer. Engineering researcher at Princeton, accelerating multi-modal inference on edge devices and designing physics simulation software for coupled laser reservoirs and machine learning with physical neural networks. Previously built custom edge AI devices for RF-based brain injury modeling at DoW, and helped engineer the world record holding fastest electric speedboat at PES.

LinkedIn · X

Michael Jeffords — Founder/CGO

Co-founder at Conifer (YC S26). Previously co-founded The HeartCheck Foundation, scaling free hypertension screenings to 20+ barbershops and over 10,000 individuals. Engineered an ML-driven computer vision pipeline using pose estimation for early-onset ALS and Parkinson's detection. Former clinical researcher at the Dell Med Institute of Vascular Surgery and UTHSC, specializing in hematopoetic stem cell transplantation, achieving infiltration levels >90% in mouse models.

LinkedIn · X

Source: Y Combinator · Retrieved 2026-11-02. Company information is self-reported on YC.