Signed up as a Warp customer, stole the playbook, launched a clone
Central's CEO signed up as a customer of fellow YC company Warp in 2023 under 'Central Business Applications Inc.' Spent six months asking how tax compliance works, what registered agents are, how multi-state filings work — then churned and launched an identical payroll startup with Warp's exact marketing copy, down to the tagline 'designed for founders, not HR' . YC funded them anyway in S24, despite Warp already being in the portfolio. Central got acqui-hired by Mercury in April 2026. Warp CEO Ayush Sharma publicly called them out: 'gg no re.'
Satirical project. Not affiliated with Y Combinator. All information from public records.