Question: how likely is it that a number of 20-year olds have the passion of solving the problem of compliance auditing? I can hardly imagine that I'd even be interested in taking a look at the domain. It's just... so mundane. Or maybe the alpha-type overachievers don't care about the domain but the opportunity?

Solving boring problems has been conventional startup wisdom for a long time. And a "mundane" startup might be more interesting than traditional high-paying jobs like finance/law/consulting. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2007/12/06/where-theres-muck-...

I work for a firm that develops custom software in regulated industries, and we have brilliant software & data engineers in their 20's working on compliance auditing, and more specifically "Compliance Management System health monitoring."

We've be able to use a lot of AI-assisted engineering and AI in the software to solve longstanding business challenges in this space.

I won't make assumptions about where you're located, but on the East Coast US it is big business among banks, utilities, healthcare, etc.

I think there are lots of 20 year olds with a passion for making money

I wonder if it's almost like a new version of management consulting. You hire/invest in a bunch of smart 20-somethings who seem generally intelligent with the idea that they'll "disrupt" an industry with their from-first principles approach. Do the 23 year old McKinsey consultants particularly care about their work? No, but the McKinsey name is a fast way to gain clout and access to executives. Ditto the YC name

I’m currently working on a KYC compliance startup. Loads of fun both technically and also KYC in it self. Most things can be fun and interesting to someone.

I'm in the industry (albeit not a 20-year old), and agree that the domain itself is incredibly dry.

The tech is quite interesting, thankfully.

From a customer perspective it's interesting - compliance sucks so much that even a slight improvement/automation goes a long way

Perhaps more relevant is how much can a 20-year old possibly know about your business, or any business

The problem may not be "intellectually interesting" to them at all, but building B2B SaaS does appeal to them from a lifestyle/prestige/pedigree perspective and will probably get them an exit to become a Venture investor even if they fail.