Coleman Oates

Coleman Oates is the Co-Founder of Lapel, a customer operations platform, and is based in San Francisco, California. His current venture, which helps consumer brands scale personalized online service, is participating in the Y Combinator Spring 2025 batch. Previously, he served as the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Onward, an AI-driven meeting automation startup that was part of the Y Combinator Summer 2023 cohort. Oates has a history of building artificial intelligence automation products alongside his long-term collaborator Nikolas Huebecker, a partnership that originally began during their middle school years. Before entering the technology startup sector, he gained hands-on operational expertise by scaling high-volume hospitality operations at the national restaurant chain Chick-fil-A. His current career focuses on leveraging traditional hospitality principles to develop business-to-business software that improves customer service and operational efficiency across modern digital platforms.