Y Combinator offers 7 startups ideas they want to fund (Spring 2026)
As usual, Y Combinator came up with segments that are worth investing:
1. Cursor for Product Managers
2. AI-Native Hedge Funds
3. AI-Native Agencies
4. Stablecoin Financial Services
5. AI for Government
6. Modern Metal Mills
7. AI Guidance for Physical Work
8. Large Spatial Models
9. Infra for Government Fraud Hunters
10. Make LLMs Easy to TrainWhich of the following do you think are the most interesting?
OR
Would you add to the list, maybe something that is more worth funding?
Also, are you going to apply? š
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We're in the process of reinventing our agency to be AI Native. It's the future of Agencies of all kinds and it's the perfect combination of being 'Techno-Human'. The humans will bring the 'taste' and the AI will do the heavy lifting.
As I've mentioned, the ultimate barrier to any progress/evolution is the rate at which people adopt anything. I work primarily in advertising and marketing - and aside from the buzz around the term AI - most people have NO idea what it actually entails or the rate of progress being made. This is why the AI-Native agency is most likely going to be 'new' and not an incumbent. (At least the majority of the incumbents aren't going to make it.)
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@nikhilshahaneĀ Just out of curiosity, which topics related to AI and digital agencies are interesting to you? :) I would like to contribute more in these terms.
@busmark_w_nikaĀ The way I see it is that agencies have 1 job - to add value to their clients in the field that they are operating in. Eg: For brands & businesses, it's creative value in the form of advertising or marketing strategies and tactics to increase revenue (and there will be proxies for this - your general brand metrics fall into this category). Or in another category - business strategic consulting agencies will need to help with ops / GTMs, etc... and each category will have its own thing (PR, Talent Management, Operations, etc... etc...)
And in any agency there are 2 broad work streams - the thinking (taste) and the execution (ops). In most businesses software has already helped optimize the ops bit. But most agencies haven't made that shift yet. That's one clear part where I see the AI-Native agency coming into being.
My prediction is that there will be many more small boutique agencies that bring immense 'taste' to the table that will no longer be 'small' because AI (software) will give them the ability to scale.
Or I could be wrong and we'll not need agencies at all. :D
ProblemHunt
Hi Nika! As soon as I saw the first request on the list, I couldnāt pay attention to the rest anymore. It really feels like Ā«Cursor for Product ManagersĀ» is something thatās very needed and could take off strongly. But letās see what time shows š
Weāve submitted the ProblemHunt application for the second time.
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@gostroverhovĀ uuu, i have my fingers crossed for you! :)
ProblemHunt
@busmark_w_nikaĀ š¤
Scade.pro
@gostroverhovĀ good luck, Boris. Nice product name :)
ProblemHunt
@nastassia_kĀ thank you, Nastassia :)
Iām putting all my bets on AI for Government! The dream of AI finally killing off soul-crushing bureaucracy and processes stuck in the 90s is just too good to ignoreš„¹
My only worry is that most governments are still have what to do with basic digitalization, let alone AI :D
But yes, itās definitely the biggest area for a massive upgrade!
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@valeriia_kunaĀ I think that this is more likely for China. Europe? eeeh :D Not so sure.
@valeriia_kunaĀ It's a big bet, but goes against the psychology of how the government operates. Most governments are about control. AI will reduce that. Same reason why blockchain/cryptography based tech has always been blocked by governments.
Having said that, I'm with you - I hope for a day where we don't have to deal with soul-crushing bureaucracy and red-tape.
Great breakdown! Iād probably vote for #1 (Cursor for PMs) as the most immediate need, but #7 feels like the biggest long-term shift for the workforce.
Iād add Personalized AI Tutors to the listānot just for coding, but for general skill acquisition. We need better ways to keep up with all this tech!
Good luck! š
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@jakub_malek1Ā I think that 7 is the most revolutionary and imagine including robots. That would be pretty awesome (and scary) :D
@busmark_w_nikaĀ Haha, exactly! Itās a mix of excitement and 'Terminator' vibes. :D
Speaking of the AI Tutorāwe actually applied to YC with it recently. We didn't make the cut this time (super competitive batch and slightly different market focus), but weāre not letting that stop us. Weāre iterating on the product and definitely applying again! š„
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@jakub_malek1Ā Wishing you good luck. To be honest, I do not know their criteria, but many people post on X about how they were rejected (it is true that mostly they were solo founders). Hopefully, your product will be appealing to them! :)
@busmark_w_nikaĀ Yeah, their exact criteria aren't public, but from what I've heard, the acceptance rate can be as low as 1 in 100. So the odds are tough, but we're definitely not giving up! šŖ
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@fitnessrefinedĀ People in bureaucracy will not be happy, that's for sure.
AI-native agencies stand out to me. Itās basically: pick a boring but valuable niche, map the workflow, then replace chunks of it with agents that run autonomously. The hard part isnāt the tech, itās the scoping.
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@solomon_nwabuokuĀ To be honest, I am not so technical, but for me, the execution would be tricky :D
@solomon_nwabuokuĀ Running autonomously is hard. Even claude cowork dont support agent finding their next tasks to do on their own.
@solomon_nwabuokuĀ I'd wager the hard part will be getting the 'Taste' bit right. That's what agencies are supposed to bring to the table. And even before this AI wave - most agencies had lost that.
vibecoder.date
Mills as in machining equipment?
I think stablecoin based financial services that focus on being tax compliant would let local businesses take crypto without the regulatory nightmare.
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@build_with_ajĀ Now, I am pretty hesitant about crypto. I invested, and it all went down. š It happens to me every time. LOL.
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@siarhei_aiĀ No. 7 :)
interesting list but what's missing is #11. Tools to figure out what's actually worth building in the first place.
everyone's racing to build AI products but nobody's asking what problems people actually have. i might be crazy but i went the opposite direction. I built something with no AI at all.
frikt is an app where people post their daily frustrations in one sentence. others say same. patterns emerge. the idea is that before you build anything, you should know if enough people actually have that problem.
with AI making it so easy to build, the bottleneck isn't building anymore. it's knowing what to build. that's the gap i'm trying to fill.
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@karolisbuildsĀ I can say that there is a page that captures real problems so people can build a product according to that āĀ it is a @ProblemHunt
Stellify
I'm building an AI code editor (stellisoft.com). From what I've read it doesn't fit directly into those categories but I still intend to apply. Are you applying Nika?
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@stellify_softwareĀ Me not :D I do not have that ambition (and no idea what to build) :D Do you have co-founders? I have heard that co-founders are also a factor that influences the decision to approve