YC request for startups 2026

YC request for startups 2026

1) Cursor for product managers
• Opportunity to help teams figure out what to build, not just how to build it
• Upload customer interviews and product usage data, ask "what should we build next?"
• The way we define and communicate "what to build" needs to change

2) AI-native hedge funds
• The next Renaissance, Bridgewater, and D.E. Shaw's are going to be built on AI
• The biggest funds in the world have been slow to adapt
• Swarms of agents will do what hedge fund traders do now

3) AI-native agencies
• Agencies have always been crazy hard to scale
• Now instead of selling software to customers to help them work, you can use the software
• You can charge way more by selling them the finished product at 100x the price
• Agencies of the future will look more like software companies, with margin and scale

4) Stablecoin financial services
• Much of the financial services layer remains unbuilt
• Room for financial services that offer DeFi benefits like better yield or tokenized assets
• The regulatory window is open, the rails are being laid, perfect time to build

5) AI for government
• People now fill in forms and applications with unprecedented speed and accuracy
• Government needs AI tools to deal with the huge increase coming down the line
• Selling to government is hard, but very sticky and can expand to huge contracts

6) Modern metal mills
• American metal mills are slow by design, systems were designed decades ago
• Automation has lagged at the exact moment the workforce is shrinking
• Software and energy technology are good enough to rethink the entire system

7) AI guidance for physical work
• Real-time AI guidance that can see, reason, and guide the human who does the work
• Imagine wearing a small camera while an AI talks you through the job
• Three things have converged: multimodal models, hardware everywhere, and skilled labor shortages