Y Combinator

As AI coding agents handle implementation, the bottleneck shifts to deciding what to build. YC wants tools that analyze customer data, propose features, and generate specs that coding agents can execute.

The vision: upload customer interviews and product usage data, then ask "What should we build next?" The system would analyze patterns across thousands of customer interactions, propose features with AI-generated mockups, and break down work into tasks for coding agents.

The hedge funds of the future won't bolt AI onto existing strategies—they'll use AI agents to discover entirely new ones. YC sees an opportunity for funds built entirely around AI agents that analyze market data and execute trades autonomously.

Traditional funds are retrofitting AI onto existing processes. AI-native funds will be built from scratch around what AI does best: reading every filing in real-time, synthesizing research across the firm, and executing on insights in milliseconds.

Instead of selling AI tools to agencies, become the agency. Use AI to deliver design, advertising, legal, and consulting services with software-like margins (70-80%) instead of traditional agency margins (20-30%).

The insight: when you sell software, you compete on features and price. When you sell outcomes, you compete on results. Customers don't want AI tools—they want their problems solved.

Stablecoins sit in the regulatory sweet spot between DeFi chaos and TradFi bureaucracy. The GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act are creating clear compliance pathways for stablecoin businesses.

The application layer is wide open: yield-bearing accounts, cross-border B2B payments that settle in minutes, tokenized real-world assets, and merchant infrastructure for stablecoin commerce.

Government agencies receive digital submissions, print them out, and have humans manually enter data. This is about to get much worse as agencies face unprecedented surges in applications. They desperately need AI tools but can't build them internally.

The opportunity: form processing at scale, fraud detection across millions of submissions, backlog clearing, and citizen-facing chatbots. Once you're in, you're in for decades.

American metal mills have 8-30 week lead times because they optimize for tonnage, not speed. The software and automation is decades old. Modern mills need AI-driven production planning, real-time visibility, and automation that reduces changeover time from hours to minutes.

The CHIPS Act and reshoring movement are driving massive investment in American manufacturing, but the software hasn't kept up.

Training a new HVAC technician takes 6-24 months. But what if they could be productive on day one with an AI expert in their ear, seeing what they see, guiding every step?

Multimodal AI can now identify equipment from photos, read model numbers, and understand spatial relationships. Combined with smartphones and AR glasses, this enables real-time expert guidance at scale.