| Row ID | Year / Cohort | Title | Plain-English Summary | Source | Author / Requester | Theme Family |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026 Summer | AI for Low-Pesticide Agriculture | Tools that help farmers produce more with fewer pesticides while improving yield. | Source | Garry Tan | AgTech / AI |
| 2 | 2026 Summer | AI-Native Discovery Engines | AI-native systems that help researchers propose and validate hypotheses. | Source | Jon Xu | AI for science |
| 3 | 2026 Summer | AI-Native Service Companies | Companies that sell completed services using AI, rather than selling software tools. | Source | Gustaf Alströmer | AI services |
| 4 | 2026 Summer | AI Personalized Medicine | Personalized diagnostics, risk assessment and therapies using personal health data and agents. | Source | Ankit Gupta | Healthcare AI |
| 5 | 2026 Summer | Company Brain | A living knowledge layer that structures company know-how for reliable AI automation. | Source | Tom Blomfield | Enterprise AI |
| 6 | 2026 Summer | Counter-Swarm Defense | Technology to defend against coordinated drone swarms. | Source | Tyler Bosmeny | Defense tech |
| 7 | 2026 Summer | Dynamic Software Interfaces | Software interfaces users can heavily customize using coding agents. | Source | Ankit Gupta | Software UX / AI |
| 8 | 2026 Summer | Electronics in Space | Compute and inference hardware optimized for space environments. | Source | Philip Johnston | Space / chips |
| 9 | 2026 Summer | Hardware Supply Chain | Faster design-to-part iteration loops and supply-chain tooling for hardware teams. | Source | Nicolas Dessaigne | Hardware / manufacturing |
| 10 | 2026 Summer | Industrial Capabilities in Space | Industrial production and raw-material extraction on the moon or in space. | Source | Adi Oltean | Space / industrial |
| 11 | 2026 Summer | Inference Chips for Agent Workflows | Inference silicon optimized for agent loops, tool calls, branching and context switching. | Source | Diana Hu | AI infrastructure / chips |
| 12 | 2026 Summer | SaaS Challengers | AI-native challengers to legacy SaaS categories. | Source | Jared Friedman | AI-native SaaS |
| 13 | 2026 Summer | Software for Agents | APIs, MCPs, CLIs and documentation built for AI agents as users. | Source | Aaron Epstein | Agent infrastructure |
| 14 | 2026 Summer | Startups That Want to Sell to Huge Companies | Startups using AI to sell and deliver into massive enterprises. | Source | Harshita Arora and Brad Flora | Enterprise sales |
| 15 | 2026 Summer | Supply Chain 2.0 for Semiconductors | Modern software for wafer allocation, packaging constraints and chip supply chains. | Source | Diana Hu | Semiconductor supply chain |
| 16 | 2026 Summer | The AI Operating System for Companies | A connective layer that makes company work legible to AI and turns artifacts into specs agents can execute. | Source | Diana Hu | Enterprise AI / PM |
| 17 | 2026 Spring | Cursor for Product Managers | AI workspace for product teams to synthesize research, usage, feedback and create coding-agent-ready tasks. | Source | Andrew Miklas | Product management AI |
| 18 | 2026 Spring | AI-Native Hedge Funds | Hedge funds built around AI agents from day one. | Source | Charlie Holtz, Conductor | AI finance |
| 19 | 2026 Spring | AI-Native Agencies | Agencies whose delivery model and margins are transformed by AI. | Source | Aaron Epstein | AI services |
| 20 | 2026 Spring | Stablecoin Financial Services | Financial services built on stablecoin rails. | Source | Daivik Goel, Shor | Fintech / stablecoins |
| 21 | 2026 Spring | AI for Government | AI tools to process forms, applications and government paperwork faster. | Source | Tom Blomfield | Govtech |
| 22 | 2026 Spring | Modern Metal Mills | Software-defined, flexible metal mills for modern supply chains. | Source | Zane Hengsperger, Nox Metals | Industrial / manufacturing |
| 23 | 2026 Spring | AI Guidance for Physical Work | Camera/glasses-based AI guidance for workers doing physical tasks. | Source | David Lieb | AI for field work |
| 24 | 2026 Spring | Large Spatial Models | Models specialized in 3D geometry, physical manipulation and spatial reasoning. | Source | Ryan McLinko, Astranis | AI foundation models |
| 25 | 2026 Spring | Infra for Government Fraud Hunters | Software to help investigators package and pursue government fraud cases. | Source | Garry Tan | Govtech / fraud |
| 26 | 2026 Spring | Make LLMs Easy to Train | Better tooling, APIs, datasets and environments for training specialized LLMs. | Source | Gabriel Birnbaum, YN | AI infrastructure |
| 27 | 2026 | Techno-Industrialist RFS | Startups applying modern software to the stack of industrial production. | Source | YC / Reindustrialize Summit / New American Industrial Alliance | Industrial technology |
| 28 | 2025 Fall | Retraining Workers for the AI Economy | Training skilled workers needed for data centers, semiconductors and AI-era infrastructure. | Source | Harj Taggar | Workforce / AI infrastructure |
| 29 | 2025 Fall | Video Generation as a Primitive | Treat AI-generated video as a core primitive for media, gaming, commerce and simulation. | Source | David Lieb | Generative video |
| 30 | 2025 Fall | The First 10-person, $100B Company | Extremely high-output tiny teams built around AI leverage. | Source | Aaron Epstein | AI-native company building |
| 31 | 2025 Fall | Infrastructure for Multi-Agent Systems | Tools for building, monitoring and debugging multi-agent systems. | Source | Pete Koomen | Agent infrastructure |
| 32 | 2025 Fall | AI Native Enterprise Software | Rebuilding major enterprise categories around AI-native workflows. | Source | Andrew Miklas | Enterprise AI |
| 33 | 2025 Fall | Using LLMs Instead of Government Consulting | LLM-based software replacing government consulting work. | Source | Gustaf Alströmer | Govtech / consulting replacement |
| 34 | 2025 Summer | Full-stack AI Companies | Build the whole AI-powered company and compete with legacy businesses. | Source | Jared Friedman | AI-native vertical companies |
| 35 | 2025 Summer | More Design Founders | More design-led founders as AI lowers build costs and raises the importance of taste. | Source | Aaron Epstein | Design-led startups |
| 36 | 2025 Summer | Voice AI | AI voice agents for business phone workflows and call-center replacement. | Source | Gustaf Alströmer | Voice AI |
| 37 | 2025 Summer | AI for Scientific Advancement | AI tools for scientific and industrial optimization in biology, chemistry, materials and more. | Source | Diana Hu | AI for science |
| 38 | 2025 Summer | AI Personal Assistant | A true personal assistant that understands email, calendar, preferences and can act. | Source | Tom Blomfield | Personal AI |
| 39 | 2025 Summer | Healthcare AI | AI agents to reduce healthcare admin work involving PDFs and disconnected systems. | Source | Gustaf Alströmer | Healthcare AI |
| 40 | 2025 Summer | AI Personal Tutor for Everyone | Personalized AI tutors using reasoning, voice, animation and multimodal teaching. | Source | Harj Taggar | Education AI |
| 41 | 2025 Summer | Software Tools To Make Robots | Software tools that help builders create useful robots. | Source | Diana Hu | Robotics infrastructure |
| 42 | 2025 Summer | The Future of Education | AI-native education products that change learning, teaching and outcomes. | Source | Tom Blomfield | Education |
| 43 | 2025 Summer | AI Residential Security | AI-powered home security with better detection, alerts and deterrence. | Source | Tyler Bosmeny | Home security AI |
| 44 | 2025 Summer | Internal Agent Builder | Tools that let employees build internal agents for repetitive work. | Source | Pete Koomen | Enterprise agents |
| 45 | 2025 Summer | AI Research Labs | Independent labs pursuing frontier AI research questions. | Source | Jared Friedman | AI research |
| 46 | 2025 Summer | AI Voice Assistants for Email | Voice-first agents for email triage, drafting and delegation. | Source | Tyler Bosmeny | Voice / productivity |
| 47 | 2025 Summer | AI for Personal Finance | Personalized AI financial advice across savings, investing, debt and taxes. | Source | Gustaf Alströmer | Consumer fintech AI |
| 48 | 2025 Spring | A Secure AI App Store | A trusted layer where AI apps access user-approved data and memory safely. | Source | Garry Tan | AI OS / marketplace |
| 49 | 2025 Spring | Datacenters | Startups that build AI data centers faster and cheaper. | Source | Diana Hu | AI infrastructure |
| 50 | 2025 Spring | Compliance and Audit | AI that automates compliance testing and audit over documents and records. | Source | Tom Blomfield | Regtech |
| 51 | 2025 Spring | Browser & Computer Automation | Agents that use websites and desktop apps like humans. | Source | Jared Friedman | Agent automation |
| 52 | 2025 Spring | AI Personal Staff for Everyone | AI versions of high-end human services like accountant, lawyer, tutor or trainer. | Source | David Lieb | Consumer AI services |
| 53 | 2025 Spring | Devtools for AI Agents | Tools and platforms for creating, deploying and managing agents. | Source | Nicolas Dessaigne | Agent devtools |
| 54 | 2025 Spring | The Future of Software Engineering | Managing teams of coding, QA, deployment, security and ops agents. | Source | Pete Koomen | AI software development |
| 55 | 2025 Spring | AI Commercial Open Source Software (AICOSS) | Commercializing open-source AI with hosting, support and enterprise services. | Source | Dalton Caldwell | Open source AI |
| 56 | 2025 Spring | AI Coding Agents for Hardware-Optimized Code | Agents that generate kernels, drivers and optimized code for AI hardware. | Source | Diana Hu | AI chips / low-level code |
| 57 | 2025 Spring | B2A: Software Where the Customers Will All Be Agents | Software, APIs and services designed for agents as customers. | Source | Dalton Caldwell | Agent-native software |
| 58 | 2025 Spring | Vertical AI Agents | Agents automating real work in specific industries. | Source | Jared Friedman | Vertical SaaS AI |
| 59 | 2025 Spring | Inference AI Infrastructure in the World of Test-Time Compute | Infrastructure to make reasoning-model inference cheaper and scalable. | Source | Diana Hu | AI inference infrastructure |
| 60 | 2025 Winter | Government Software | AI software for government administration and service delivery. | Source | Harj Taggar | Govtech |
| 61 | 2025 Winter | Public Safety Technology | Technology for safety, response coordination and paperwork efficiency. | Source | Garry Tan | Public safety |
| 62 | 2025 Winter | Manufacture in the USA | Bringing manufacturing back with robotics, automation and startup-style execution. | Source | Jared Friedman | Manufacturing |
| 63 | 2025 Winter | Stablecoins 2.0 | Business-focused products for holding, managing and moving stablecoins. | Source | Brad Flora and Harj Taggar | Stablecoins / fintech |
| 64 | 2025 Winter | LLMs for Chip Design | Using reasoning LLMs to design ASICs, FPGAs and specialized systems. | Source | Garry Tan | AI chips / EDA |
| 65 | 2025 Winter | Fintech 2.0 | New financial startups across insurance, wealth, investment banking and payments. | Source | Dalton Caldwell | Fintech |
| 66 | 2025 Winter | New Space Companies | Startups enabled by cheaper launch and satellite economics. | Source | Jared Friedman and Dalton Caldwell | Space |
| 67 | 2025 Winter | AI-Aided Engineering Tools | AI tools for CAD/CAM/EDA and physical-system design. | Source | Diana Hu | Engineering tools |
| 68 | 2025 Winter | One Million Jobs 2.0 | Startups that can employ very large numbers of humans in useful AI-era roles. | Source | Dalton Caldwell | Future of work |
| 69 | 2025 | Build Onchain | RFS collaboration about building onchain in the Fintech 3.0 era. | Source | Harj Taggar / YC x Coinbase | Crypto / fintech |
| 70 | 2024 Summer | Using Machine Learning to Simulate the Physical World | ML-based substitutes for expensive physics/chemistry simulations. | Source | Diana Hu and Jared Friedman | AI simulation |
| 71 | 2024 Summer | New Defense Technology | Startup-style defense companies to outperform slow incumbents. | Source | Jared Friedman and Gustaf Alströmer | Defense tech |
| 72 | 2024 Summer | Commercial Open Source Companies | Open-source software companies that become standards and monetize via enterprise. | Source | Nicolas Dessaigne and Diana Hu | Open source |
| 73 | 2024 Summer | Spatial Computing | Applications, tools and infrastructure for spatial computing. | Source | Diana Hu | AR/VR/MR |
| 74 | 2024 Summer | New Enterprise Resource Planning Software | Better software for running businesses than painful legacy ERPs. | Source | Dalton Caldwell | ERP |
| 75 | 2024 Summer | Developer Tools Inspired by Existing Internal Tools | Turn useful internal engineering tools into external products. | Source | Dalton Caldwell | Developer tools |
| 76 | 2024 Summer | LLMs for Manual Back Office Processes in Legacy Enterprises | Automate repetitive unstructured-data workflows in legacy enterprises. | Source | Tom Blomfield | Enterprise AI |
| 77 | 2024 Summer | AI to Build Enterprise Software | AI-generated customized enterprise software. | Source | Harj Taggar | Enterprise AI |
| 78 | 2024 Summer | Stablecoin Finance | Products and infrastructure for stablecoin finance. | Source | Brad Flora | Stablecoins / fintech |
| 79 | 2024 Summer | A Way to End Cancer | Scale early cancer detection with MRI, AI and business-model innovation. | Source | Surbhi Sarna | Healthcare diagnostics |
| 80 | 2024 Summer | Foundation Models for Biological Systems | Foundation models trained on biological and medical data. | Source | Surbhi Sarna | Bio AI |
| 81 | 2024 Summer | The Managed Service Organization Model for Healthcare | Software and patient acquisition to help doctors run independent clinics. | Source | Surbhi Sarna | Healthcare operations |
| 82 | 2024 Summer | Eliminating Middlemen in Healthcare | Remove or automate non-care intermediaries in healthcare. | Source | Surbhi Sarna | Healthcare efficiency |
| 83 | 2024 Summer | Small Fine-tuned Models as an Alternative to Giant Generic Ones | Cheaper specialized models, including edge/on-device use cases. | Source | Nicolas Dessaigne | AI models |
| 84 | 2024 Summer | Explainable AI | Interpretable models and tools to explain AI decisions. | Source | Diana Hu and Nicolas Dessaigne | AI trust |
| 85 | 2024 Summer | Applying Machine Learning to Robotics | Use modern ML/foundation models to make real-world robots viable. | Source | Diana Hu and Jared Friedman | Robotics |
| 86 | 2024 Summer | Bring manufacturing back to America | Category listed in the official YC 2024 RFS launch blog; not visible in the current Summer 2024 tab capture. | Source | YC Group Partners | Official launch blog category |
| 87 | 2024 Summer | New space companies | Category listed in the official YC 2024 RFS launch blog; not visible in the current Summer 2024 tab capture. | Source | YC Group Partners | Official launch blog category |
| 88 | 2024 Summer | Climate tech | Category listed in the official YC 2024 RFS launch blog; not visible in the current Summer 2024 tab capture. | Source | YC Group Partners | Official launch blog category |
| 89 | 2024 Summer | Better enterprise glue | Category listed in the official YC 2024 RFS launch blog; not visible in the current Summer 2024 tab capture. | Source | YC Group Partners | Official launch blog category |
| 90 | 2022 | Energy Related | Decarbonize the grid and electrify combustion machines. Startups can help transform how energy is generated, transmitted, consumed, stored, and managed. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / energy |
| 91 | 2022 | Electrify Buildings | Replace fossil-fuel machines in homes and commercial buildings with electric equivalents. Opportunities include financing, contractor enablement, rewiring, heat pumps, storage, and better installation workflows. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / buildings |
| 92 | 2022 | Energy Management | Manage the use and flow of electricity as machines become electric and API-controllable. Opportunities include distributed-energy-resource aggregation, demand response, smarter charging, and load management. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / energy management |
| 93 | 2022 | Electric vehicle value chain | Support the transition to electric cars with more charging infrastructure and software. YC highlights installation, planning, fleet charging, emerging-market networks, and connections among chargers, cars, and utilities. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / EVs |
| 94 | 2022 | Electrify other vehicles | Electrify vehicles beyond passenger cars, including trucks, buses, vans, utility vehicles, and RVs. The opportunity is to lower operating costs while addressing operational and scaling constraints. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / vehicles |
| 95 | 2022 | Batteries | Improve batteries and energy-storage systems as EV and grid-storage demand grows. YC highlights manufacturing, financing, lifecycle management, recycling, new chemistry, and lower-cost storage. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / batteries |
| 96 | 2022 | Long-term energy storage | Build multi-week or seasonal storage for renewable power at grid scale. YC highlights green hydrogen, thermal storage, compressed air, pumped hydro, biofuels, and new long-duration batteries. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / energy storage |
| 97 | 2022 | Energy production | Improve the deployment of solar, wind, and energy storage at scale. YC highlights interconnection, permitting, installation, maintenance, transmission, and distribution-system planning. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / power generation |
| 98 | 2022 | Critical minerals | Expand and diversify the supply of minerals required for clean energy while reducing emissions and geopolitical risk. Opportunities include deposit discovery, extraction innovation, recycling, and new battery chemistry. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / minerals |
| 99 | 2022 | Science Required | YC is interested in scientific innovation as well as deployment. Startups can create meaningful improvements in areas that still lack immediate decarbonization solutions. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / science |
| 100 | 2022 | Carbon removal & carbon capture | Capture emissions at the source or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for permanent storage or useful products. YC highlights capture technologies, storage infrastructure, monitoring, and measurement. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / carbon removal |
| 101 | 2022 | Renewable fuels | Build electrofuels and advanced biofuels for shipping, long-distance aviation, energy storage, and other uses where batteries are difficult. YC highlights electrolyzers, microorganisms, hydrogen storage, and lower-cost biofuel production. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / renewable fuels |
| 102 | 2022 | Vehicle Breakthroughs | Develop solutions for vehicle categories that are hard to fully electrify, including aviation, shipping, construction vehicles, and boats. YC highlights hybrid systems, electric cargo ships, electric worksites, and zero-emission port equipment. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / vehicles |
| 103 | 2022 | Advanced energy generation | Build advanced carbon-free energy generation, especially where intermittent renewables need firm power. YC highlights small modular nuclear reactors, fusion, flexible nuclear generation, and improved fuel cycles. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / power generation |
| 104 | 2022 | Agriculture | Reduce agricultural emissions through cheaper alternative proteins, cultivated meat, methane reduction in beef production, sustainable fertilizers, and soil-carbon measurement. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / agriculture |
| 105 | 2022 | Construction | Decarbonize buildings and infrastructure by reducing emissions from concrete, steel, and other raw materials. YC highlights low-carbon materials, better building-design software, and construction vehicles and tools. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / construction |
| 106 | 2022 | Industrial heat & processes | Reduce emissions from the heat and industrial processes used to transform materials such as cement, steel, chemicals, and plastics. Opportunities include renewable fuels, electrification, new processes, and carbon-management infrastructure. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / industry |
| 107 | 2022 | Climate Adaptation | Build tools that help industries and communities adapt to changing climate patterns, extreme fire, and water stress. Opportunities include predictive models, measurement hardware, risk reduction, and automation. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / adaptation |
| 108 | 2022 | Climate Intelligence | Build better predictive models and measurement hardware as past climate assumptions break down. YC highlights risk models, improved datasets, methane monitoring, purpose-specific climate models, and sensor networks. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / intelligence |
| 109 | 2022 | Fire | Make landscapes more resilient to fire, protect homes and cities, and improve rapid detection and suppression. YC highlights risk software, robotic fuel removal, situational awareness, and autonomous aerial suppression. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / wildfire |
| 110 | 2022 | Drought / Water | Address both too little water and too much water as climate change alters the water cycle. Opportunities include groundwater monitoring, desalination, sanitation, agricultural water circularity, flood resilience, and software automation. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / water |
| 111 | 2022 | Green Fintech | Create purpose-built financial products for green projects. YC highlights project, debt, and government financing, incentive automation, risk underwriting, and cash-flow support. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / fintech |
| 112 | 2022 | Carbon Accounting & Offsets | Build software to measure, reduce, report, and offset emissions. YC also highlights carbon-removal marketplaces and better measurement, reporting, and verification. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / carbon accounting |
| 113 | 2022 | Carbon Accounting Software | Replace manual spreadsheets and consultants with software that measures, reduces, offsets, and reports an organization's carbon footprint. YC highlights industry-specific products, infrastructure, and supply-chain integration. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / carbon accounting |
| 114 | 2022 | Carbon Offset and Removal Marketplaces | Build marketplaces and financing for carbon-removal credits with stronger measurement, reporting, verification, and additionality claims. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate tech / carbon markets |
| 115 | 2020 | Tests / diagnostics | One of four areas YC said it was particularly interested in for COVID-19 response. | Source | Jared Friedman | COVID-19 response |
| 116 | 2020 | Treatments and vaccines | One of four areas YC said it was particularly interested in for COVID-19 response. | Source | Jared Friedman | COVID-19 response |
| 117 | 2020 | Equipment for hospitals | One of four areas YC said it was particularly interested in for COVID-19 response. | Source | Jared Friedman | COVID-19 response |
| 118 | 2020 | Monitoring and data infrastructure | One of four areas YC said it was particularly interested in for COVID-19 response. | Source | Jared Friedman | COVID-19 response |
| 119 | 2019 | Government 2.0 | Startups improving core government services and social outcomes. | Source | Michael Seibel | Govtech |
| 120 | 2018 | Brick and Mortar 2.0 | One of 9 new categories named in YC's 2018 RFS update. | Source | Kat Mañalac / YC | 2018 new category |
| 121 | 2018 | Carbon Removal Technologies | One of 9 new categories named in YC's 2018 RFS update. | Source | Kat Mañalac / YC | 2018 new category |
| 122 | 2018 | Cellular Agriculture and Clean Meat | One of 9 new categories named in YC's 2018 RFS update. | Source | Kat Mañalac / YC | 2018 new category |
| 123 | 2018 | Cleaner Commodities | One of 9 new categories named in YC's 2018 RFS update. | Source | Kat Mañalac / YC | 2018 new category |
| 124 | 2018 | Improving Memory | One of 9 new categories named in YC's 2018 RFS update. | Source | Kat Mañalac / YC | 2018 new category |
| 125 | 2018 | Longevity and Anti-Aging | One of 9 new categories named in YC's 2018 RFS update. | Source | Kat Mañalac / YC | 2018 new category |
| 126 | 2018 | Safeguards Against Fake Video | One of 9 new categories named in YC's 2018 RFS update. | Source | Kat Mañalac / YC | 2018 new category |
| 127 | 2018 | Supporting Creators | One of 9 new categories named in YC's 2018 RFS update. | Source | Kat Mañalac / YC | 2018 new category |
| 128 | 2018 | Voice Apps | One of 9 new categories named in YC's 2018 RFS update. | Source | Kat Mañalac / YC | 2018 new category |
| 129 | 2018 | Frontier Carbon Removal Technologies | Expanded RFS for frontier technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere. | Source | Sam Altman / YC | Climate / carbon removal |
| 130 | 2017 | Water | Clean water abundance, desalination, purification, irrigation and reduced water usage. | Source | Y Combinator | Climate / water |
| 131 | 2017 | News | One of three areas in the official YC RFS post on news, jobs and democracy. | Source | Y Combinator | Civic / work |
| 132 | 2017 | Future of Work / Jobs | One of three areas in the official YC RFS post on news, jobs and democracy. | Source | Y Combinator | Civic / work |
| 133 | 2017 | Improving Democracy | One of three areas in the official YC RFS post on news, jobs and democracy. | Source | Y Combinator | Civic / work |
| 134 | 2017 | Education Startups | Education startups that improve learning outcomes and alternatives to traditional education debt. | Source | Karen Lien | Education |
| 135 | 2016 | Food and Farming | Better food and farming; economics, cost and flavor are emphasized. | Source | Sam Altman / YC | 2016 RFS refresh |
| 136 | 2016 | Mass Media | Ways to improve baseline quality of mass media and reduce polarization/misinformation. | Source | Sam Altman / YC | 2016 RFS refresh |
| 137 | 2016 | Underserved Communities and Social Services | Updated RFS around serving working poor and social-service systems. | Source | Sam Altman / YC | 2016 RFS refresh |
| 138 | 2014 | Energy | Make energy cheaper and more abundant through new generation, storage, and transmission technologies. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Energy / infrastructure |
| 139 | 2014 | A.I. | Build artificial intelligence systems with the potential to create large improvements across many fields. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Artificial intelligence |
| 140 | 2014 | Robotics | Build robots that can perform more work in the physical world, including transportation, space, and other real-world tasks. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Robotics |
| 141 | 2014 | Biotech | Use biological understanding and engineering to address disease, aging, and other difficult problems. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Biotech |
| 142 | 2014 | Healthcare | Make healthcare better and less expensive, including preventive tools, sensors, data, and medical devices. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Healthcare |
| 143 | 2014 | Pharmaceuticals | Improve the slow and expensive process of discovering, developing, and delivering new drugs. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Healthcare / pharmaceuticals |
| 144 | 2014 | Food & Water | Use technology to make food and water more abundant and accessible as demand increases. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Food / water |
| 145 | 2014 | Education | Use the internet for more than distributing content and combine scale with the effectiveness of one-on-one teaching. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Education |
| 146 | 2014 | Internet Infrastructure | Build infrastructure that keeps the internet working and enables new applications and services. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Internet infrastructure |
| 147 | 2014 | Government | Use technology to improve government services and make public institutions work better. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Govtech |
| 148 | 2014 | Human Augmentation | Build technologies that extend or improve human capabilities. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Human augmentation |
| 149 | 2014 | VR and AR | Build virtual-reality and augmented-reality products as new interfaces and computing environments emerge. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Spatial computing |
| 150 | 2014 | Science | Develop better models for funding and commercializing scientific research and breakthroughs. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Science / research |
| 151 | 2014 | Transportation & Housing | Make it easier for people to live somewhere desirable, work together, and travel over short distances. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Transportation / housing |
| 152 | 2014 | One Million Jobs | Build startups with the potential to create one million jobs. | Source | Y Combinator | Future of work |
| 153 | 2014 | Programming Tools | Build better tools that help programmers create software. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Developer tools |
| 154 | 2014 | Hollywood 2.0 | Build new entertainment companies and products as media creation, distribution, and consumption change. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Media / entertainment |
| 155 | 2014 | Diversity | Build companies and products that expand opportunity and better serve groups overlooked by the existing startup ecosystem. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Diversity / inclusion |
| 156 | 2014 | Developing Countries | Build products for developing countries where technology can create large improvements in quality of life. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Emerging markets |
| 157 | 2014 | Enterprise Software | Build software that makes companies more productive and solves important business problems. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Enterprise software |
| 158 | 2014 | Financial Services | Build better financial products and infrastructure. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Fintech |
| 159 | 2014 | Telecommunications | Build better communications products and infrastructure. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Telecommunications |
| 160 | 2012 | Kill Hollywood | Build better ways to entertain people and compete with movies and TV. YC highlighted new production and distribution models, interactive media, games, social sites, and apps. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Media / entertainment |
| 161 | 2010 | iPad Applications | Build iPad alternatives for the things people now do on PCs, along with new applications that do not yet have present-day analogues. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Mobile / applications |
| 162 | 2010 | Applications of Facebook Instant Personalization | Build products that use Facebook Instant Personalization to know users and their friends as soon as they arrive, reducing the friction of trying something new. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Social platforms / personalization |
| 163 | 2010 | Ephemeralization Apps / Tablets | Build applications that let general-purpose tablets and phones replace specialized physical devices. A touchscreen device can become different purpose-built hardware through software. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Mobile / hardware replacement |
| 164 | 2009 | The Future of Journalism | Build new products and business models for journalism as the traditional economics of news weaken. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Media / journalism |
| 165 | 2009 | New Paths Through Product Space | Online stores group products by seller, but that is not necessarily the best way for consumers to browse. Build better paths through product space and tools that help create them. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | E-commerce / discovery |
| 166 | 2009 | Things Built on Twitter | Treat Twitter as a new messaging protocol where recipients are not specified. Build companies on top of that protocol and its stream. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Social platforms / APIs |
| 167 | 2009 | New Ways to Use Live Video | Build new products around live video as broadcasting and consuming video over the internet becomes easier. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Video / consumer applications |
| 168 | 2009 | Development on Handhelds | Create an acceptable development environment on a device small enough to use as a phone. Handheld devices could displace laptops as development machines. | Archived YC page | Y Combinator | Mobile / developer tools |
| 169 | 2008 | A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom | Build a better answer to broken music and movie economics, where lawsuits against users and old record-label business models cannot be the final state. The solution may involve new software, licensing, live shows, or media that changes form. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Media / entertainment |
| 170 | 2008 | Simplified browsing | Trade some browser power for simplicity. Build something between a digital photo frame and a full browser-based computer for grandparents, children, and potentially broader users. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Consumer software |
| 171 | 2008 | New news | Rebuild news for the web as newspapers lose their geographic and distribution advantages. Blogs, Reddit, and Digg were early signs, but only the beginning. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Media / journalism |
| 172 | 2008 | Outsourced IT | Replace expensive IT bottlenecks with tools departments can use themselves. Anything employees still wait on internal IT for may be a startup opportunity. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Enterprise software / IT |
| 173 | 2008 | Enterprise software 2.0 | Pick off parts of overpriced enterprise software, especially where incumbents sell bad software behind protective sales and procurement walls. Starting with smaller companies may make selling easier. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Enterprise software |
| 174 | 2008 | More variants of CRM | Build higher-resolution customer relationship management. Current CRM products often feel like mailing-list managers, leaving room for better ways to manage customer interactions. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | CRM / enterprise software |
| 175 | 2008 | Something your company needs that doesn't exist | Build something your own company needs but cannot buy. Starting from “We’d pay a lot if someone would just build a …” can reveal products customers will pay for. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | B2B software |
| 176 | 2008 | Dating | Build better dating products, but focus on solving the chicken-and-egg problem. A new dating approach only works if users have a reason to join before the network is large. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Consumer marketplaces / dating |
| 177 | 2008 | Photo/video sharing services | Create new forms of photo and video sharing. There may be many subtypes still undiscovered because people often prefer sharing pictures to words. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Social media / sharing |
| 178 | 2008 | Auctions | Attack online auctions despite eBay’s de facto monopoly. The hard part is not the auction mechanics but finding a strategy to crack the incumbent’s network advantage. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Marketplaces / auctions |
| 179 | 2008 | Web Office apps | Build web-based alternatives to Microsoft desktop software. Explain why existing web-office products have not taken over and how your approach will. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Productivity software |
| 180 | 2008 | Fix advertising | Rethink advertising from scratch so it pleases audiences rather than treating them as victims. Bonus points for formats whose effect on sales can be measured. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Advertising / martech |
| 181 | 2008 | Online learning | Teach kids better through the web rather than merely putting books online. Possible starting points include test preparation, thoughtful games, or letting younger students learn by watching others solve problems. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Education |
| 182 | 2008 | Tools for measurement | Build tools that measure previously invisible things. Better measurement of productivity inside large organizations could have a major economic impact. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Analytics / measurement |
| 183 | 2008 | Off the shelf security | Assemble cheaper connected-home security alternatives from readily available hardware and services. Existing services charge a lot for capabilities networks could make cheaper. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Security / connected home |
| 184 | 2008 | A form of search that depends on design | Find a type of search where strong design matters enough to create an opening against Google. The opportunity was unclear, but YC wanted to hear from founders who could see it. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Search / design |
| 185 | 2008 | New payment methods | Create easier ways to pay for things in situations where awkward payments hold markets back. New payment methods often unlock more demand than their inventors first expect. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Fintech / payments |
| 186 | 2008 | The WebOS | Build the server-era equivalent of an operating system as applications move online. It may not look like a literal client operating system, and there may be multiple winners. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Internet infrastructure / platforms |
| 187 | 2008 | Application and/or data hosting | Build application or data hosting services. This overlaps with outsourced IT and WebOS ideas, but the market may support several large opportunities. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Cloud / hosting |
| 188 | 2008 | Shopping guides | Help people decide what to buy when online choice becomes overwhelming. Price comparison is only part of the problem; people also need navigation and guidance. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Commerce / shopping |
| 189 | 2008 | Finance software for individuals and small businesses | Build better finance software for individuals and small businesses. Incumbent bank-data connections create an advantage, but adjacent starting points could allow a startup to expand into the market. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Fintech / SMB software |
| 190 | 2008 | A web-based Excel/database hybrid | Build a web-based hybrid between Excel and a database for people already using spreadsheets as lightweight databases. Make it flexible and avoid making users define too much structure. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Productivity / data tools |
| 191 | 2008 | More open alternatives to Wikipedia | Build more open alternatives to Wikipedia that welcome long-tail knowledge. Online references do not need print-era deletion rules if users can still find what they need. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Knowledge / reference |
| 192 | 2008 | A buffer against bad customer service | Wrap bad customer-service experiences in a friendlier layer. People may pay for help navigating airlines, government agencies, and other frustrating systems. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Consumer services |
| 193 | 2008 | A Craigslist competitor | Compete with Craigslist by focusing on areas where its ambivalence about being a business creates weakness. Better solutions may emerge by attacking specific categories. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Marketplaces / classifieds |
| 194 | 2008 | Better video chat | Improve video chat, especially on mobile devices. Skype and Tokbox were only the beginning. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Communications / video |
| 195 | 2008 | Hardware/software hybrids | Combine hardware and software in products where software has a visible role. Many software founders fear hardware and many hardware companies write poor software, leaving room for startups. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Hardware / software |
| 196 | 2008 | Fixing email overload | Reduce email overload and acknowledge that people often use their inbox as a to-do list. The best answer may not be an obvious new mail reader. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Productivity / email |
| 197 | 2008 | Easy site builders for specific markets | Build specialized site builders for markets such as real estate agents, restaurants, or lawyers. Use flexible software underneath, but make the result look professional for users with no design ability. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | SMB software / site builders |
| 198 | 2008 | Startups for startups | Build products for the growing startup ecosystem itself. YC and TechCrunch were examples, but the increasing number of startups creates more opportunities. | Archived YC page | Paul Graham | Startup ecosystem |
No matching rows.