Request for Startups // YC RFS X25
Startups from AI Agents to million jobs 2.0 that uniquely needs humans
AI App Store, Datacenters, Compliance and Audit, DocuSign 2.0, Browser/Computer Automation, AI Personal Staff for Everyone, Devtools for AI Agents, The Future of Software Engineering, AI Commercial Open Source Software (AICOSS), AI Coding Agent for Hardware Optimized Code, B2A: Business-to-Agent, Vertical AI Agents, Startup Founders with Systems Programming Expertise, Inference AI Infra in the World of Test-Time Compute, ..
AI App Store
There is a small window today for a startup to create an AI App Store that provides computer use APIs and local LLaMA versioning with secure privacy controls, discovery, and payments. We hope you might build it.
Datacenters
There is a bottleneck in technological change: the world needs more datacenters and high-tech factories. We are looking for startups building software and infrastructure to help construct and autonomously operate these facilities.
Compliance and Audit
4 million people in the US & Europe work in compliance & audit. LLMs will automate the testing that these folks currently do by hand: spotting anomalies in data, identifying incomplete records, or highlighting contradictory policies.
DocuSign 2.0
There is an opportunity with AI to finally make the process of filling out and signing documents delightful.
Browser/Computer Automation
AI agents can now browse the web and use desktop applications. It means that every website and every app now effectively has an API, and any workflow that people can do on a computer can be automated.
AI Personal Staff for Everyone
The world’s richest people employ large staffs of humans, like tax accountants, lawyers, money managers, personal trainers, and even private doctors. AI will soon be good enough to do all these jobs for everyone.
Devtools for AI Agents
AI agents are the next wave: autonomous tools that reason, decide, and amplify human productivity. We’re funding startups building devtools for agents, whether you’re creating agent builders or building blocks to perform complex tasks.
The Future of Software Engineering
AI will bring the cost of building software down to zero, but this means we’ll need MORE human developers, not fewer. We’d like to fund startups building tools for this future.
AI Commercial Open Source Software (AICOSS)
Just as RedHat and YC W15 company @Gitlab built public companies around open source projects, we are looking for companies built around open source AI models like DeepSeek and Llama.
AI Coding Agent for Hardware Optimized Code
AI hardware is still constrained by software. However, with reasoning models like Deepseek R1 or OpenAI o1 and o3, AI could generate hardware-optimized code that rivals — or surpasses — human CUDA code.
B2A: Business-to-Agent
Not b2b, not b2c, but b2a: Business-to-agent. We are looking for startups that are building products where AI agents are the intended customer. Make something agents want
Vertical AI Agents
At a recent event, a founder asked Sam Altman “If you were 24 and starting a startup today, what would you build?” His answer: A vertical AI agent.
Startup Founders with Systems Programming Expertise
As evidenced by DeepSeek, being able to optimize the entire stack is a competitive advantage. This expertise can be an advantage in all sorts of startup ideas, ie, @bunjavascript from YC S19.
Inference AI Infra in the World of Test-Time Compute
There’s room to rebuild the AI infrastructure stack: better software at inference-layer tooling, cheaper ways to handle GPU workloads, and optimizations that let AI apps scale without bleeding money.
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Government software
Selling software to the government is notoriously hard and not something most builders would even think about doing. Still, the prize is huge if you can figure it out. Palantir is one of the only startups that managed to figure it out and their market cap today is $125 billion.
Public safety technology
We all deserve to be safe in our homes, and while walking around on our streets. This is a basic thing civilization should afford its citizens.
Public safety tech can and will make a real difference. We are especially interested in hearing from you if you’re working on these ideas:Advanced Computer Vision, Emergency Response Enhancements, Community Safety Tools, Efficient Law Enforcement Technologies..
Manufacture in the USA
The UK became the world’s richest country in the 19th century by being the workshop of the world. The US did the same in the 20th century. But in recent decades, we’ve given up this role.
Stablecoins 2.0
At the start of this year, we posted a request for more stablecoin startups and since then things have only gotten better for stablecoins. The black cloud over stablecoins has always been regulation, with several efforts to pass regulation in the US failing. The regulatory future for stablecoins in the US now looks more promising and we expect sensible legislation is on its way soon.
LLMs for chip design
Each breakthrough in AI creates demand for more powerful chips to train larger models. No country wants to fall behind in this arms race. Domestic chip design and manufacture is not just about economics anymore, it’s about survival in a post AI world.
Fintech 2.0
The last two years have been a rough time for fintech startups. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank led to regulators clamping down on new startups and investors fled the space. We’re optimistic this is about to change and now is a great time to start a fintech startup.
New space companies
The cost to reach orbit is falling fast, having fallen over 10x since SpaceX’s first launch in 2006. A startup can now build and launch a satellite on just a seed round.
AI-aided engineering tools
Engineering tools for the physical world have barely evolved in decades. The CAD/CAM software that mechanical engineers use, the EDA tools for circuit and chip design that electrical engineers use, and the CFD tools for fluid and thermal analysis that aerospace engineers use — All still rely on complex numerical solvers and physics simulations
One million jobs 2.0
We would like to fund startups that have a useful need to employ a million workers in a way that uniquely needs humans to do the job and there will be no structural need for the job to be done with AI.
