YC's Requests for Startups (RFS) shares ideas they want founders to tackle. These represent only a fraction of what YC funds.

2025 Summer: The Year of AI Agents

1. Full-Stack AI Companies

• Instead of selling AI tools to incumbents, become the incumbent. "Don't sell to dinosaurs -- make them extinct."

2. Designer Founders

• Coding tools make building easy; design becomes the differentiator.
• "Airbnb and Stripe succeeded because of exceptional design."

3. Voice AI Agents

• Phone calls haven't changed in 100 years. New voice models create bots indistinguishable from humans.
• Over 1 trillion business-customer calls per year -- ripe for AI disruption.

4. Science Software

• Chemistry, biology, materials science software hasn't changed in decades. AI enables new approaches.

5. AI Personal Assistant

• Move from "to-do lists" to "done lists." AI that actually does your tasks.

6. US Healthcare Administration

• $4 trillion/year, 1/3 spent on administration. LLMs can automate much of it.

7. AI Personalized Learning

• AI reasoning + multimodal models enable truly personalized education.

8. Education Industry Innovation

• 1 billion+ students, 100+ million educators. AI will transform access and instruction.

9. AI Home Security

• $20B/year consumer market with little innovation. Commercial security already uses AI extensively.

10. Internal Agent Builders

• Every employee will soon build their own automation agents.

11. AI Research Labs

• YC was OpenAI's first investor. Willing to fund long-term research.

12. Voice-Based Email Assistant

• Manage email by voice during your commute. Achieve inbox zero before work.

13. AI Personal Finance

• Unbiased, personalized financial/investment/tax advice for everyone, nearly free.

"If any of these excites you, go for it. And even if none do, YC is waiting for your next challenge!"