idea
No. 13 · 4 min · 03.05.2026
YC's 16 Startup Ideas for 2026
Y Combinator just published its Request for Startups. Here's the full list, rephrased — and how to use it tonight.
startup-ideasycideationrfs
Last updated: 02.05.2026
Y Combinator just published its Request for Startups. Here's the full list, rephrased — and how to use it tonight.
Most founders waste months hunting for the perfect startup idea. They scroll Twitter. They keep notes in Notion. They never start. The idea was never the bottleneck — execution was.
Stop hunting alone. The smartest signal in the world is published, free, and updated every batch by people whose entire job is spotting what's about to be massive: Y Combinator.
Y Combinator publishes a public list called Request for Startups (RFS). Each entry names a problem a YC partner wants funded — backed by their own thesis, market timing, and willingness to write a check. It's the closest thing to a cheat sheet for startup ideas.
Y Combinator's Request for Startups — ycombinator.com/rfs
The official list of what YC partners want to fund. Read it. Bookmark it. Read it once in a while.
You don't need to apply to YC to use this. The list is a market map. If you're stuck on what to build, this is the most concentrated source of validated demand on the public internet.
Here's every category from YC's current Request for Startups, rephrased for skim-reading:
Pick the three that hit closest to a problem you've personally lived. That shortlist is your starting point.
Here's the tip most founders miss: the older RFS lists are still gold. YC has been publishing this for years, and many ideas on past lists are still unbuilt or under-built. Some have shifted from "too early" to "right time." Some founders who jumped on a five-year-old RFS prompt are now running unicorns.
Scroll the page. Open the archive. Read what YC wanted in 2024, 2023, and earlier. Patterns repeat. Markets mature. The idea that was too early then might be exactly right now.
An idea is worth nothing on its own. What separates the founders who ship from the founders who don't is the next 52 days — not the next 52 ideas.
Stay super minimal. Don't redesign the homepage. Don't pick a logo. Don't argue about the stack. Pick one of these RFS prompts, find three real users in your network with that exact problem, and start building the smallest possible thing that solves it. The 52 steps here are designed exactly for that — one step a week, no skipping, no over-engineering.
Pair this with YC's Entire Playbook in 10 Minutes for the execution side, then come share what you picked in the 52Waypoint community.
Y Combinator just published its Request for Startups. Here's the full list, rephrased — and how to use it tonight.
Most founders waste months hunting for the perfect startup idea. They scroll Twitter. They keep notes in Notion. They never start. The idea was never the bottleneck — execution was.
Stop hunting alone. The smartest signal in the world is published, free, and updated every batch by people whose entire job is spotting what's about to be massive: Y Combinator.
Y Combinator publishes a public list called Request for Startups (RFS). Each entry names a problem a YC partner wants funded — backed by their own thesis, market timing, and willingness to write a check. It's the closest thing to a cheat sheet for startup ideas.
Y Combinator's Request for Startups — ycombinator.com/rfs
The official list of what YC partners want to fund. Read it. Bookmark it. Read it once in a while.
You don't need to apply to YC to use this. The list is a market map. If you're stuck on what to build, this is the most concentrated source of validated demand on the public internet.
Here's every category from YC's current Request for Startups, rephrased for skim-reading:
Pick the three that hit closest to a problem you've personally lived. That shortlist is your starting point.
Here's the tip most founders miss: the older RFS lists are still gold. YC has been publishing this for years, and many ideas on past lists are still unbuilt or under-built. Some have shifted from "too early" to "right time." Some founders who jumped on a five-year-old RFS prompt are now running unicorns.
Scroll the page. Open the archive. Read what YC wanted in 2024, 2023, and earlier. Patterns repeat. Markets mature. The idea that was too early then might be exactly right now.
An idea is worth nothing on its own. What separates the founders who ship from the founders who don't is the next 52 days — not the next 52 ideas.
Stay super minimal. Don't redesign the homepage. Don't pick a logo. Don't argue about the stack. Pick one of these RFS prompts, find three real users in your network with that exact problem, and start building the smallest possible thing that solves it. The 52 steps here are designed exactly for that — one step a week, no skipping, no over-engineering.
Pair this with YC's Entire Playbook in 10 Minutes for the execution side, then come share what you picked in the 52Waypoint community.