Spring 2026 New Request for Startups is out

Most interesting imo:

Cursor for Product Managers

"Over the last few years, we've seen an explosion of AI tools for writing code. Cursor and Claude Code are great at helping teams build software once it's clear what needs to be built. But writing code is only part of building a product people want. The most important part is figuring out what to build in the first place! Every successful product requires product management: talking to users, understanding markets, synthesizing feedback, and deciding what problems are worth solving and how the product should work. Whether this process is done by founders, engineers, or product managers, the activity is the same. Historically, the output has been product requirements docs, Figma mocks, and Jira tickets — artifacts designed to communicate intent to human engineers. Today, teams use AI in isolated parts of this process, but there's no system that supports the full loop of product discovery. Imagine a tool where you upload customer interviews and product usage data, ask "what should we build next?", and get the outline of a new feature complete with an explanation based on customer feedback as to why this is a change worth making. The tool would also propose specific changes to your product's UI, data model, and workflows, and would break down the development tasks so they could be handled by your favorite coding agent. We think there's an opportunity to build a "Cursor for product management": an AI-native system focused on helping teams figure out what to build, not just how to build it. As agents increasingly take the first pass at implementation, the way we define and communicate "what to build" needs to change."

Most unexpected:

AI-Native Agencies

"Agencies have always been crazy hard to scale. Low margins, slow manual work, and the only way to grow is to add more people. But AI changes this. Now instead of selling software to customers to help them do the work, you can charge way more by using the software yourself and selling them the finished product at 100x the price. Think of a design firm that uses AI to produce custom design work for clients upfront, to win the business before the contract is even signed. Or an ad agency that uses AI to create stunning video ads without the time and expense of setting up a physical shoot. Or a law firm that uses AI to write legal docs in minutes, rather than weeks. That's why agencies of the future will look more like software companies, with software margins. And they'll scale far bigger than any agencies that exist in these fragmented markets today. If you're rethinking how agencies and service businesses of the future will be built, we'd love to hear from you."

Not that I disagree with the point that AI can and should help agencies scale faster, but moreso the fact that YC is now looking for design agencies, and dialing back on their "AI for everything" the past few quarters.