Request for Startups</a>.</p><p>The RFS is a YC tradition — you can find examples going back as far as 2009. Each one offers up ideas we’d want to see made real, in spaces that we believe will be important in the coming decades. The world is full of founders with expertise that could be tapped into something new and great; our hope is that this list inspires some of those people to do so — or if they’re already building, to apply to YC.</p><p><strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/">This new RFS</a> lists 20 categories, each suggested and explained by at least one YC Group Partner:</strong></p><ul><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#applying-machine-learning-to-robotics\">Applying machine learning to robotics</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#using-machine-learning-to-simulate-the-physical-world\">Using machine learning to simulate the physical world</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#new-defense-technology\">New defense technology</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#bring-manufacturing-back-to-america\">Bring manufacturing back to America</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#new-space-companies\">New space companies</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#climate-tech\">Climate tech</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#commercial-open-source-companies\">Commercial open source companies</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#spatial-computing\">Spatial computing</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#new-enterprise-resource-planning-software\">New enterprise resource planning software (ERPs)</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#developer-tools-inspired-by-existing-internal-tools\">Developer tools inspired by existing internal tools</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#explainable-ai\">Explainable AI</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#llms-for-manual-back-office-processes-in-legacy-enterprises\">LLMs for manual back office processes in legacy enterprises</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#ai-to-build-enterprise-software\">AI to build enterprise software</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#stablecoin-finance\">Stablecoin finance</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#a-way-to-end-cancer\">A way to end cancer</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#foundation-models-for-biological-systems\">Foundation models for biological systems</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#the-managed-service-organization-model-for-healthcare\">The managed service organization model for healthcare</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#eliminating-middlemen-in-healthcare\">Eliminating middlemen in healthcare</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#better-enterprise-glue\">Better enterprise glue</a></li><li><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs#small-finetuned-models-as-an-alternative-to-giant-generic-ones\">Small fine-tuned models as an alternative to giant generic ones</a></li></ul><p>These are by no means the only ideas we’ll accept — many of the best ideas are the ones we would never expect — but if you aren't sure what you want to work on, these RFSs should provide a useful jumping off point to begin your ideation process. </p><p>Applications for the YC Summer 2024 batch are open now and the early deadline to apply for the batch is February 21. Apply <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/apply//">here.

","comment_id":"65cbd413377b9c0001ddf10e","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2024/02/RFS-top.png","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2024-02-13T12:41:55.000-08:00","updated_at":"2024-02-15T13:41:05.000-08:00","published_at":"2024-02-14T05:55:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"These are some of the things we want to see more founders working on.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a71085","name":"Dalton Caldwell","slug":"dalton-caldwell","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/Dalton.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Dalton is Managing Director, Architect and Group Partner at YC. He was the cofounder and CEO of imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009), and the cofounder and CEO of App.net.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/dalton-caldwell/"}],"tags":[{"id":"638a7d499132af0001d1aee9","name":"rfs","slug":"rfs","description":"Request for Startups","feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/rfs/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a71085","name":"Dalton Caldwell","slug":"dalton-caldwell","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/Dalton.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Dalton is Managing Director, Architect and Group Partner at YC. He was the cofounder and CEO of imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009), and the cofounder and CEO of App.net.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/dalton-caldwell/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"638a7d499132af0001d1aee9","name":"rfs","slug":"rfs","description":"Request for Startups","feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/rfs/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/ycs-latest-request-for-startups/","excerpt":"These are some of the things we want to see more founders working on.","reading_time":2,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":"\"Request for Startups\" on an orange background. ","feature_image_caption":null},"mentions":[],"related_posts":[{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71af1","uuid":"9775112b-0262-4631-abc7-b5b369ac8346","title":"Frontier Carbon Removal Technologies","slug":"frontier-carbon-removal-technologies","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p>We&#8217;re excited to announce our new and expanded request for startups and nonprofits focusing on frontier technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Read the RFS <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://carbon.ycombinator.com//">here.

/n

Climate change is one of the biggest problems we face as humans and we want YC to be part of driving these solutions. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-report-half-degree.html/">Research indicates that stopping climate change requires both emission reduction and removing CO2 from the atmosphere.</p>\n<p>While we&#8217;ve funded a lot of great companies working on renewal energy like <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.thinkbright.mx//">Bright, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://buypower.ng//">Buypower, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.advanotech.com//">Advano, and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.helionenergy.com//">Helion and will continue to do so, we&#8217;ve identified four frontier technologies to remove CO2 that we think deserve more research and attention. We worked with scientists on preliminary research into each category. These ideas press on the limit of what&#8217;s possible, and we&#8217;re not sure which side of that line they&#8217;re on. We know there are a lot of ideas out there, and want to take an expansive approach.</p>\n<p>We have conviction that it&#8217;s a worthwhile endeavor to remove CO2 from the air and transform it into something else useful or figure out how to store it safely, long-term. They may seem like moonshots now, but our goal is to try to come up with technically feasible solutions at realistic costs. It&#8217;s time to take big swings at stopping climate change and put more resources into work already being done.</p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1103201","feature_image":"https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1611273426858-450d8e3c9fce?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDJ8fGNhcmJvbnxlbnwwfHx8fDE2NzAyNzI3NjU&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&q=80&w=2000","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2018-10-23T03:16:16.000-07:00","updated_at":"2022-12-05T12:39:42.000-08:00","published_at":"2018-10-23T03:16:16.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710c1","name":"Sam Altman","slug":"sam-altman","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/eifaoe14zqiueje28oo9.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI. He was the president of YC from 2014-2019. He studied computer science at Stanford, and while there, worked in the AI lab.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/sam-altman/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"638a7d499132af0001d1aee9","name":"rfs","slug":"rfs","description":"Request for Startups","feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/rfs/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710c1","name":"Sam Altman","slug":"sam-altman","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/eifaoe14zqiueje28oo9.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI. He was the president of YC from 2014-2019. He studied computer science at Stanford, and while there, worked in the AI lab.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/sam-altman/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/frontier-carbon-removal-technologies/","excerpt":"We’re excited to announce our new and expanded request for startups and nonprofits focusing on frontier technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Read the RFS here.","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":"Photo by <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://unsplash.com/es/@chrisleboutillier?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit\%22>Chris LeBoutillier</a> / <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit\%22>Unsplash%22},{%22id%22:%2261fe29f1c7139e0001a719e6%22,%22uuid%22:%22816b5657-b9b5-4261-a868-d006b2a78651%22,%22title%22:%22Request for Education Startups","slug":"request-for-education-startups","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p>At YC, we’re deeply interested in education because of its power to transform lives and societies and to maximize human potential. On a micro level, we believe technology can help reverse the trend in K-12 of spending more and more money to achieve the same learning outcomes. We believe tech can also create alternatives in higher education that will prepare adults for the careers they want without the burden of excessive student debt.</p>\n<p>We encourage founders to apply to Y Combinator with education ideas. Here are a few categories of education applications that consistently stand out to us as interesting.</p>\n<h2>Process automation for operational efficiency</h2>\n<p>Many parts of the education machine haven’t yet been touched by tech. We pay attention to founders who intimately understand the workings of education systems and have smart ideas for using technology to improve onerous, manual processes. Some examples:</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.schoolmint.com//">SchoolMint understood that K-12 enrollment is an important process that largely happened on paper, requiring parents to stand in lines to sign their kids up for school, and requiring school administrators to manually enter student information into databases. SchoolMint streamlined the whole process and moved it online.</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://clever.com//">Clever understood that edtech vendors needed a better way to connect with student information systems at K-12 schools. They built an API, replacing systems that had either required edtech companies to develop custom connections for every school customer, or (even worse) required vendors and school administrators to email CSV files back and forth on a weekly or daily basis.</p>\n<h2>Underserved markets</h2>\n<p>We’re interested in classically disruptive ideas that use technology to make education affordable and accessible to audiences that otherwise have no options in the market. Great examples:</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://codehs.com//">CodeHS recognized that schools were not able to offer computer science courses because they didn’t have teachers with CS backgrounds. CodeHS created an online curriculum that made it possible for any teacher to teach CS, from foundational concepts to AP CS and beyond.</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://lambdaschool.com//">Lambda School</a> recognized that there are people who would like to learn to code in order to get technical jobs, but who can’t afford the up-front cost of coding bootcamps or college courses. So they created a career-focused coding school that offers an income sharing model as an alternative to up-front tuition.</p>\n<h2>New approaches to old ideas</h2>\n<p>We’ve seen over a thousand edtech startups, and two of the ideas we see most frequently are tutoring marketplaces and learn-to-code programs. Both of these spaces represent interesting opportunities, but they’re competitive. We’re looking for companies that approach them in a unique way. Some examples:</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.vidcode.com//">Vidcode designed their learn-to-code program to appeal to non-traditional coders, specifically, teenage girls. Their coding lessons are based on things that interest their target audience, like Instagram filters and memes.</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.kodable.com//">Kodable has a unique focus on teaching computer science concepts to pre-readers.</p>\n<p>Tutoring turns out to be an especially challenging space. A tutoring company has to build a two-sided marketplace in a highly dispersed, competitive market with high churn. We believe there’s a lot of money to be made in tutoring, but we’re waiting to see a company go after tutoring in a truly unexpected way.</p>\n<h2>Unusual business models</h2>\n<p>We’re not afraid of companies with traditional education business models (i.e. selling to school districts), but we also like to see edtech companies with unique approaches to monetization. For instance, we believe there’s potential for a company to build a service that meaningfully connects schools and parents, and to charge parents for the service.</p>\n<h2>New school models</h2>\n<p>We’re interested in companies re-thinking the entire model of schooling, especially for pre-K and higher education. In the US, new models may rely on technology to personalize or otherwise improve the learning experience. We’re also interested in applications of technology that have the potential to deliver high quality educational experiences to every student in the world. An example:</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.rumie.org//">The Rumie Initiative</a> curates free online educational content, packages it into comprehensive offline curricula, and delivers it to educators working in refugee camps and other remote or under-resourced communities.</p>\n<h2>AI</h2>\n<p>A teacher is still the most impactful factor in a student’s learning. We are looking for startups applying artificial intelligence to amplify teachers’ impact on students. We’re also interested in AI applied to large data sets to understand how students learn best.</p>\n<h2>VR and AR</h2>\n<p>Virtual reality and augmented reality have the potential to bring learning to life in completely new ways. VR devices have minimal penetration in schools today. We’re interested in startups that will change the way educators think about VR and AR by introducing new possibilities for teaching and learning.</p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1100817","feature_image":"https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1531482615713-2afd69097998?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDJ8fGVkdWNhdGlvbiUyMHN0YXJ0dXB8ZW58MHx8fHwxNjcwMjcxNTAz&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&q=80&w=2000","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2017-09-19T05:20:48.000-07:00","updated_at":"2022-12-05T12:18:33.000-08:00","published_at":"2017-09-19T05:20:48.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710a1","name":"Karen Lien","slug":"karen-lien","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/karen.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Karen Lien is an Edtech Principal at Y Combinator.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/karen-lien/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71190","name":"Edtech","slug":"edtech","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/edtech/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"638a7d499132af0001d1aee9","name":"rfs","slug":"rfs","description":"Request for Startups","feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/rfs/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710a1","name":"Karen Lien","slug":"karen-lien","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/karen.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Karen Lien is an Edtech Principal at Y Combinator.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/karen-lien/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71190","name":"Edtech","slug":"edtech","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/edtech/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/request-for-education-startups/","excerpt":"At YC, we’re deeply interested in education because of its power to transform lives and societies and to maximize human potential. On a micro level, we believe technology can help reverse the trend in K-12 of spending more and more money to achieve the same learning outcomes. We believe tech can also create alternatives in higher education that will prepare adults for the careers they want without the burden of excessive student debt.","reading_time":3,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":"Photo by <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://unsplash.com/@disruptxn?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit\%22>X / <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit\%22>Unsplash%22},{%22id%22:%2261fe29f1c7139e0001a71939%22,%22uuid%22:%220b3aa0de-ee2a-4e81-a2ce-5a2ecc62ac3e%22,%22title%22:%22Request for Startups: News, Jobs, and Democracy","slug":"rfs-news-jobs-and-democracy","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p>If you’re working on a startup or non-profit that addresses any of the challenges discussed below, we’d love to see you apply.</p>\n<p><strong>News</strong>: We&#8217;re facing two major issues with news. The first is fake news. The business model for online media rewards the people who get the greatest number of page views, clicks and likes. That results in a system that prizes virality over truth. There are economic incentives for people to post whatever is the most shareable, and now it’s so easy to spin up a fake news site that even <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became-a-global-hub-for-pro-trump-misinfo?utm_term=.hwRAOV0pB#.qmA9JRqZE\">teenagers in Eastern Europe</a> are making a living doing it. Building tools for fact-checking and helping people decipher fact from fiction will become increasingly important to keep the electorate informed.</p>\n<p>Second is the issue of protecting the freedom of the press. We need an unbiased, independent press to hold people in power accountable. Press also has the responsibility to use its voice and influence to protect those without money and power. We’re looking to fund tools that can help protect and defend journalists and their sources, or new revenue tools that can bolster and sustain independent media organizations.</p>\n<p><strong>Future of Work</strong>: Jobs will look very different 25 years from now. We’ve already seen a massive shift toward automation, and the pace of technology’s impact on work isn’t slowing down. <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.weforum.org/press/2016/01/five-million-jobs-by-2020-the-real-challenge-of-the-fourth-industrial-revolution//">A study by the World Economic Forum estimates that in the next five years, 5 million jobs in 15 economies will be lost</a>. We’re interested in what comes next. People seek full-time jobs for many reasons, including money, healthcare, and a sense of purpose. We&#8217;d love to see solutions that address each of these factors (or any others) in anticipation of a changing job market.</p>\n<p><strong>Improving Democracy</strong>: There are thousands of ways technology can be applied to improve democracy. For democracy to function effectively, more of us need to be engaged and empowered. We’d like to see startups and non-profits who are using technology to make it easier and more appealing to get involved in the political process, and for that involvement to make an impact. We want technology that makes it easy to understand how new laws and programs impact you and your city’s budget, programs that teach young people and people from underrepresented groups how to run for office, and communication tools that make it easier for citizens to be heard by their representatives. In Summer 2016 we donated to <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.vote.org//">vote.org whose mission is to increase voter registration, and we think there&#8217;s more space for organizations solving voting problems too. We’d like to see tools that address problems in the voting process, such as voter suppression and gerrymandering, to name a couple of examples. Tech may be able to make a direct impact by measuring how people&#8217;s votes have been diluted, showing how representatives are less responsive to their constituents and empowering citizens to do something about it.</p>\n<p>We review applications on a rolling basis. <strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.ycombinator.com/apply//">Apply here now</a></strong>.</p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1098382","feature_image":"https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1523292562811-8fa7962a78c8?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDF8fGdvdmVybm1lbnR8ZW58MHx8fHwxNjcwMjcxNTQ2&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&q=80&w=2000","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2017-01-31T01:59:31.000-08:00","updated_at":"2022-12-05T12:19:13.000-08:00","published_at":"2017-01-31T01:59:31.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"638a7d499132af0001d1aee9","name":"rfs","slug":"rfs","description":"Request for Startups","feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/rfs/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/rfs-news-jobs-and-democracy/","excerpt":"If you’re working on a startup or non-profit that addresses any of the challenges discussed below, we’d love to see you apply.","reading_time":2,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":"Photo by <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://unsplash.com/@katiemoum?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit\%22>Katie Moum</a> / <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit\%22>Unsplash%22}]},%22url%22:%22/blog/ycs-latest-request-for-startups%22,%22version%22:%22aa5cc48c512ec693ec60765a0397dfe59cf5da82%22,%22encryptHistory%22:false,%22clearHistory%22:false,%22rails_context%22:{%22railsEnv%22:%22production%22,%22inMailer%22:false,%22i18nLocale%22:%22en%22,%22i18nDefaultLocale%22:%22en%22,%22href%22:%22https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/ycs-latest-request-for-startups%22,%22location%22:%22/blog/ycs-latest-request-for-startups%22,%22scheme%22:%22https%22,%22host%22:%22www.ycombinator.com%22,%22port%22:null,%22pathname%22:%22/blog/ycs-latest-request-for-startups%22,%22search%22:null,%22httpAcceptLanguage%22:%22en, *","applyBatchLong":"Summer 2025","applyBatchShort":"S2025","applyDeadlineShort":"May 13","ycdcRetroMode":true,"currentUser":null,"serverSide":true},"id":"ycdc_new/pages/BlogPage-react-component-8a6021b5-eb81-4b92-82cc-0bb51149a934","server_side":true}" data-reactroot="">

YC's latest Request for Startups

by Dalton Caldwell2/14/2024

"Request for Startups" on an orange background.

Every week the YC Group Partners meet and discuss the current batch. One common area of discussion is ideas — what kind of ideas are these founders having the best luck with? Which ones are they pivoting away from?

These discussions also do a good job of helping us notice the gaps. Ideas that should be made real — and that we’d want to fund! — but that we aren’t seeing many people work on or apply with. In a recent discussion like this, we realized it was time to put together an entirely new Request for Startups.

The RFS is a YC tradition — you can find examples going back as far as 2009. Each one offers up ideas we’d want to see made real, in spaces that we believe will be important in the coming decades. The world is full of founders with expertise that could be tapped into something new and great; our hope is that this list inspires some of those people to do so — or if they’re already building, to apply to YC.

This new RFS lists 20 categories, each suggested and explained by at least one YC Group Partner:

These are by no means the only ideas we’ll accept — many of the best ideas are the ones we would never expect — but if you aren't sure what you want to work on, these RFSs should provide a useful jumping off point to begin your ideation process.

Applications for the YC Summer 2024 batch are open now and the early deadline to apply for the batch is February 21. Apply here.

Categories

rfs

Author

  • Dalton Caldwell

    Dalton is Managing Director, Architect and Group Partner at YC. He was the cofounder and CEO of imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009), and the cofounder and CEO of App.net.