Today, I read in Techcrunch that India has an ambition to "compete" with the US and China in the startup scene:
India has updated its startup rules to better support deep tech companies in sectors like space, semiconductors, and biotech, which take longer to mature.
What was the reason for any YC rejection you faced in the past? And what would you suggest future founders do differently with their profile/ idea/ application to minimize downside?
As usual, Y Combinator came up with segments that are worth investing:
1. Cursor for Product Managers
2. AI-Native Hedge Funds
3. AI-Native Agencies
4. Stablecoin Financial Services
5. AI for Government
6. Modern Metal Mills
7. AI Guidance for Physical Work 8. Large Spatial Models 9. Infra for Government Fraud Hunters 10. Make LLMs Easy to Train
I am trying to do something a little bonkers - I want to build an app when I am a bit of a technophobe! I am a product designer - so it's not entirely crazy but social media, online forums is all really alien to me. I'm looking to put the feelers out there to understand the demand for the idea - any tips or tricks? The vague idea - without giving the game away.... People are incredible at tracking workouts, steps, sleep, macros
but somehow still stare at a single mug in the sink like it s a moral dilemma.
I m exploring an idea around why everyday maintenance tasks feel heavier than they are, and how the same psychology that keeps people hooked on fitness tracking might work for real-world chores.
I've built my product around traditional SaaS pricing (monthly tiers), but I m starting to wonder if that model is getting outdated, especially with more AI-powered and compute-heavy tools entering the market. That shift requires real architectural changes, instrumentation, metering, billing logic, and UI changes, not just pricing tweaks. It s something I m starting to seriously think about for my own product.
In particular, AI usage has real COGs (every prompt costs money), and I m seeing more platforms experimenting with usage-based models, or hybrids like SaaS base + usage + overage.
For those of you building AI or compute-intensive tools:
This is something I ll find out in just a short while, one week from now (Jan 28), as I m about to re-launch a digital detox app. If you want, follow, maybe you will be on watch of my steps and activities
We weren't accepted into Y Combinator with our ProblemHunt. But I know a guy who got accepted this time. And he made 11 attempts. We'll try to do that too.