Video · ~45 min

Startup Ideas You Can Now Build With AI (Lightcone Podcast)

Garry Tan, Harj Taggar, Diana Hu, Jared Friedman · Y Combinator (Lightcone Podcast) Free Beginner

YC's partners walk through concrete business models that were not viable before large language models: full-stack law firms, personalized tutors, recruiting and technical screening that can finally scale. It is a current, specific view of AI-enabled problem spaces from people who see thousands of applications a batch. Treat their examples as patterns to reason from, not ideas to copy outright.

  • The strongest AI ideas are ones where the old cost structure blocked a real business that now works, for example AI running technical interviews or one-on-one tutoring at scale.
  • Look for services that were too expensive to deliver per customer and are now cheap enough to build a company around.
  • The partners frame many of these as second chances at markets that failed before, so a previously dead idea is worth re-examining against today's model capabilities.
Open on ycombinator.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I spot an idea that AI just made possible that was not viable two years ago?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. The definitive essay on where good ideas come from: notice problems you personally have, don't force it. Use it as the lens for... paulgraham.com Essay · ~20 min read How to Get Startup Ideas Paul Graham
  3. 200+ candid conversations with Indian founders and investors on how they actually found their idea, spotted a trend, and... Apple Podcasts Podcast · podcast series (45-90 min episodes) The Neon Show (formerly 100x Entrepreneur) Siddhartha Ahluwalia
  4. Elad Gil is one of the most trusted operators-turned-investors on this exact question, and this piece cuts through the wrapper... Elad Gil (Elad Blog) Essay · ~12 min read Defensibility & Competition Elad Gil
  5. A living list of problem areas YC actively wants founders to tackle, useful as raw material and as a way to spot where the... Y Combinator Tool · Browse Requests for Startups Y Combinator
  6. This is YC's direct answer to your question, walking through how partners spot ideas that only became buildable once models got... Y Combinator Video · ~15 min How To Get AI Startup Ideas Y Combinator
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →