YC's Spring 2026 Request for Startups: 8 Ideas Indie Hackers Can Actually Build

YC's take: "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. The most important part is figuring out what to build in the first place."

The gap they see is in product management—talking to users, understanding markets, synthesizing feedback, and deciding what problems are worth solving. The tools for this are still spreadsheets, Notion docs, and gut feel.

YC notes that the first wave of AI helped businesses fill in forms faster. But on the receiving end, government agencies are still printing these out and processing them by hand. As AI makes it easier to submit applications at scale, government needs tools to keep up.

The caveat: "Selling to government is extremely hard. But once you land your first customer, they tend to be very sticky and can expand to huge contracts."

This one surprised people. YC is calling for software to modernize American metal mills—specifically aluminum rolling and steel tube production. Lead times of 8 to 30 weeks are normal. Production planning, scheduling, and quoting are fragmented. Most buyers can't even purchase directly from mills.

YC sees an opportunity to build "modern, software-defined American mills" that are cheaper, more flexible, and more profitable.

YC draws a direct parallel to the 1980s, when quantitative trading emerged and looked silly to most people. They believe we're at a similar inflection point: "The hedge funds of the future won't just bolt AI onto existing strategies. They'll use it to come up with entirely new ones. That's where the alpha is."

They envision "swarms of agents doing what hedge fund traders do now—combing through 10-Ks, earnings calls, and SEC filings, synthesizing analyst ideas and making trades."

This is arguably the most relevant YC category for indie hackers. YC says: "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."

The key insight: instead of selling software to customers, you can "charge way more by using the software yourself and selling them the finished product." Design firms, ad agencies, law firms—YC sees all of them being rebuilt with AI and earning software margins.

YC sees stablecoins as "rapidly becoming critical infrastructure for global finance." The GENIUS and CLARITY Acts are placing stablecoins in a unique position between DeFi and traditional finance. YC says "the regulatory window is open" and "the rails are being laid."

The opportunity is in financial services that offer DeFi benefits while operating under traditional compliance frameworks—yield-bearing accounts, investment access, and cross-border payments.

YC's insight here is smart: while everyone talks about AI replacing desk jobs, AI can't physically act in the world yet. But it can see, reason, and guide the humans who do. Field service technicians, factory workers, healthcare workers—they all need real-time AI guidance.

YC acknowledges the explosion in AI coding tools but notes that the space is still wide open. Cursor and Claude Code handle the "how to build" layer. But there's more to software development than writing code—debugging, testing, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance.

Read between the lines of the Spring 2026 RFS, and the thesis is clear: