YC W25 Startups We Started Using

Our selection from YC W25 Demo Day

We're continuing our tradition of tracking the latest cohorts from Y Combinator. Honestly, it's getting tough. Almost all projects in W25 are now AI-related (that's over 160 companies!).

So, we decided to approach the latest batch from a new angle. After reviewing all AI startups, we selected the 10 most valuable products for creators and founders and want to share them with you.

In this post, we won't dive too much into the YC background.

If you want to understand why it's the most essential accelerator and how it shapes trends in AI products, check out these articles:

What AI Startups Will Change Our Life: YC W24 Batch Review

AI Agents | YC F24 Startups

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YC W25 | Quick Overview

But first, let's briefly discuss the general state of YC W25. While studying the new list of startups, we noticed a few things.

• Mature Approach: If we compare the new cohort to the projects from W24, we can see how much more in-depth products are now being developed. Neither investors nor consumers are interested in simple image generators anymore.

• Narrow Specialization: Of the 166 projects we reviewed, we found no developers of new LLMs or chatbots promising to replace ChatGPT or Gemini. Apparently, founders have accepted the rules of the game with absolute leaders.

• Institutional Projects and Traditional Industries: While similar solutions have been in previous batches, there are more of them now. In YC W25, several AI startups focus on governments and classic industries like agriculture and real estate.

Overall, YC W25 gives the impression of a much more settled batch.

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AI Tools from YC W25 You Should Know About

But all of the above doesn't mean that YC doesn't leave room for simple and valuable solutions for a wider audience. The new list includes agents for entrepreneurs, EdTech platforms for educators, and a bunch of tools for enthusiasts.

Here is our shortlist of 10 YC startups that we want to share with you because we are already using their products!