Inside YC’s Boldest RFS Yet: AI, Agents & More

YC just dropped its latest Requests for Startups — and they’re not just ideas, they’re roadmaps to the future. From AI-native enterprise software to 10-person $100B companies, these signals reveal where the smartest founders (and investors) should be looking.

In this episode of Lobster Talks, Laurie and I break down Y Combinator’s newest RFS — from retraining workers for the AI economy to video generation as a computing primitive. We debate the real opportunities, the traps, and how these trends could reshape the startup ecosystem.

What you’ll learn:
Why YC’s RFS is one of the best ways to predict upcoming demo day winners
The massive opportunity in retraining workers for the AI economy
Why video generation is shifting from an output to a primitive
How AI-native startups could disrupt giants like Salesforce
Whether 10-person $100B companies are actually possible
The risks, politics, and second-order effects of LLMs in government

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: The Value of Customer Money
00:26 Y Combinator's Request for Startups
01:14 AI and Worker Retraining
02:30 The Future of Semiconductors and Deep Tech
04:34 AR, VR, and AI in Training
09:02 Video Generation: The Next Frontier
16:12 The First 10-Person $100 Billion Company
22:31 The Future of Small Teams and Fundraising
24:03 Challenges and Opportunities in Multi-Agent Systems
28:12 AI Native Enterprise Software
34:39 Using AI to Revolutionize Government Consulting
41:24 Conclusion and Upcoming Events

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