YC’s Winter 2027 Requests for Startups: The Founder’s Playbook

Startup Playbooks

YC’s Winter 2027 Requests for Startups: The Founder’s Playbook

Every Idea YC Partners Want to Fund Next and How to Find Your Way Into One This Week

Guillermo Flor

Oct 30, 2026

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YC’s Requests for Startups for Winter 2027 are out!

11 ideas from 6 partners. Put side by side, the numbers behind them show where the money goes once the models are good enough:

SpaceX expects 10,000 Starship launches a year

Large power transformers for data centers take three years to arrive

New connected robots need more than 65% American components to get approved in the US

YC estimates US cities would collect $16B more in tax every year if permits came 10x faster

What changed? The bottleneck moved. For two years the race was about who has the best model. YC now sees the limits in hardware, power, financing, government and who owns the model.

📚 In this playbook we go through all 11 requests, the YC startups already building in each one, the ideas still open and

6 Claude skills

that test whether your idea holds up.

Refer a friend

Inside you will find:

The Physical Buildout: How to Sell Into the Largest Capital Project in US History

See where robots, data centers and their financing are stuck and who is already selling into each gap.

How to Sell AI to 19,000 City Halls and Every Benefits Office

Find out why YC says its government AI companies are among its fastest growers and where to start.

Why Companies Will Own Their AI Models: Four Requests and the Startups Already Selling Them

Learn why YC asked four times for models companies own, run inside their walls or tune to one field.

The $15-an-Hour Expert: How to Build a Services Company on Smart People Without Credentials

See which jobs have a credential as their only bottleneck and how AI turns a generalist into a specialist.

Startups for 10,000 Starship Launches a Year: What Becomes Possible When Space Gets 100x Cheaper

Test which business models start working at a new launch price.

This issue is available exclusively to paid subscribers!

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+40 AI Pitch Decks (Ultimate Collection)

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💰 Investor Database & Tools

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The Family Office List (+ the Claude Outreach System)

— family offices actively writing cheques, plus the Claude system to reach them.

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