Startups. When you don't know what to do, look at the problems discussed by the world's best investors.
Date
Dec 8, 2025
Classification
- Startups
LeanX / leanX, CEO
We help entrepreneurs execute their plans to create products that the world needs.
6 Trends for 2025 Captured by YC: "AI is the Foundation, Not the Function"
🫑 3-Line Summary
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Y Combinator identified "ideas that utilize AI as a foundation rather than a function" as a startup trend for 2025, emphasizing infrastructure and software innovation for the AI economy.
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Ultra-efficient companies creating $100 billion in value with 10 people, new media utilizing video-generating AI, and government LLMs replacing consulting are emerging as key opportunities.
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We must keep in mind that what matters is not the AI technology itself, but the approach of using AI to resolve existing inefficiencies and pain points and 'loving the problem first.'
🥦 Insight
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Is the service you are currently developing merely at the level of attaching an 'AI chatbot' to an existing app? That is not what YC calls 'AI as a Foundation.' Just as the cloud eliminated server rooms, AI must reach a level where it completely eliminates the structural costs and inefficiencies of existing industries.
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Pay particular attention to the metric called 'revenue per employee.' The era has arrived where it is possible to build a unicorn company with a team of just 10 people. This is not because technology has improved, but because AI has made it possible to design 'ultra-efficient organizations' that minimize human intervention.
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Examine your business right now. Is it a "business model that cannot exist without AI," rather than "features that improve with the addition of AI"? Only the latter is the true innovation that will survive in 2025.
— View original —
AI is no longer a "function." It is a "foundation."
Introduction.
Are you familiar with the "Request for Startups" released annually by Y Combinator? It is a list where YC publicly declares, "We want to invest in these kinds of startups." It serves as a compass showing where Silicon Valley is betting.
The Fall 2025 version has been released. And this time, there is a clear message:
The past few years were a time to prove what AI can do. Now is the time to build something with AI.
Ideas that treat AI as a foundation rather than a feature.
Today, I will analyze the six sectors identified by YC and summarize the problems that can actually be solved in each sector.
It is not just a translation.
From the perspective of "love the problem, not the solution," as said by Ash Maurya, the creator of the Lean Canvas ,
We are going to take a closer look at the real customer issues in each sector .
Part 1. YC 2025 Autumn: 6 Sectors
Sector 1: Worker Retraining for the AI Economy
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