📶 YC Demo Day

Recap on what's hot, what's not, and what the trends mean for the rest of the venture world

April 09, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

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Good morning 👋

YC had its demo day last week, and we’re recapping what you missed in this week’s piece.

Let’s get right into it.

TL;DR:

NEWS
YC Demo Day recap🔎

Y Combinator held its spring demo day last week, and 247 companies pitched as part of the spring batch.

To see the full list of companies, search here.

What’s hot: 

Like it or not, YC is still (by far) the most notable startup accelerator, and demo day is when the rest of the world gets a glimpse into what types of companies are building for the not-so-distant future.

As you would expect, AI is still the hottest area for investment.

This batch had 86 out of 247 companies calling themselves an AI startup, and 187 of the 247 mention AI in their pitches.

If you drill down further, you’ll see a bulk of companies building within:

  • SaaS

  • Dev tools

  • Fintech

  • Infrastructure

  • Healthcare

  • APIs

What’s not: 

Compared to previous years, there are fewer companies within:

  • Productivity software

  • Marketplaces

  • Biotech

  • Climate

  • Digital health

  • Proptech

  • Robotics

What happens next: 

YC is usually considered one of the tastemakers for downstream investors. They de-risk companies at the earliest stages so that seed funds can pour more into the companies that find true PMF later.

If you’re looking for an idea on where future capital, talent, and business goes, follow the tastemakers, then decide for yourself what’s real or not.

We asked readers a few weeks ago their thoughts on whether or not we are currently in an AI bubble. 61% of you said “yes”.

Only time will tell, but our recommendation would be to tread lightly when looking at any new company branding itself as an “AI” company.

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Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.

Feel free to unsubscribe whenever this stops becoming valuable to you.

P.S. Here are the results from our poll question in last week’s piece:

Will you make cross-border investments in 2024?

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Yes - absolutely ✅ (10)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Not a chance - USA or bust ❌ (14)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ Not a chance - only outside of the USA ❌ (12)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ I don't know yet 🤷‍♂️ (13)

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