146 startups in this batch
The Winter 2018 cohort arrived at a pivotal moment when venture capital shifted heavily toward frontier tech, moving beyond simple SaaS into complex hardware and biotech. This era was defined by an aggressive push to apply software-level scaling to the physical world, from robotic maintenance to advanced material science. It was a time when YC began betting big on founders who could bridge the gap between digital intelligence and industrial reality.
This batch validated that legacy industries—like wind energy, surgery, and furniture—were finally ready for specialized automation. They proved a massive willingness to pay for operational efficiency in high-stakes environments, showing that the next wave of value would come from solving deep-seated physical pain points. These founders successfully mapped the workflow bottlenecks in traditional sectors that had been ignored by the first decade of mobile apps.
Many startups in this cohort struggled with the high capital expenditure and grueling sales cycles inherent in hardware-heavy business models. The core failure point was often the assumption that superior technology could overcome distribution moats in slow-moving industries. Today's builders should learn that while the problem solved may be physical, the most resilient business models prioritize software-led wedges that minimize upfront hardware costs.
For the solo builder, the opportunity lies in creating AI-native expert systems for the niches W18 identified, such as surgical planning or educational coaching. Where these pioneers needed massive teams to build custom logic, you can now use multimodal LLMs and computer vision to automate complex decision-making. The wedge today is an AI-first software layer that orchestrates existing hardware, turning capital-intensive services into high-margin SaaS.
Software tool enabling scientists to create and share professional, standardized scientific figures in minutes.
24/7 pediatric clinic in every family's living room
Agile commission software to design, deploy & adapt commission plans.
Mobile streaming platform connecting professional athletes with their…
The gold standard in cryptocurrency portfolio tracking and taxes
Next-gen blood testing to provide 1000x more data to pharma companies
Dear Brightly makes personalized prescription skincare products,…
Tilt lets anyone build an index out of any content on the web.
AI-powered virtual English tutoring service
Podcast App is for the curious.
FidoCure® is the leader in Precision Medicine for Canine Oncology.
Education technology platform that analyzes school spending in the context of student outcomes to maximize ROI.
Unified, enterprise messaging platform for leading brands of the world
Personal fintech - we optimise your bills, every year, automatically.
Lucy’s mission is to reduce tobacco-related harm to zero. We provide…
3D printing beautiful, high-quality, and sustainable homes.
Radically simplifying cross-border logistics between USA & Mexico
OpenSea is theOpenSea is the best place to trade everything onchain —…
Orangewood Labs makes worlds most affordable and easiest AI robot arms
Pagedraw is a platform for productionizing designs into code. Thanks…
Point stores things you send over and over again and helps you re-use…
Better payment systems for governments and the communities they serve.
PROVEN is using AI, data and personalization to disrupt CPG
We're crowdsourced Gartner so IT executives can learn directly from…
The people, management, and culture operating system for your startup.
Engineering next-generation, brain-penetrant cancer therapies.
Wearables and AI to predict and prevent sepsis outside the hospital
AI-powered knowledge base for teams to organize, access, and maintain company documentation easily.
tEQuitable's mission is to create work culture that works for everyone
Tradewind translates scientific insight into innovative ways of…
Vena Medical is providing physicians with the world's smallest camera…
Voicery provided a fast, flexible speech synthesis engine using deep learning to create natural-sounding, human-like voices for applications like audiobooks, voice-overs, and more.