YC publishes the RFS and people treat it as wishful thinking. The W25 batch is the receipt — most of the categories YC asked for in the prior RFS got funded.
Mapping W25 → 2026 RFS gives you the cleanest possible read on what S26 and W27 will look like.
Where W25 and the 2026 RFS overlap directly
- Vertical AI agents in regulated industries (healthcare, legal, financial ops).
- Software for the physical world — construction, freight, trades, agriculture.
- Government and public-sector workflow modernisation.
- Defense and dual-use technology.
- Climate and energy operations (not consumer climate).
- Developer tooling for AI-native engineering workflows.
How to use this if you're applying
Open the 2026 RFS and the W25 directory in two tabs. For each RFS category, find 2–3 W25 companies that matched it. Your application should describe your wedge in language consistent with both — same verbs, same outcomes, same vertical specificity.
This is the cheapest possible 'show, don't tell' signal that you've actually read YC's writing.
Key takeaways
- W25 is the receipt for the prior RFS — categories asked for got funded.
- Map your wedge onto both a W25 example and an RFS category.
- Language consistency with YC's own writing is a free application upgrade.