The 2026 VC Disruptor watchlist: early stage startups who are building something to challenge an industry vertical and could sprint from Seed → Series A → Series B faster than expected.
One thing I’m always looking for in venture: outliers, these are founders doing something different. Not just improving an existing workflow, but creating entirely new ones. Some of these are YC companies but many aren't (if you are attending demo day dm me and we can try to meet).
A few 2025/2026 seed or early stage startups founders that stand out:
Letta: Founders from Berkeley's sky compute lag. Infrastructure for persistent AI agents, giving models memory and state so they can operate continuously.
Daydream: AI-native product design tools building the future of open source, real time ai video and world models.
@DaydreamLiveAI
Comfy: Node based stable diffusion. Tools for building and managing generative AI workflows and model pipelines.
@yoland_yan @kshenster
Dimension: Princeton alum and founder of Trash Warrior. Tech enabled, full service waste management on demand.
@LilyDShen
Juna AI: Uses AI to optimize complex industrial systems across manufacturing and energy, improving efficiency and operational decision making.
Kled AI: A marketplace for licensable multimodal datasets, helping AI developers access high-quality proprietary training data.
@avipat_
Rostra: Founded by ex Activision Shopify board member. A professional network designed to make high-signal introductions easier.
@lulumeservey
Variant: Former hedge fund analysts with advisors from Citadel and Goldman Sachs, building the next-generation of public and private markets.
@VariantMkt
Maneva: AI copilots for industrial operations that analyze sensor and production data to identify inefficiencies and optimize performance.
@paigefinnn
ProjectX: A developer-focused platform building next-generation tools for building and deploying AI-powered applications.
Cupidly.io: USC alum and ex YC building cursor for dating, an AI-native platform that helps users generate messages, manage conversations, and modernize online dating.
@jonathanzliu
a0dev: Autonomous development infrastructure designed to help AI systems write, test, and deploy production-ready code.
@sethsetse
LemonSlice: Ex MIT Harvard Med. Reinventing customer interactions with video. Allows anyone to create interactive video agents.
@lina_colucci @snowmaker @garrytan
Browserbase: Infrastructure for running automated browsers in the cloud, enabling AI agents and automation workflows to interact with the web reliably.
@linderps @AaronLevine_
Corgi: AI tools focused on simplifying development workflows and accelerating how teams build and ship software.
@erikalee @brookeleblanc
Anja Health: Modern infrastructure for cord blood banking and stem cell preservation with a consumer-focused experience.
@kathrynjc7
Rork: Lovable for mobile apps. Create native mobile applications with mobile specific features.
@rork @tkexpress11
Feel free to drop a description of anyone I'm missing you think highly of. My DM's are open to anyone who wants to connect. And yes a few of these companies are YC, so if anyone is attending DemoDay and wants to meet up around then, msg me.
-Ruth
@joher @ColinGardiner @_ram_ @pitdesi @iankar_ @saranormous @naval @eladgil @jordihays @FurqanR @aileenlee @Jillwillnyc @brycent @HarryStebbings @jaminball @nihalmehta @MollySOShea