New startup ideas · AI and software · Agent infrastructure
startup idea
Mnemora
A private memory layer that follows you across every AI app.
Mnemora is a consumer subscription that builds one persistent, user-owned memory from everything you tell any AI assistant, then serves it back to ChatGPT, Claude, and every agent app through a standard connector.
- Software subscription
- Consumer
- $10-100B market
- Creates a new category
- US first
3/5
venture judge
10
similar startups, last 2 years (23 all-time)
98%
of 4 nearest real companies still alive
yes
8 matching federal grants and programs
Direction supported by government programs and grants
Test it before you build it
$1,125 · 3 weeks · 30 prospects
For $1,125 and 3 weeks, prove that people who juggle multiple AI assistants will put down $29 for a portable private memory at $8 a month.
Riskiest assumption · People who use two or more AI assistants will pay about $10 a month for a portable memory rather than tolerating retyping or settling for each lab's built-in memory.
1Focus group: who and where
A US consumer who uses two or more AI assistants weekly (ChatGPT plus Claude, Gemini or a coding agent), already pays for at least one of them, and re-explains the same preferences, projects and personal context in every new chat, the person who has tried pasting a saved 'about me' block by hand.
where to find 30 · The r/ChatGPTPro, r/ClaudeAI and r/LocalLLaMA subreddits where multi-assistant and privacy-minded users compare workflows (communities); Product Hunt's AI-tools launch audience via a teaser listing (channel); YouTube creators covering AI assistant workflows such as Matt Wolfe, whose comment sections are full of exactly these users (creators).
2Sell first, build later
Founding membership in Mnemora: one private, on-device memory built from your AI conversations, editable by you, served to ChatGPT and Claude through a connector, access within 60 days of reservation, founding price locked for a year.
the ask · $8 per month (later $12), reserved with a $29 refundable deposit
a real yes · A real yes is a $29 card charge completed at checkout; upvotes, email-only waitlist signups, 'I would definitely pay for this' comments and free beta requests are noes
3Small experiments
The first one attacks the riskiest assumption; each ends with a number that says whether to run the next.
1. Priced reservation from organic posts
$150 · 10 days
Put up a landing page that states the product, the $8-a-month founding price and a $29 refundable card reservation, then post honest founder posts in r/ChatGPTPro, r/ClaudeAI and r/LocalLLaMA describing the retyping problem and linking the page. A hosted card checkout is the right instrument here because this is a consumer buying a $29 software reservation online; there is no other credible rail. Measure visitors and paid reservations.
keep going if · 15 paid $29 reservations from the first 1,000 unique visitors (1.5 percent)
2. Existing-workaround interviews
$375 · 14 days
Recruit 15 multi-assistant users from the same subreddits with a $25 gift card, and in 30-minute calls have them show, screen shared, how they carry context between assistants today. Count who already maintains a manual context document they paste into new chats, the behavioral proof this is a painkiller, and ask refusers from Experiment 1 why they did not pay.
keep going if · 8 of 15 already maintain and paste a personal context file by hand
3. Paid-channel conversion test
$600 · 10 days
Run $600 of Reddit ads against the same subreddits' audiences to the identical priced page, no copy changes, to test whether reservations arrive at a survivable acquisition cost when the traffic is cold rather than founder-posted.
keep going if · Cold visitor to paid reservation at 1 percent or better, cost per reservation under $40
4Collect a deposit up front
Tesla took $1,000 refundable reservations for the Model 3 and $100 for the Cybertruck before building either: the deposit is the measurement, not the revenue.
$29
per prospect, refundable
how · A $29 refundable reservation taken by card at a hosted checkout on the landing page; for a consumer software purchase found through Reddit and YouTube, a card checkout is the native instrument and the charge itself is the measurement. set up: Stripe Checkout ↗
what it reserves · A slot in the founding cohort, the $8-a-month price locked for the first year, and access within 60 days
refund · One-click full refund any time before activation and for 30 days after.
target · 25 paid $29 reservations within 21 days
before taking money · The memory will contain sensitive personal data, so before storing anything health-related or from minors the team must clear state privacy law obligations (CCPA and kin) with counsel and make no HIPAA or medical-grade claims.
Go: build it if
25 or more paid reservations, organic conversion at 1.5 percent or better, cold cost per reservation under $40, and 8 of 15 interviewees already hand-carrying a context file: build the connector.
Kill: stop if
Fewer than 10 reservations from 1,500 or more total visitors (under 0.7 percent), or cold cost per reservation above $80, or fewer than 4 of 15 users showing any existing workaround: it is a vitamin, stop.
5 Scripts to run itoutreach message, landing copy, deposit terms · click to open
outreach message
You are re-explaining the same preferences, projects and context to ChatGPT, Claude and every new agent app, and each one's built-in memory stays locked inside it. I am building Mnemora: one private memory, consolidated on your device, that you can inspect and edit, served to every assistant through a connector, $8 a month for founding members and a $29 refundable reservation. I am talking to 15 people who juggle multiple assistants before building; up for a 20-minute call this week?
landing page
One private memory, yours, in every AI assistant $29 refundable reservation locks the founding price of $8 a month for a year Reserve your memory
deposit terms
$29 reserves your place in the founding cohort and locks your price at $8 a month for the first year (later $12). You get access within 60 days, and the charge appears as Mnemora. Fully refundable in one click any time before activation and for 30 days after.
Would you run this test?
One tap. The yes-share feeds the Demand pillar of this idea's score; nobody sees who answered.
Budgets are out-of-pocket estimates for a team of one to three, US market. Size the deposit to the deal, and check the terms before taking money in a regulated line.
Scorecard
One score that balances how trendy the idea is, the demand for it and its potential for 100x, with competition measured relative to every other idea in the catalog. Recent startup trends first, government priorities second.
60
Idea Score, 0-100 · raw 37.2 x 1.61
Active
competition: more crowded than 65% of ideas · headwind x0.67
+3.3
government priorities, secondary (27 matching grants)
Trend
50
Is the wave forming now? 2025-26 entrants vs 2023-24, rounds since 2025, the sector's live-batch direction, the 2026 trend analyst.
- Entrants 2025-26 vs 2023-24 (similar companies)70
- Rounds announced 2025+ in the sector4
- Sector direction (live batch)100
- 2026 trend analyst25
Demand
43
Does anyone want it? YC's current RFS, companies already paid for something similar, the operator judge, founders' yes-rate in decks, readers who would run the test.
- YC asks for it (current RFS: idea / sector)30
- Someone already pays (similar companies, recent / all-time)100
- Operator judge: real pain0
100x potential
59
Can it return a fund? The venture judge (double weight), market-size and moat axes, neighbours still alive, the technologist judge.
- Venture judge50
- Market size axis67
- Moat axis80
- Neighbours still alive81
- Technologist judge25
Score = 100 x cbrt(Trend x Demand x 100x) x (1 - 0.5 x crowding) + government bonus (max 5), calibrated so the 95th-percentile idea scores 90 (order never changes). A geometric mean: a weak pillar cannot be papered over. Percentiles are among the 272 ideas in the catalog; the terms matched were private, memory, follows, consumer, subscription, builds, persistent, user-owned.
The idea in full
- What
- Mnemora is a consumer subscription that builds one persistent, user-owned memory from everything you tell any AI assistant, then serves it back to ChatGPT, Claude, and every agent app through a standard connector. Its consolidation models run on-device, distilling months of conversations into a compact profile the user can inspect and edit. Consumers pay $8-12 a month so no assistant ever starts from zero.
- Why now
- The cluster added 148 companies in 2025 and 126 already in 2026, yet the memory pieces are all developer-facing; Egoist Machines (secure, user-owned context for every AI app) and Inkbox (identity and communication layer for AI agents) in YC S26 show context ownership emerging, but nobody sells it directly to the consumer.
- Wedge: first customer and entry point
- Power users of multiple assistants who retype the same preferences daily; ship a connector for the two biggest chat apps first and let the memory file itself be the demo.
- Path to 100x
- Consumer AI subscriptions are already a $10B-plus spend line and headed toward $100B; the personal memory layer is a new category where the first product bundled as the default connector inside major agent apps becomes the identity record for the AI era. Distribution compounds: every app that pre-installs Mnemora makes the next app integrate it, and switching means abandoning your accumulated self.
- Ceiling
- If the big labs treat memory as a retention weapon and block third-party read access, Mnemora is capped as a niche privacy product under $100M revenue.
- Closest real companies, as the generator saw them
- Egoist Machines targets AI app builders with a context store; Amulet builds a file system for agents, not people. Mnemora is a consumer product where the user, not the developer, owns and pays for the memory.
- Main risk
- OpenAI or Anthropic makes portable first-party memory good enough that a neutral third-party layer never gets oxygen.
Five judges
Each judge scores every idea in the catalog with a named rubric; the venture judge decides whether a card is shown at all (4-5 is venture-grade).
Venture investor
3/5
Category-defining consumer layer, but $8-12 a month and OpenAI or Anthropic revoking read access make the upside hostage to the labs.
Bootstrapper
2/5
A $10 consumer subscription carries consumer churn and depends entirely on OpenAI and Anthropic leaving third-party read access open.
Operator
1/5
An $8-12 consumer subscription against a nuisance, retyping preferences, is a vitamin dependent on labs granting read access.
Technologist
2/5
On-device consolidation models are genuine work, but the whole product hinges on OpenAI and Anthropic permitting third-party memory reads they can revoke.
Risk
1/5
Existence depends on OpenAI and Anthropic permitting third-party memory reads, a switch the card admits either lab can flip unilaterally.
trends
2/5
Labs already ship first-party memory, so the third-party layer enters after incumbents moved, with no brief protocol or regulation securing access.
Similar startups in the directory
Companies whose pitch matches most of the idea's terms (private, memory, follows, consumer, subscription, builds, persistent, user-owned): 23 all-time, 10 from the last two years. Same matching as Idea Check.
Your personal context, securely portable across every AI app.
Simulate before you ship
An AI bracelet that remembers your day and acts before you ask.
Brand-voice AI agents that give consumer brands 1-to-1 customer relationships
AI-native BPO for enterprise order-to-cash
Consumer app for living AI characters. >1.3M users, with average sessions lasting 1.4 hours.
Smart packaging that tracks consumer product usage
Camera-free AI glasses. Your AI, out in the world.
AI Retention Platform for Subscription Companies
AI Retention Platform for Subscription Companies
The memory layer for work
Candle helps friends and couples grow closer daily in just 5 minutes.
The generator's reference companies
Real companies the model named as closest when it wrote the card, with their fate. A check mark is a company the radar could verify in its directory.
Public money in this direction
US federal grants, SBIR/STTR awards and open opportunities from the radar's public-money feed, matched to the idea's terms; the sector totals give the context.
8
grants and programs matching the idea
36
startup-relevant grants in Agent infrastructure
$16M
awarded in the sector, tracked
- Overcoming Immune Evasion in Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Engineered T-Cell Therapyawardhigh relevance
NIH / NCI · SBIR phase II · $399K · posted 2026-09-22
- Development of AAV Episome-Based Nonviral Vectors for Prolonged Gene Expression in Hemophilia Aawardhigh relevance
NIH / NHLBI · SBIR phase I · $307K · posted 2026-09-15
- Integrating nowcasting models with digital communications to reduce the asthma burden in rural areasawardhigh relevance
NIH / NHLBI · SBIR phase II · $313K · posted 2026-09-01
- Leveraging Coded Ptychography to Deliver AI-powered Rapid Analysis of Unstained Lung Biopsy Samples at the Point of Careawardhigh relevance
NIH / NCI · SBIR phase II · $1M · posted 2026-09-01
National Science Foundation · CSR-Computer Systems Research · $777K · posted 2026-07-27
- Collaborative Research: III: Graph-based Vector Databases, from Theory to Practiceawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · Info Integration & Informatics · $400K · posted 2026-07-13
- Collaborative Research: III: Graph-based Vector Databases, from Theory to Practiceawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · Info Integration & Informatics · $200K · posted 2026-07-13
- Collaborative Research: III: Graph-based Vector Databases, from Theory to Practiceawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · Info Integration & Informatics · $200K · posted 2026-07-13
Market signal
What the radar sees in Agent infrastructure: new companies by cohort year, the forming YC batch, and outcomes since the February snapshot.
Agent infrastructure · 28 → 64 → 108 → 150 → 178 new companies 2022 → 2026 · 94% aliveYC F26 live: 23 in this cluster, 19% of the batch (was 16% in S26)Since February, of 239 YC companies here: 9 acquired, 4 shut down, 110 rewrote their pitch
Design attributes
The card is one cell of a designed set: every axis below was chosen before the text was written, and the text had to realize it.
- Buyer
- Consumer
- Business model
- Software subscription
- Path to 100x
- Creates a new category
- Market size
- $10-100B market
- Capital intensity
- Capital-light (software margins)
- Speed to revenue
- Revenue in 1-3 years
- Technical depth
- Deep tech: ML, hardware, bio
- Go-to-market
- Self-serve
- Moat
- Distribution moat
- Geography
- US first
- Regulation
- Some regulation
- Vibe
- Hot space
Listed under
An idea sits in its own sector and in any sector its text clearly touches.
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