New startup ideas · AI and software · Agent infrastructure
startup idea
Toolharbor
The governed registry every enterprise agent must pass through to touch a tool.
Toolharbor is a control plane that sits between an enterprise's AI agents and every tool, API, and MCP server they call, enforcing policy, credentials, and rate limits per agent.
- Software subscription
- Enterprise
- $10-100B market
- Platform others build on
- US first
5/5
venture judge
11
similar startups, last 2 years (36 all-time)
97%
of 3 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
$700 · 4 weeks · 20 prospects
For $700 and 4 weeks, prove that MSPs will prepay $1,000 today for per-agent tool governance their clients are already demanding, before model providers bundle it free.
Riskiest assumption · MSP service directors have clients demanding agent tool governance now and will prepay for an independent control plane rather than wait for model providers to bundle it into their enterprise plans.
1Focus group: who and where
Service delivery director or vCIO at a US MSP managing 50-300 mid-size clients, where at least 3 clients asked this quarter to switch on Copilot or custom agents and nothing currently sits between those agents and the clients' Salesforce or M365 tenants.
where to find 20 · The r/msp subreddit, where AI rollout threads surface exactly these operators; the MSP Geek community (mspgeek.org); the Channel Futures MSP 501 list as a named call list; IT Nation Connect 2026 in Orlando in November for in-person follow-through.
2Sell first, build later
Founding MSP partner pilot: a multi-tenant console that puts allow lists, credentials, and audit logs between your clients' agents and Salesforce, M365, and Google Workspace, deployed across up to 5 client tenants within 90 days, starting November 2, 2026.
the ask · $1,000 prepaid for the pilot, then $3 per governed agent per month wholesale, locked for 12 months, for the MSP to resell at $8-10.
a real yes · A real yes is the $1,000 invoice paid with a signed pilot order naming 5 client tenants and the November 2 start date; 'we would resell that', unpaid POCs, and intros to their clients without a signed order are not.
3Small experiments
The first one attacks the riskiest assumption; each ends with a number that says whether to run the next.
1. Fifteen MSP demand calls
$150 · 10 days
Build a list of 20 MSPs from the MSP 501 list plus r/msp and MSP Geek members posting about AI rollouts, and book 15 calls with the outreach script. Ask how many clients requested agent or Copilot tool controls this quarter, what they answered, and what they charge per seat today for comparable security add-ons.
keep going if · 8 of 15 say at least 3 clients asked for agent tool controls this quarter and they have no answer to sell
2. Clickable console, paid close
$450 · 14 days
Build a Figma clickthrough of the multi-tenant console - per-agent allow lists, credential vault, audit log across 5 client tenants - and demo it to every MSP from experiment 1. End each demo with the founding-partner pilot order: $1,000 prepaid, 5 tenants, November 2 start, $3 per governed agent wholesale locked for 12 months.
keep going if · 3 of 15 demoed MSPs sign the pilot order and pay the $1,000 invoice
3. End-client line-item check
$100 · 10 days
Through the 3 friendliest MSPs from the calls, put a mock invoice line of $8 per governed agent per month in front of 6 of their mid-size end clients. Ask each client's IT lead in writing whether they would approve it as a change order next quarter.
keep going if · 4 of 6 end clients confirm in writing they would approve the line item
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.
$1,000
per prospect, refundable
how · A prepaid design-partner pilot invoiced up front - the right instrument because an MSP buys tooling on monthly invoices as a matter of routine and a $1,000 commitment separates operators with real client demand from browsers; the service delivery director signs the one-page pilot order. set up: Stripe Invoicing ↗
what it reserves · One of 5 founding MSP slots starting November 2, the $3 per governed agent wholesale price locked for 12 months, and their top 3 requested connectors certified before their start date.
refund · Fully refundable in writing any time before deployment kickoff on November 2.
target · 3 paid pilots from 15 MSP pitches within 30 days
Go: build it if
3 MSPs pay the $1,000 pilot within 30 days, 8 of 15 report unanswered client demand this quarter, and 4 of 6 end clients approve the $8 per agent line item in writing.
Kill: stop if
Fewer than 8 of 15 MSPs report any client asking for agent governance, or 0 paid pilots after 15 pitches, or end clients refuse the per-agent line item - demand is anticipated, not present, and the free-bundling risk decides it.
5 Scripts to run itoutreach message, landing copy, deposit terms · click to open
outreach message
You're fielding client requests to switch on Copilot and custom agents, and right now nothing sits between those agents and the client's Salesforce or M365 tenant. I'm building a multi-tenant console for MSPs: allow lists, credentials, and audit logs per agent, wholesale at $3 per governed agent so you resell at $8-10. Before I build it I'm running 15 calls with MSP service directors to test the pricing. Would you take a 20-minute call this week?
landing page
Turn on governed agent access for every client tenant in minutes $1,000 founding pilot: 5 tenants, 90 days, $3 per governed agent locked for 12 months Claim one of 5 founding MSP slots starting November 2
deposit terms
Your $1,000 pilot fee reserves one of 5 founding MSP slots starting November 2 and locks the $3 per governed agent wholesale price for 12 months. We certify your top 3 requested connectors before your start date. Fully refundable in writing any time before deployment kickoff.
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.
67
Idea Score, 0-100 · raw 41.4 x 1.61
Active
competition: more crowded than 69% of ideas · headwind x0.65
+2.8
government priorities, secondary (17 matching grants)
Trend
44
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)23
- Rounds announced 2025+ in the sector4
- Sector direction (live batch)100
- 2026 trend analyst50
Demand
60
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 pain50
100x potential
78
Can it return a fund? The venture judge (double weight), market-size and moat axes, neighbours still alive, the technologist judge.
- Venture judge100
- Market size axis67
- Moat axis100
- Neighbours still alive74
- 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 governed, registry, enterprise, must, pass, control, plane, sits.
The idea in full
- What
- Toolharbor is a control plane that sits between an enterprise's AI agents and every tool, API, and MCP server they call, enforcing policy, credentials, and rate limits per agent. Software vendors and integrators publish certified connectors into its registry, so an enterprise turns on Salesforce or SAP access for agents in minutes instead of building bespoke glue. Enterprises pay per governed agent; connector publishers build on the platform because that is where the buyers are.
- Why now
- This cluster added 126 new companies in 2026 alone and the tooling is fragmenting fast: Executor is shipping an open source integration management layer and Decawork a control plane for IT teams, which means enterprises are about to standardize on some governance layer within 12-24 months, and whoever gets the connector ecosystem wins it.
- Wedge: first customer and entry point
- One managed service provider that administers IT for 200 mid-size enterprises; give the MSP a multi-tenant console and revenue share, and every governed rollout they do becomes Toolharbor seats.
- Path to 100x
- Enterprise middleware and integration is a $10-100B market and it re-forms around agents exactly once; the platform mechanism is that each new certified connector makes Toolharbor more valuable to every enterprise and each enterprise makes it more valuable to publishers, the same dynamic that made one iPaaS vendor dominant last cycle. The compounding asset is the cross-customer telemetry of which agent-tool calls fail, drift, or get abused, which becomes a risk-scoring dataset no single enterprise or open source project can replicate.
- Ceiling
- If agent-tool calling standardizes so cleanly that governance is trivial, Toolharbor is a mid-size security tool rather than the platform layer.
- Closest real companies, as the generator saw them
- Executor is open source integration management and will win developers, but has no channel motion and no governance telemetry product; Decawork targets IT teams directly rather than building a two-sided connector platform; OneCLI secures the assistant, not the tool boundary underneath every assistant.
- Main risk
- MCP governance gets absorbed as a free feature of the model providers' own enterprise plans before an independent layer establishes itself.
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
5/5
Capital-light control plane on $10-100B middleware spend, MSP channel for 200 enterprises at once, and cross-customer failure telemetry that compounds.
Bootstrapper
3/5
Capital-light with a 200-enterprise MSP channel and revenue within a year, but model providers bundling governance free is a live pricing collapse.
Operator
3/5
Real IT buyer and MSP channel, but agent-tool governance is an anticipated line item rather than a bill enterprises pay today.
Technologist
2/5
A policy gateway in front of MCP calls is exactly the feature model providers bundle into enterprise plans, as the card's own risk states.
Risk
2/5
Launch rides one MSP with 200 clients, and model providers bundling MCP governance free would erase the layer before it lands.
trends
3/5
The 12-24 month MCP governance window is genuinely current, yet 102 of 244 agent-infra companies rewriting pitches shows the layer already contested.
Similar startups in the directory
Companies whose pitch matches most of the idea's terms (governed, registry, enterprise, must, pass, control, plane, sits): 36 all-time, 11 from the last two years. Same matching as Idea Check.
Cinchy | PeriMind (AI Governance Platform)
The Control Plane for Enterprise Agents
Use Radiant's control plane to easily deploy, manage, and scale generative AI features for critical workflows
Make AI risk reviews faster and smarter with automated risk tiering, risk detection, and risk control recommendations — delivered through an API that plugs into your existing SDLC tools.
Hyponomy turns regulated credit, insurance and wealth products into governed, agent-ready services that AI channels like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini can discover, explain, qualify, activate and enable direct usage of under the financial institution’s controls.
On-device Knowledge Graph engine for Enterprise Software
Automated production-readiness platform for the AI coding era
One connector per employee. Every AI tool and skill your company allows, and nothing else.
Vallum optimizes enterprise AI usage by measuring ROI, boosting adoption, and governing interactions.
Wayfound is a platform that manages, monitors, and governs enterprise AI agents in real time, ensuring compliance, performance, and explainable behavior.
Credo AI is an adaptive AI governance platform that facilitates responsible AI adoption by translating policy and regulatory standards into actionable controls, thereby ensuring compliance, mitigating risks, and fostering trust among stakeholders.
AI agents for data science (enterprise)
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
NIH / NICHD · STTR phase I · $307K · posted 2026-09-17
NIH / NIBIB · STTR phase I · $314K · posted 2026-09-01
- Collaborative Research: VINES: Track 2: Disaster-Resilient Communication Systems for Mission-Critical Adaptive Multipath Wireless Networkingawardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · TIP-CHIPS KTA-6 Communications · $4M · posted 2026-08-25
- Collaborative Research: VINES: Track 2: Resilient Wireless Data Transport for Disaster Recovery using LT3 Multipath Codingawardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · TIP-CHIPS KTA-6 Communications · $1M · posted 2026-08-25
- NSF Safe-OSE: Center for Security-Assuring AI Agent Communication and Interoperability Standard and the Open-Source Ecosystemawardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · SafeOSE · $2M · posted 2026-08-18
- Collaborative Research: Make-it-Anywhere Distributed Additive Manufacturing: Enabling Part Quality Equivalence through Physics- and Data-Integrated Process Controlawardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · MSI-Manufacturing Systms Integ · $305K · posted 2026-08-17
- I-Corps: Translation Potential of Ferroelectric Materials with Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (FeSQUID) Cryogenic Control Electronics for Quantum Computingawardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · TIP-CHIPS KTA-3 Quantum · $50K · posted 2026-08-17
- Collaborative Research: Make-it-Anywhere Distributed Additive Manufacturing: Enabling Part Quality Equivalence through Physics- and Data-Integrated Process Controlawardmedium relevance
National Science Foundation · MSI-Manufacturing Systms Integ, OE Operations Engineering · $195K · posted 2026-08-17
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 → 171 new companies 2022 → 2026 · 94% aliveYC F26 live: 22 in this cluster, 18% of the batch (was 15% in S26)Since February, of 239 YC companies here: 9 acquired, 4 shut down, 111 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
- Enterprise
- Business model
- Software subscription
- Path to 100x
- Platform others build on
- Market size
- $10-100B market
- Capital intensity
- Capital-light (software margins)
- Speed to revenue
- Revenue within a year
- Technical depth
- Real engineering
- Go-to-market
- Partners and channels
- Moat
- Data 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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