New startup ideas · Consumer and commerce · Consumer

startup idea

Foliograph

A global copy-investing network built on ML-verified track records.

Foliograph is a consumer subscription that connects to a user's existing brokerage account, verifies and risk-normalizes their real returns with ML across brokers and asset classes, and lets subscribers automatically replicate top verified portfolios sized to their own risk limits.

4/5

venture judge

14

similar startups, last 2 years (88 all-time)

92%

of 2 nearest real companies still alive

yes

8 matching federal grants and programs

Direction supported by government programs and grants

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.

44

Idea Score, 0-100 · raw 26.6 x 1.64

Crowded

competition: more crowded than 81% of ideas · headwind x0.59

+3.6

government priorities, secondary (35 matching grants)

Trend

18

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)45
  • Rounds announced 2025+ in the sector25
  • Sector direction (live batch)0
  • 2026 trend analyst0

Demand

53

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)60
  • Someone already pays (similar companies, recent / all-time)100
  • Operator judge: real pain0

100x potential

62

Can it return a fund? The venture judge (double weight), market-size and moat axes, neighbours still alive, the technologist judge.

  • Venture judge75
  • Market size axis67
  • Moat axis100
  • Neighbours still alive30
  • 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 global, copy-investing, network, built, ml-verified, track, records, consumer.

The idea in full

What
Foliograph is a consumer subscription that connects to a user's existing brokerage account, verifies and risk-normalizes their real returns with ML across brokers and asset classes, and lets subscribers automatically replicate top verified portfolios sized to their own risk limits. It reaches consumers as an embedded layer inside partner brokers and neobanks rather than through its own paid acquisition. Licensing as an investment adviser in each region is the product's slow, deliberate first phase.
Why now
Two YC S26 companies - OpenTrade ('the new interface for investing') and tash - show retail investing interfaces being re-founded right now, and Whoop's $575M Series G proves consumers sustain large recurring subscriptions for verified personal performance data; nobody has built the cross-broker verification layer that makes investing performance a social object.
Wedge: first customer and entry point
Verified track-record profiles for one broker's power users in one jurisdiction, launched as that broker's white-label 'proven investors' feature before any replication is switched on.
Path to 100x
Retail investing and wealth management fees are a $10-100B pool, and the scaling mechanism is a two-sided network: verified managers attract subscriber capital, subscriber capital attracts more managers, and the graph of authenticated track records is winner-takes-most because a track record only lives where it was verified. Subscription plus a share of performance fees on replicated flows gives power-law upside on a capital-light base.
Ceiling
Large brokers can build native copy features and shut off account connectivity, stranding Foliograph without its raw data feed.
Closest real companies, as the generator saw them
OpenTrade is building a single-player investing interface and tash a platform for sports and trading cards; neither verifies performance across brokers or builds a replication network, which is the entire defensibility here.
Main risk
Regulators in key markets classify auto-replication as discretionary portfolio management and the licensing burden outruns the company's runway.

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

    4/5

    Verified cross-broker track records are a genuine two-sided graph on a $10-100B fee pool, capital-light, though broker connectivity cutoff is the live threat.

  • Bootstrapper

    2/5

    Investment adviser licensing in each region is a deliberate slow first phase, and auto-replication risks reclassification as discretionary management.

  • Operator

    1/5

    Retail investors have no budget line for copy-trading and brokers can cut off connectivity, so the buyer neither owns spend nor feels acute pain.

  • Technologist

    2/5

    Return verification ML sits on broker account connectivity that the brokers themselves can shut off, which the card admits as its ceiling.

  • Risk

    1/5

    Brokers supply the data feed, the distribution and the copy feature that replaces it, plus unresolved discretionary-management licensing in every market.

  • trends

    1/5

    Copy trading was eToro's pitch in 2010, fintech fell from 8% to 5% of the batch, and multi-region adviser licensing burns the supposed window.

Similar startups in the directory

Companies whose pitch matches most of the idea's terms (global, copy-investing, network, built, ml-verified, track, records, consumer): 88 all-time, 14 from the last two years. Same matching as Idea Check.

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  • crmCopilotyc W24 · 2024 · Vertical AI agentssite down

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  • Lio (formerly askLio)yc S23 · 2023 · Vertical AI agentsalive

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  • Mindbaseyc W22 · 2022 · Consumeralive

    Build AI influencers that autonomously create content, engage fans…

  • Energaia500global · 2018 · Consumeralive

    Producer of algae products intended to provide a clean, healthy, and sustainable food source. The company offers a wide range of Spirulina-based products ranging from fresh powder, energy balls, and pasta, enabling consumers to get fresh and sustainable algae products.

  • NanoNetsyc W17 · 2017 · Data for AIalive

    Automatic Data Extraction

  • Chain, Inc.500global · 2014 · AI infra and computeacquired

    Provider of ledger-as-a-service technology that enables organizations to securely track and transfer balances in a token format. The company's blockchain technology helps organizations can securely manage their financial assets in a token format on private ledgers and, soon, seamlessly transfer them across public networks, enabling financial institutions to offer seamless, programmatic and peer-to-peer transfer of digital assets.

  • Apruveplugandplay · Fintechacquired

    Long tail credit and payment automation for global enterprises.

  • Airkitplugandplay · B2B SaaSacquired

    Airkit is a customer engagement platform to rapidly build and deploy intelligent digital journeys across any channel.

  • Dimesplugandplay · Consumeralive

    We built timelyhero platform that help people access the quality education anytime, anywhere.

Run this as an Idea Check →

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

29

startup-relevant grants in Consumer

$8M

awarded in the sector, tracked

All public money by sector →

Market signal

What the radar sees in Consumer: new companies by cohort year, the forming YC batch, and outcomes since the February snapshot.

Consumer · 170 → 218 → 206 → 153 → 49 new companies 2022 → 2026 · 87% aliveYC S26: 8 in this cluster, 3% of the batch (was 5% in X26) (F26 is still forming: 21 listed)Since February, of 787 YC companies here: 2 acquired, 4 shut down, 37 rewrote their pitch

Consumer: companies, trend and grants →

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
Network effects, winner takes most
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
Partners and channels
Moat
Network effects
Geography
Global from day one
Regulation
Heavily regulated
Vibe
Hot space

Listed under

An idea sits in its own sector and in any sector its text clearly touches.

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Swipe ideas like this in the deckTalk to the radar about it

Fictional company written 2026-08-26 from MarkosWeb data; the companies, grants and numbers around it are real and tracked. Treat the idea as a research prompt, not a plan.