How code is written has dramatically changed in the last few months, and Y-Combinator seems to have been quick to respond to the new paradigm.
Y-Combinator, one of the best-known startup accelerators around, has added an experimental question to its Spring 2026 batch application asking founders to submit a transcript from a coding agent session they’re particularly proud of. The optional question explicitly references tools like Claude Code and Cursor, acknowledging the rapid proliferation of AI-powered development environments that have fundamentally altered how software gets built.
“This is an experimental question for the Spring 2026 batch to give people a chance to show off their skills with AI coding tools,” the application states, allowing applicants to upload markdown or text transcripts up to 10MB in size.
A New Definition of Technical Competence
The move signals a significant shift in how YC evaluates technical founders. Traditionally, accelerators assessed coding ability through GitHub repositories, technical interviews, or demonstrations of working products. Now, YC is explicitly recognizing that the ability to effectively leverage AI coding agents may be as important—or more important—than raw coding prowess.
Garry Tan, Y Combinator’s CEO, framed the change as a way to identify genuine builders in the AI era. “I seriously think this is just the beginning of being able to find the real builders,” Tan said. “It’s not just about the prompting, or your understanding of systems. It’s about your understanding of your users, and your tenacity with which you pursue making something people want.”
Tan’s emphasis on user understanding over pure technical skills is telling. In the age of AI agents, the bottleneck in software development is increasingly not the writing of code itself, but rather the clarity of vision about what to build and for whom.
A Glimpse of the Future
The addition of this question is experimental for now, but it likely previews a permanent shift in how technical capability is assessed across the startup world. As AI coding tools become ubiquitous, the distinction between “technical” and “non-technical” founders may blur or even disappear.
What matters increasingly is not whether you can write a sorting algorithm from memory, but whether you can identify a real problem, envision a solution, and marshal the tools—AI or otherwise—needed to bring that solution into existence.
YC’s new application question acknowledges a reality that many in the startup world are still processing: the fundamental constraints on software creation have changed. In this new paradigm, the most valuable founders may not be the best coders, but rather the best builders—those who combine deep user understanding with the technical judgment to effectively leverage AI tools in pursuit of creating value.
For aspiring founders preparing their Spring 2026 applications, the message is clear: start building with AI tools, document your process, and be ready to showcase not just what you built, but how you thought through building it. That transcript may be your best chance to demonstrate what Tan calls “the real builders” of the AI era.