AY Combinator

AY Combinator is an AI-powered Web3 startup incubator operating as a DAO. AI agents guide founders through the program, evaluate projects, and allocate funding through on-chain governance and investment smart contracts.

1️⃣ Target Users

➡️ Web3 Startup Founders – Seeking structured incubation, mentorship, and quick access to capital. ➡️ Investors – Looking for high-quality, AI-vetted Web3 startups aligned with their investment thesis. ➡️ Mentors & Ecosystem Builders – Engaging in AI-assisted startup evaluations.

2️⃣ Problem & Solution

➡️ Problem: Traditional incubators are very costly, have limited throughput and high risk for investors. Founders lack efficient way to cover all loose ends, find product market fit and get access to capital.

➡️ Solution: AY Combinator automates startup evaluation, mentorship, and investment decisions. AI Agents guide founders through structured modules, provide feedback, score progress, and allocate on-chain funding when milestones and criteria set by the DAO members are met.

3️⃣ AI Agent Roles

🤖 Agent Coach – Guides founders with structured questions and ensures completion of key modules. 🤖 Agent Mentor – Provides market insights, feedback, and auto-completes assumptions. 🤖 Agent Judge – Scores startups based on structured criteria, providing objective evaluation. 🤖 Agent Investor – Analyzes startups with on-chain governance rules and deploys USDC investments from DAO funds.

1️⃣ Web Application ➡️ Frontend: The web application is built using Next.js, a React-based framework that enables server-side rendering and generates static websites for enhanced performance and SEO. ➡️ Backend: Node.js is utilized for the backend, providing a scalable and efficient environment for handling asynchronous operations. ➡️ Database: Data is stored in a PostgreSQL database, known for its robustness and support for advanced data types and performance optimization. ➡️ Hosting: The application is hosted on AWS Amplify, which offers a streamlined CI/CD pipeline and easy scalability.

2️⃣ AI Agents AY Combinator employs specialized AI agents to facilitate various aspects of the incubation process: ➡️ Agent Coach: Guides founders through structured modules by asking pertinent questions and ensuring the completion of key tasks. ➡️ Agent Mentor – Provides feedback, and auto-completes assumptions. ➡️ Agent Judge: Evaluates startups based on predefined criteria, providing objective assessments. ➡️ Agent Investor: Analyzes startups in accordance with on-chain governance rules and allocates USDC investments from DAO funds.

These agents are hosted on Autonome, a platform for deploying autonomous AI agents (and hackathon partner), and utilize models from Anthropic, known for their advanced AI research and development.

3️⃣ Smart Contracts To manage investments and governance, AY Combinator has deployed smart contracts on the Base blockchain network: ➡️ StartupDepositContract: Manages deposits from startups. ➡️ InvestorDepositContract: Handles investor funds and issues corresponding governance tokens. ➡️ GovernanceTokenContract: Manages the distribution and governance of tokens within the DAO. These contracts ensure transparency, security, and automation in financial transactions and governance decisions.

4️⃣ User Authentication For user authentication, AY Combinator integrates with Privy, allowing startup founders to create accounts via email or through wallet connections. This integration ensures secure and flexible access to the platform.