YC W26 DEMO DAY: 14 COMPANIES HIT $1M ARR BEFORE PRESENTING

Summary from the TLDR Founders newsletter

190 companies presented this week. 85% were AI-first. 14 hit $1M ARR before demo day, the highest ever for any YC batch. The bigger signal here is that the bar for what counts as "early stage" keeps moving. $1M ARR used to be a Series A milestone. Now, it's table stakes for a demo day presentation.