Most new AI apps are not worth your storage. A minority are worth your workflow. The skill of 2026 is telling them apart fast, and the data helps: our database tracks 513 new AI startups from this year's cohort, each with founders, a category and, in 12 cases, verified revenue. This guide is the two minute judgement routine we apply to all of them.
1. Know where new apps actually launch
Three sources produce almost everything worth finding. Accelerator batches: 484 of our 513 launched through YC's four 2026 intakes. Marketplaces: 29 listed on TrustMRR and Indie Hackers, small and revenue first. And the platforms that track both, this site included, where a launch becomes a permanent, searchable listing instead of a one day post.
| Launch source | Startups in our 2026 database |
|---|---|
| Y Combinator 2026 batches | 484 |
| TrustMRR and Indie Hackers listings | 29 |
| Total tracked | 513 |
2. The two minute check
Founders first: 474 of the 513 name theirs, and a named team with a relevant past beats an anonymous landing page every time. Category second: an app in a crowded shelf (agents, 137) needs a sharper one line promise than one in an empty shelf (data, 8). Proof third: revenue, a live product, a batch behind it. Our FreeTier Finder applies the same evidence rule to established tools and their free tiers, and the startup platform search applies it to the cohort.
3. Install in trials, not in piles
One new app a week, used on real work, beats twenty installs on launch day. Keep a watchlist in your tracker, promote from it slowly, and let the database remember the 500 you skipped. Discovery is a filter, not a collection.
4. The weekly routine that makes it stick
Friday, ten minutes. Scan the week's new listings in your two main categories. Promote one to a real trial on real work. Demote anything you installed and never opened. Check the revenue board once a month, because a startup that starts reporting revenue has crossed a line most never cross. That is the whole system: a database for memory, a routine for judgement, and a delete key with no sentimentality.
Source: AIToolGuide 2026 startups database (513 AI companies), compiled from Y Combinator 2026 batch listings and the TrustMRR and Indie Hackers marketplaces.