next play helps you figure out what’s next
Welcome!
The goal of next play is to help people figure out what’s next. Broadly, that means helping people navigate the next step in their journey—everything from finding a company to join to introducing them to a co-founder to giving them resources they can use to level up in their careers. Our hope is to build a sort of “momentum engine”—by joining next play, you’ll unlock a whole world of information (for example, things like curated lists of under-the-radar companies) that’ll really set you up for success.
So far, things appear to be working quite well—in just the past few months (late 2024), we’ve gotten dozens of emails from folks telling us how happy they’ve been to find (and accept offers from) opportunities they found on next play. And now the network has tens of thousands of people - people from all sorts of places ranging from Apple to YCombinator startups to new grads around the world. This gives us a lot of energy, and excitement to keep going :).
So what can I expect?
As mentioned, everything we do is in support of helping people figure out what’s next. And most of what we do we make completely free. We try a lot of experiments to make that happen, but here are some of the core pieces of next play you can be on the lookout for:
Curated opportunities - we send a weekly email highlighting under-the-radar opportunities that include everything from founding teams to scaling startups.
Introductions to like-minded peers - we send personalized introductions to people that share your interests.
Invitations to in-person gatherings - there are next play hosts in cities around the world (everywhere from NYC to Bangalore to Seattle to Sydney). They set up in person gatherings that are off the record and confidential - the perfect place to have engaging discussion in thinking about what’s next.
As a free subscriber, you also get access to our podcast library, where you can hear directly from world-class founders, investors, and operators, who recently found their next play, as they dive deep and share their journey and learnings. Spotify / Apple Podcasts.
This sounds great…but I want more?
We hear you. We really do. That’s why we set up friends of next play, our “premium” membership ($10/month) that gives you access to a whole lot MORE:
More opportunities - Your premium membership gives you access to the “next play platform,” which shows you a hand-curated selection of under-the-radar opportunities and companies. The platform makes it easy to filter by important attributes like location, role, and other relevant tags.
More connections - The most common ask we get from next play members is wondering if they can meet other next play members. They’re looking for people to brainstorm projects with, get feedback from, and overall just get to know one like-minded peers (or mentors or advisors or connectors etc.). The friends of next play Directory makes this easy - you can easily add yourself to it and reach out to other members.
More gatherings - Another resource to help you meet others, we also regularly host virtual events that give you an opportunity to connect in different contexts. One event we hosted was with a negotiation expert. Another was just a social to get to know people. Another was around how to pitch yourself in a job interview. Another was around how to come up with ideas. The virtual events (similar to our in-person gatherings) tend to be very interactive with time for Q&A.
More conversations - And in addition to live events, you can also chat with people asynchronously using the private forum. There’s typically a conversation going on most days — covering everything from freelancing best practices to just wanting to connect with others.
More content- We get loads of questions from the friends of next play community — everything from: “how should I choose what company to work at?” to “What questions should I ask my future manager before accepting an offer” — some of which we answer in the form of a longer form essay. We often gather answers from industry experts and then share them with you directly on a regular basis.
And more…more…we’re constantly evolving the friends of next play subscription to be as valuable as possible. You can join here and let us know what you think.
We really appreciate you supporting us as we make next play into an amazing resource for people thinking about what’s next.
You can always reach out if you have any questions or ideas: hi@nextplay.so.
(If you are hiring or would like to get in front of lots of potential hires, please do send us an email as well - hi@nextplay.so)
Ben + next play team
