Axios PM, AI for air traffic control, Plaid product leader
opportunities at breakout startups, co-founder searches, and early teams hiring
✨ Hey there this is a free edition of next play’s newsletter, where we share under-the-radar opportunities to help you figure out what’s next in your journey.
We heard last week from three people who found new jobs via next play, and one person who met their now co-founder. Let this hopefully be a quick reminder - you are perhaps just one email away from changing your life (for the better!). Please let us know if and how we can help: hi@nextplay.so.
Co-founders and people to jam with:
Dante is a product engineer who has spent the past 10+ years working with Fortune 500 companies and building products used by millions of people. He’s building security and infrastructure software and is looking for a co-founder to help run the business side. Reach out here: dante@onboardbase.com.
Yash previously was a software engineer at Amazon Alexa. He’s now looking for a cofounder as he explores new projects, particularly one in real estate tech. Reach out here: yj1499@nyu.edu.
Paul is a former product manager at Axios who is working on products to help consumers fight information overload. He's looking to meet potential collaborators who are passionate about this problem. You can reach out here: paulsondhi1@gmail.com.
An anonymous software engineer previously was a founding engineer helping a fintech/healthcare company go from zero to millions in revenue. They are looking for people to jam with on new ideas. Reach out here and we’ll try to connect you: hi@nextplay.so.
Ilan wants to build a new dating service - think tech-enabled and highly personalized matchmaking experience. He’s looking for collaborators (as well as beta testers). You can fill out this form here and reach out: ilanszulik@gmail.com.
If you are interested in meeting like-minded people, you may like friends of next play. For $10/month, you get access to our private Slack, invitations to in-person and virtual events, and discounts to our favorite products.
We have many upcoming gatherings you may find interesting (job hunting jam sessions, AI side project building, LinkedIn feedback sessions, and more). You can join here. Hope to chat soon 🙂
Early teams:
Flo from Notis is building a “Voice to Notion” tool that helps you transcribe anything from your phone. They are hiring an AI engineer, a “GTM engineer,” and a content producer. Learn more here and reach out here: flo@mindtheflo.com. (Remote)
Kristian from Enhanced Radar just finished YC and raised an oversubscribed seed round. They are building an AI for air traffic control. They are hiring a founding engineer. Learn more here and reach out here: jobs@enhancedradar.com. (SF)
Jono from InHouse is building an ai-powered interior designer for renters. They are hiring a Director of Ecommerce to manage their multi-brand catalog, Learn more and apply here. (NYC)
An anonymous group of 3 operators just closed a pre-seed round to build ai-powered healthcare clinic operations software. They already have dozens of customers. They are looking for their first employee, especially a founding full stack engineer. Reach out to hi@nextplay.so and we’ll try to connect you. (London)
An anonymous product leader at Plaid is building a stealth vertical AI fintech company that just raised a large seed round. They are now hiring early team members, especially a founding engineer. Reach out to hi@nextplay.so and we’ll try to connect you. (NYC)
Achyut from Kay is building AI co-workers that eliminate repetitive data entry in insurance operations. They are growing 120% MoM and hiring for founding GTM and engineering. Learn more here and reach out here: achyut@kay.ai. (NYC)
Dar from Causal is building AI to try and predict the weather. They just raised a $6m seed round and are hiring founding team members, including a “create your own role” and research engineers. Learn more here. (SF)
Mads from Parahelp building an ai-powered customer support agent with customers like Framer, Perplexity, and Replit. They are hiring a founding customer ops person. Learn more and apply here. (SF)
ConductorOne is hiring account executives and product managers. They are building an identity governance platform. Learn more and apply here. (Remote, SF, Portland)
Brady from Sandtable is building a defense tech company that “places the power of simulation into allied warfighters hands.” They just raised a pre-seed round. They are hiring founding team members. Learn more here and reach out here: brady@sandtable.co. (Remote)
Here’s a list of recommended companies from Alex at Forerunner Ventures.
Scaling startups:
Colleen from Unified Vision has raised $200 million and reached over $40 million in revenue. They are building AI agents that help healthcare companies increase operating margin by reducing admin work. They are hiring all levels of engineers (CTO, Principal, Staff, etc.) as well as a head of partnerships and head of engineering. Learn more here and reach out here: colleen.neary@unifiedvision.ai. (SF, NYC)
Lindsey from Base Power Company has raised $75 million to build a modern energy company. They are hiring for 46 roles, including a visual designer, business operations, hardware engineers, and more. Learn more here and reach out here: lindsey@basepowercompany.com. (Austin)
Flo from Lindy 2x’d revenue in just the last 2 months. They are building the “Zapier of AI” and are hiring a head of sales, account executives, technical customer success manager, and product designer (as they just raised $52m!). Learn more here and reach out here: flo@lindy.ai. (SF)
SweatPals grew 10x in 2023 and 14x in 2024 so far. Their mission is to make fitness more social, accessible, and rewarding. They are hiring salespeople across the US, as well as a growth marketing manager. Learn more here. (Remote)
Jay from Eve is building a legal AI agent that recently raised $47m. They are hiring a director of demand generation, as well as several other GTM roles likes account executives and sales ops. Learn more and apply here. (Remote)
Sophie from Empathy has grown 10x in the past 2 years and raised $90m. They are now hiring a head of revenue operations. Empathy is a support system that helps people plan and deal with loss. Learn more and apply here. (NYC)
Ryan from Fello is building a real estate lead generation platform. They are hiring a product marketing manager, a product manager, and a growth marketing manager. Learn more and apply here. (Chicago, SF, NYC)
David from Rune aims to revolutionize military logistics. They are hiring a growth director and a product manager. Learn more and apply here. (DC)
Misbah from Jar is building a microsavings app for Indian consumers. They are hiring an investor relations lead. You can learn more and and reach out here: misbah@changejar.in. (Remote, India)
Yin from Pulley is hiring a product marketing manager as well as 13 other roles like customer success and product management. They are building a modern cap table manager. Learn more and apply here. (Remote)
Fay recently raised a $50m series b to scale their dietitian marketplace. They are hiring for nearly every role: operations, engineering, sales, design. Learn more and apply here. (NYC, SF)
Winston from Harvey has raised over $500m to build a legal AI platform. They are hiring a technical content writer, as well as for 38 other roles across the organization. Learn more and apply here. (Remote, SF, NYC)
Here’s a list of 29 companies hiring that just raised $10m+ rounds.
Hiring? Send us an email: hi@nextplay.so. Would love to help connect you to people.
Investing and other:
Daisy from a16z is hiring an investor to focus on health. Reach out here. (NYC, SF)
Sanford from 25 Madison is hiring several people to help incubate new ventures. This includes a full-stack engineer as well as several entrepreneur’s in residence to work on b2b and AI ideas. Learn more and apply here. (NYC, Hybrid)
Techstars is hiring an investment manager. Learn more here and apply here. (SF)
Founder Collective is hiring an investor. Learn more and apply here. (Boston)
Featured resources:
Key questions to ask a company about their product: How to understand a company’s product approach before you join.
Everything you need to know about negotiating tech offers: Learn from expert compensation negotiator Josh Doody.
Ways to stand out when applying for a startup: a practical guide to getting your name seen by hiring managers.
Note:
It has been amazing hearing so many stories from people in the community. People seemed to really appreciate seeing community member Adrian’s essay about his career journey going from unemployed to receiving tons of job offers. We would love to share more essays/stories like this - if you are interested, send us an outline (the more tactical the better!): hi@nextplay.so.
Thanks again for being part of the community. If you ever have ideas, feedback, etc. - just send us an email: hi@nextplay.so. Hoping to make next play as helpful as possible!
Psssst: we have a big, exciting, hopefully very useful announcement of a new “product” we’ve been working on coming to you in April. Stay tuned - it should be quite helpful to people looking for jobs, looking for candidates, looking for investors, and looking for co-founders (you may start to get the idea ;)).
If you enjoy next play, we would appreciate if you upvoted this post on Substack and shared with friends. Thanks!
another great Ben!
Good one Ben 👏