next play opportunities 11/12

Runway spotlight, Figma engineer, podcast with Peter Yang

✨ 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.

Spotlight:

What is it really like to work at the fastest-growing companies? We try to answer that question in our Spotlight section. Today’s spotlight is on Runway Financial. Thanks to the Runway team for sharing behind-the-scenes details and supporting next play.

Much of the inspiration for Siqi Chen (their founder/CEO) in starting Runway came from personal experience that led him to asking the question: “Why hasn't dealing with financials in a company changed at all? In a world where Figma and Notion exist, that seems like an opportunity. And so we started Runway.”

Here’s what we learned from talking to people at Runway:

• Giving a shit is their number one cultural value. “Give a shit -- it shows up in all the little details. An intrinsic need to make the product better (found a bug? fix it). A customer has a problem? Whoever is online even if not on the CX team will respond and try to unblock them. The people team planning a company offsite? They make sure it is unique, memorable, and accounts for the various people preferences and backgrounds. Hiring a new candidate? Let's make sure they have enough time and space to ask questions and learn about the company. Give a shit is really hard to teach. It is the fire within each of us to have impact.”

• There’s a culture focused on self-improvement. “I felt empowered to do the nerve-wracking thing of asking our CEO if I could give him some personal feedback. He said yes, we had a more direct and honest conversation than we'd ever had, he adjusted his behavior, and he was extremely appreciative that I'd been confident enough to bring it up. This is true leadership to me.”

• They place a lot of emphasis on transparency. “The leadership team is also extremely transparent, more so than I've ever seen. Every year, we participate in a culture survey with an outside party which includes specific questions about the leadership team. Results are compiled and then shared in full with the team to evaluate what can be done better. I love that we do this and think it's a huge effort in building trust.”

• Many teammates really empathize with the problem - some were even customers before joining. “I had the benefit of being an early Customer of Runway when I was running Finance at a different startup. I saw first hand how using Runway helps companies make better decisions. I loved the product and the team so much that I decided to join the Crew!”

• They are inspired by the complexity of the problems they need to solve. “The design problems and philosophies at Runway are fascinating. We’re building something as powerful and flexible as Excel, but also as intuitive and easy-to-use as Notion… So what are the right abstractions and primitives to expose to the user? The design questions that arise when building what we call “a tool for thought,” which allows users to easily express their thinking in Runway, have been a ton of fun!”

• There is a lot more you can learn about Runway and the way they work here.

Runway is hiring for roles across engineering and go-to-market (which includes a range of positions, for example: account executive, customer experience manager, and growth manager). You can learn more and apply here.

Co-founder opportunities:

• Sam and Yousef both have technical PhDs and are currently running an AI consultancy called Artanis. They are looking for a third co-founder to help them explore AI product ideas. You can reach out here: sam@artanis.ai.

• An anonymous engineer at Figma is looking to connect with others interested in AI security and privacy infrastructure. Respond to hi@nextplay.so and we’ll try to connect you.

• Wesley previously started a YC-backed company and sold it to a fintech unicorn. He’s looking for someone to collaborate with him on a new conversational AI/e-commerce business. You can reach out here: yo@wesleymagness.com.

• Aditya spent the past five years working on the core team at the Ethereum Foundation. He’s been prototyping several gen ai projects and is looking for someone to work with. You can reach out here: i@adiasg.me.

• Abhay previously started a YC company and has been a PM at several fast growing startups. He’s exploring building vertical AI in “overlooked industries” like PE and supply chain. He’s looking for people to work with. You can reach out here: abhaymalik14@gmail.com.

• John is a product designer whose helped several Sequoia and YC backed startups go from zero to one. He wants to work on some new early stage projects. You can reach out here: johngfalcone@gmail.com.

• Chandler is a psychologist and is working on Therapy Lab, a mainly virtual therapy practice live in 9 states. She’s looking to partner with someone (ideally technical) to help scale the patient journey. You can reach out here: chandler@therapylab.com.

Early teams:

• Thomas previously founded & sold Trim (which now has over 3 million users). He’s now building a marketplace that builds technology for the government, and he’s already seeing revenue traction one month in. He’s looking for people to join the founding team. You can reach out here: thomasjcsmyth@gmail.com.

• Jonathon from Air Garage is hiring a founding product manager. They are building an operating system for real estate, starting with parking lots and parking garages. You can learn more and apply here.

• Rahul from Assured is hiring a director of licensing. They are building software to automate provider operations. You can learn more and apply here.

• Molly from Marble Health is building a platform to help increase access to timely, preventative mental healthcare. They are hiring a founding growth lead. You can learn more and apply here.

• Viraj from Finch is building AI-enabled paralegals for consumer law, starting with plaintiff personal injury firms. They are hiring founding engineers and an operations lead. You can reach out here: viraj@finchlegal.com.

• Rahul from Julius is building an ai-powered data analyst. They already have served over 1 million users. They are hiring someone to work on growth marketing. You can learn more and apply here.

• Sarah from Stable is building a platform that helps companies get a virtual business address and mailbox. They are hiring a head of sales as they hope to scale beyond their already 6000 customers. You can learn more and apply here.

• Scott from Spellbook is building an ai copilot for lawyers (now used by over 2,500 law firms). They are hiring a customer success manager. You can learn more and apply here.

• James from Draftwise is building a platform to help lawyers write better contracts while saving time. They are hiring an account executive. You can learn more and apply here.

• Mike from Vesta is hiring a software engineer. They are building mortgage infrastructure that makes purchasing a home easier. You can learn more and apply here.

• Reveri’s mission is to help people overcome pain/stress/anxiety by using science-backed hypnotherapy. They are hiring for their marketing team. You can learn more and apply here.

• [Friends of next play only] Here’s a list of 30 breakout startups under 30 people.

Hiring or know of any opportunities we should feature in the newsletter? Email us hi@nextplay.so.

Scaling startups:

• Parker from Numeric is building AI-powered accounting automation so that accountants can be more productive. They just raised a $28m Series A and are hiring for every role. You can learn more and apply here.

• George from Hebbia is hiring a data partnerships manager. They are building an AI platform for knowledge work, and recently announced a $130m round of funding. You can learn more and apply here.

• Julia from Langchain is hiring a people operations person. Langchain helps developers build LLM apps quickly. You can learn more and apply here.

• Regent is building the sea glider - the first electric flying machine that hopes to transport commercial passengers. They are hiring a supply chain manager. You can learn more and apply here.

• ScholarshipOwl is hiring a b2b product manager. Their platform helps students access scholarships. You can learn more and apply here.

• Jared from Foundry is hiring a software engineer. Their missions is to orchestrate the world’s compute. They recently announced $80m in funding. You can learn more and apply here.

• Tracy from TigerEye is an AI Analyst for your go-to-market team. They are hiring a sales development representative. You can learn more and apply here.

• Airops is a platform that helps you build automated content engines. They are hiring a recruiter (and for many other roles across the company). You can learn more and apply here.

Investing and other:

• Andrew from a16z is hiring someone to lead their LA tech ecosystem and develop an events program. This can be part or full-time. You can learn more here.

• Lenny runs one of the business world’s biggest newsletters and podcasts. He’s looking for a product designer to help him part-time. You can learn more and apply here.

• Maya is the founder of Spice Capital. She’s got an opportunity for someone looking to connect someone to a strategy/ops role. You can learn more here.

• Sarah from Upfront Ventures is hiring an associate to work on data and machine learning. You can learn more and apply here.

• Pillar VC is hiring an executive director to manage their AI in science fellowship program. You can learn more and apply here.

• Capital Factory is hiring a venture analyst. You can learn more and apply here.

Note:

• We just launched the “friends of next play platform.” It includes a private database with under-the-radar startups and job opportunities — easily filterable by location, industry, and more. You can join friends of next play here ($10/month) and you’ll also get invites to virtual events, a directory of 100s of collaborators, and additional content sent to you weekly. We appreciate your support and hope to talk soon.

• Our latest podcast with Peter Yang is now live. He’s currently a product lead at Roblox and has spent time at Twitch, Reddit, and Meta crafting products. We talk about his journey joining these companies, growing his newsletter to 90K+ readers, and more. You can listen here.

• We really appreciate any feedback (negative and positive) - what do you think about next play? Email: hi@nextplay.so. (Made our day the other day hearing from a few people that next play was their favorite newsletter…how can we make it yours?)

• Please give this post a like/comment on Substack, we really appreciate it!

Ben + team