next play opportunities 7/9
side projects event, incubations, latest podcast
Hey,
This is next play’s newsletter, where we share under-the-radar opportunities to help you figure out what’s next in your journey.
A few updates:
We are investing more time in the community which means you can expect to see more resources (most of which will be free). If you have particular ideas, please do reach out (we follow up with every response).
We are also hosting our very first virtual gathering later this month. For this one, Ben will lead a conversation about “Launching side projects.” There will also be breakout rooms where you’ll have the opportunity to share ideas, get feedback, and meet new people. You will have to be a “friend of next play” ($10/month) to get access (which also includes loads more useful things). You can join here.
Co-founder searches / people to jam with:
Ryan Hoover is looking for someone to be the GM of Signature Block, a newsletter that reaches over 55K subscribers (primarily fund managers)— a substantial audience within this niche, collectively managing an estimated $30B+ in AUM. They are looking for an owner, not an employee, with vision. You can learn more and apply here.
Saul Singer is co-author of the NYT bestsellers "Start-Up Nation" and "The Genius of Israel." He is looking for someone to be CEO/co-founder of his new startup: a personal AI (like in the movie Her) optimized for human happiness. Reach out to hi@nextplay.so and connect you if it’s a fit.
Anthony Pompliano (1.6 million twitter followers) is looking for CEOs to help incubate new companies. You can learn more here.
Neal Agarwal is looking for a freelance brand/web designer to work on some unhinged projects with him on neal.fun. Think Adult Swim meets CoolMathGames. Neal is a very creative engineer who has launched several now viral projects. Message him if you are interested.
Abizar is founding Cottage, an AI-based mental health app for kids. In the past, he’s been a founding engineer at 2 startups and has worked with organizations like Facebook, IDEO, and Kleiner Perkins. His ideal co-founder is a CTO based in San Francisco, but he'd love to hear from anyone interested.
Yonatan, founder/CEO of Nim, is hiring a "cult analyst" to help him build an early-stage venture fund (already well funded) focused on internet movements, communities, and cults. Preferably someone obsessed with communities, culture, and a passion for crypto. Reach out directly by email yoni9091@gmail.com.
Early team:
Ryan from Primer is hiring for several roles ranging from marketing to engineering. Primer is working to rebuild the US K-12 education system (starting with microschools). You can learn more here and email Ryan: r@primer.com.
Christian from Astranis is looking for a “badass generalist” to report directly to him. Astranis is building small, low-cost telecommunications satellites to connect the four billion people on Earth who currently do not have access to the internet. This is the type of role that may make sense for someone looking to start a company / be a CEO one day. You can DM Christian here.
Byrne from The Diff is hiring an associate. The Diff is is a newsletter exploring the technologies, companies, and trends that are making the future high-variance. Posts range from in-depth company profiles, applied financial theory, strategy breakdowns and macroeconomics. Byrne is a brilliant writer and thinker (our opinions, but go read his stuff and you will probably agree!). Reach out to Byrne here.
Cyrus from Argon is hiring a founding engineer as they are building AI for pharma intelligence. They just closed a $5.5m seed round, and have a waitlist of over 1000 customers to serve. You can learn more about the role here.
John from Leland is hiring a special projects intern (that will report directly to the CEO). Leland is a marketplace for career coaching and classes. Apply here.
Alex from Finley is hiring a sales operations analyst. Finley streamlines capital markets operations for a range of customers spanning fintech startups to publicly traded lenders. You can learn more about the role here.
Sahil from Typo* is hiring a senior iOS engineer to join as technical lead, and a designer who loves prototyping. Typo* is a messaging platform for creative teams with media intensive workflows. You can learn more and apply here.
Justin from TrueMed is hiring a senior engineer. Truemed enables tax-free HSA/FSA spending on metabolically healthy items. They are growing quickly and recently signed hundreds of online stores and thousands of gyms. Email recruiting@truemed.com with the subject line “Application for Senior Engineer”.
Jack from Shake is hiring for two founding roles: engineer and designer. They are trying to build a new kind of experience in the sports and entertainment space. Their mobile app allows friends to compete in free-to-play handshake “bets” with sponsored stakes. You can email jack: Jack@playshake.io.
Walter from Sacra is trying to build the information infrastructure for the private markets. They are backed by Tribe Capital and 30+ operators and angels. They are hiring a full stack engineer. You can learn more and apply here.
Artisan is building AI-agents that work alongside your team to help you be more efficient. They are currently growing more than 50% month over month. They are hiring across the board — including account executives and customer success. You can apply here.
Nicolas from Attio is hiring a finance manager. Attio is building a flexible and data-driven CRM. Think Linear for CRM. You can learn more and apply here.
Ryan is scaling Suppli, an all-in-one digital payments platform for construction suppliers. They are looking for backend engineers. Contact daniel@audacious.co to learn more.
Venture roles:
a16z is hiring a business development partner. They will manage and build relationships with the world’s top technology organizations, including top infrastructure, consumer electronics, semiconductors, SaaS, and other important technology sectors. You can apply here.
A seed fund in NYC is hiring a platform and events lead. They host high-profile themed events around topics ranging from Art and AI to conversations with scientists leading the latest breakthrough in gene editing and longevity. You can learn more and apply here.
ICONIQ Capital is hiring a people operations associate. Someone to help lead people internally related initiatives for their growth team. You can learn more and apply here.
Breakout startups:
Are you looking for a customer-facing role at a fast-growing startup? We know a few stealth companies (backed by funds like Sequoia) hiring account executives and salespeople. Send us an email hi@nextplay.so with some context about you and we’ll see if we can connect.
Dan from Aescape is hiring a Director of Partnerships and a partnerships manager. Aescape is building intelligent massage therapy to help people live better, longer. They have raised a $30m+ Series A. The role is based in LA (and you must enjoy massages). You can reach out to Dan here.
Anima grew from $0 to $1m ARR in 6 months (2022), and is now on track to hit $10m ARR by end of year. Their mission is to deliver precision medicine to everyone in the world, within 24 hours. They are hiring a growth person to build out internal tools, automations, and processes. You can apply here.
Shayne from Polymarket is hiring a growth marketer (and for several other roles). Polymarket is the world’s largest prediction market. They let people bet their beliefs on the most highly-debated topics, and generate the most accurate real-time forecasts on the internet in the process. You can learn more and apply here.
Adeel from MagicSchool is building a generative AI platform for teachers. They are 1 year old, and already have more than 2m+ teachers on their platform. They are hiring a community and social media manager to help them scale (you can see their wall of love here). You can learn more about the role here.
Jordan from Comulate is hiring an implementations lead for their revenue automation platform for insurance brokers. With less than a 20 person team, they have gone from zero to millions of ARR in less than 18 months. Their customers describe their product as “the best thing since sliced bread” and "changing their lives." You can learn more about the role here.
Julia from Langchain is hiring a sales engineer. A fit for people interested in AI and working at a fast-paced startup (they closed more new revenue in May than all of last year). You can learn more and apply here.
Spellbound helps brands increase their email conversion rates (by embedding interacting user experiences). They work with brands like Feastables and Recess, and are backed by angels including the founders of Notion, Github, and more. They are hiring to help scale their product/engineering efforts. You can learn more and apply here.
Are you hiring? Looking for a cofounder? Respond to this email if you want to learn more about a new thing we’re working on to hopefully be really really helpful to startups that are hiring.
next play note:
next play is now hosting in-person gatherings in 15+ cities around the world. Want to host a gathering in your city? Fill out this form. We’d love to see if we can make it work.
We published our latest podcast episode with Merci Grace who shares her journey on being a repeat founder, former growth leader at Slack, venture capitalist at Lightspeed. We talk about career transitions, evaluating options, shutting down a company, and more. Subscribe to “next play” on Spotify/Apple Podcasts to get future episodes in your feed.
We made a list of surprising but true facts. There is no grand particular reason, but we have a feeling you may find the collection interesting and energy-producing.
Please give this post a like on Substack when you have a chance. We really appreciate it.