Pinterest designer, Sequoia backed AI assistants, Chief of Staff at Writer
breakout startups, early teams hiring, and co-founder searches
✨ 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.
To start 2025, next play hosts in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Lisbon, Austin, Boston and 20+ others will be organizing in-person gatherings. To be considered for an invitation, please make sure you’ve filled out the main next play application. We are expanding to include as many people as possible - but unfortunately space is limited. Email us hi@nextplay.so if you have any questions.
Co-founders / people to jam with:
Kieran started and scaled three companies to millions of customers and exits, most recently the AI fashion stylist Thread (YC S12, 3 million customers). He's exploring new startup ideas in consumer AI / health and looking for a cofounder. You can reach out here: kierano@gmail.com.
Charles previously founded Poised, an AI voice communication coach acquired by Deepgram and was also a PM at Amazon Alexa. He’s looking for collaborators as he explores AI voice use cases. You can reach out here: charleshua+nextplay@gmail.com.
Keith previously led Pinterest’s core design teams and was a senior global creative director at Nike. He’s working on a new project that helps you catalog and showcase your things (so you can build an archive, get appraisals, insurance, and more). He’s looking for a co-founder (ideally technical). You can reach out here: keithbormuth@gmail.com.
Pete most recently worked at Square where he talked to thousands of local businesses. He’s now looking for a collaborator as he explores building a new company that helps brick & mortar merchants with payment processing. You can reach out here: pete@savewithuvid.com.
Looking to be featured in the newsletter? Email us: hi@nextplay.so with some context.
Early teams:
Nico from Dust is building AI assistants that connect to your company’s knowledge base to help you get more done, faster. They are backed by Sequoia and are hiring GTM people (e.g. sales) and engineers (priority being in SF). You can reach out here: nico@dust.tt.
Laura and Anna from Ceramic are building AI/ML infrastructure. Their small teams includes the founder of Gradient Ventures and a former Google VP of AI/Engineering. They are looking for founding team members, especially backend engineers. You can learn more here and reach out here: laura@ceramic.ai.
Oren from Telos is building an ai-powered life coach that helps you build healthy habits. They’ve already set up partnerships with college campuses and are starting to grow. He’s looking for founding team members, especially an engineer and a designer. You can learn more here and reach out here: oren@heytelos.com.
Máuhan recently left Spotify where he was the Head of Innovation. He’s now building Shibuya, an interactive music platform powered by AI. They just raised a seed round and are hiring founding team members including a head of product, designers, and engineers. You can learn more and apply here.
Luke from Context is building a “software company to make web3 more fun.” They are hiring a protocol researcher, a decentralized systems engineer, and an operations lead. You can learn more and apply here.
Sneha from Spur is building AI browser agents to automate software testing. They recently raised from First Round and YC and are working with customers like Rippling and Perplexity. They are hiring founding team members, especially an engineer. You can learn more here and reach out here: sneha@tryspur.dev.
Sahil, the founder of Gumroad, is hiring a growth marketer. You can learn more here and reach out here: sahil@gumroad.com.
New Lantern is building an ai-powered radiologist. They recently raised $19m. They are hiring in sales and engineering. You can learn more and apply here.
Alyssa from Fello is building a peer support platform. They are hiring a growth marketer and a product manager. You can learn more and apply here.
Rahul from Julius is building an AI data analyst. They crossed 2m+ users and over 8m data visualizations in 18 months. They’re hiring for growth roles. You can learn more and apply here.
Spyri from Dealops is hiring a business operations lead and a founding engineer. Dealops is an optimized deal pricing platform for startups and sales reps. You can learn more and apply here.
Reminder to check out friends of next play ($10/month). When you join, you get hundreds of dollars worth of discounts to our favorite products (like Perplexity, Granola, and more). You also get access to a private forum, a co-founder database, virtual events, and several other perks. You can join here.
Scaling startups:
Tyler from Beehiiv is building a newsletter platform. They raised a $33m Series B a few months back and are scaling quickly. They are hiring for customer success and engineering. You can learn more and apply here.
Shensi from Merge is building a unified API so companies can get access 100s of data sources easily (for accounting, CRM, HRIS, and more). They are hiring software engineers, account executives, and customer success people. You can learn more and apply here.
Elise is building an ai assistant for property managers. They are hiring for 47 roles including a director of customer success. You can learn more and apply here.
Compound is building a tech-enabled wealth manager. They crossed $2.5 billion in assets under management a few months ago and are hiring engineers, salespeople, and client service. You can learn more and apply here.
Delian from Varda is building microgravity-enabled life sciences company that processes materials in orbit and returns them to Earth. They are hiring for nearly every role: operations, engineering, business development, government affairs, and more. You can learn more and apply here.
Doug from Safara just raised a $14m seed round from Sequoia. They are building a hotel booking platform that gives you rewards. They are hiring engineers. You can learn more and apply here.
Nabla is building an AI assistant to free clinicians from the burden of documentation. They are hiring backend engineers, customer support people, marketers, and salespeople. You can learn more and apply here.
Naeem from Moonvalley is trying to build a video foundation model for creative work. They recently raised $70m. They are hiring researchers and a customer success person. You can learn more and apply here.
Uttam from Alchemy is building web3 infrastructure. They are hiring for a wide variety of roles: social media, product, engineering, IT, and more. You can learn more and apply here.
Rahul from RapidCanvas is building a no-code AI builder for businesses. They recently raised a Series A from Accel and other investors to scale up their global remote team. You can learn more and apply here.
Ranjan fom Bureau is building a fraud prevention solution. They recently raised a Series B and are hiring across the board for 30+ roles. You can learn more and apply here.
May from Writer is hiring a chief of staff for the CEO office at Writer. They are looking for someone to work on important internal and external projects. You can learn more and reach out here.
Email us hi@nextplay.so if you have any interesting roles you would like for us to consider sharing.
Investing and other:
James from Bloomberg Beta is hiring an associate investor. You can learn more and apply here.
Sound Ventures is hiring a senior accountant. You can learn more and apply here.
Mir from Soma Capital is hiring a principal investor. You can learn more and apply here.
01 Advisors is hiring an associate investor. You can learn more and apply here.
Anand from CBInsights is hiring research analyst to focus on education. You can learn more and apply here.
Note:
Check out next play on TikTok and Instagram. If you have any interest in contributing, feel free to email us: hi@nextplay.so.
You may like this essay on “revealing questions” - questions to use when interviewing people (as both a hiring manager and as a candidate).
Thanks for being a part of next play - email us hi@nextplay.so if there’s anything we can do to be extra useful.