Plaid founder, Mr. Beast, Uber AI product manager

opportunities at 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.

Note:

With the recent updates, we are hearing very positive feedback from people who have joined friends of next play:

• “The Slack group is an amazing way to connect with like-minded peers and get feedback on my ideas. It makes me feel less alone as I am thinking about what’s next. Really high quality conversations.”

• “Joining friends of next play was a no-brainer because the discounts outweigh the costs for me.” (by the way, we just added new perks like Lindy, Softr, and Roboflow)

• “I originally signed up for friends of next play because it gives me access to an opportunities database that I can filter by location. I also enjoy the community.”

If this sounds interesting, we would love for you to try it out. You can join friends of next play here (and get access to Slack, discounts on our favorite products, additional content, and more!).

Co-founders and people to jam with:

• Kyle is a product manager at Uber where he works on Uber’s AI platform. Before that he was a software engineer at Amazon (Alexa AI) and Meta (Reality Lab). He’s building a new platform to 10x people’s efficiency in analyzing user interviews and is looking for a co-founder. You can reach out here: hello@ucentric.ai.

• Max previously spent 5 years at Spotify building predictive models for labels. He recently left to work on SONAR, an AI talent scouting platform for record labels and agencies. They're running a pilot program with Red Bull in LA and shipped an MVP last month to 150+ music professionals. He's looking for a cofounder to accelerate their growth. You can reach out here: maxime.laharrague@gmail.com.

• Vinay previously worked at Meta’s Reality Labs and on Google's Assistant and Meet product teams. He’s now working on a new platform at the intersection of wealth management and legal tech. He’s looking for co-founders. You can reach out here: vinay@getlegaci.com.

• Nir previously sold two online businesses and led an NGO with 60+ on-site volunteers. He’s working on a new fintech marketplace and is looking for a co-founder. You can reach out here: israelonlinentrepreneur@gmail.com.

• Guillaume is building Basalt, a platform to help people rapidly test and deploy AI features. They already have customers and are looking for a “business co-founder.” You can reach out here: mat@getbasalt.ai.

• Chessin is looking for a collaborator to work on Slé, an app that incentivizes behavioral change around commuting. They were incubated at Harvard and work closely with the Mckinsey Center for Future Mobility. You can reach out here: chessin@movewithsle.com.

• Is anyone working on / interested in building products or services to help job-seekers? Send us an email: hi@nextplay.so perhaps we could collaborate.

Early teams:

• Will previously founded Nova AI, which sold to Highspot. His new company is building an AI marketing agent product for businesses in non-tech industries. They are hiring a founding engineer. You can reach out here: william.dinkel@gmail.com.

• Billie from Crucible is hiring a founding engineer. They are building a safer and less expensive fertility platform. You can reach out here: laura@crucible.care.

• Leonard from Haize Labs is building a dynamic testing platform for AI systems. The company has customers such as OpenAI and Anthropic and is backed by General Catalyst. They are hiring generalists and engineers. You can learn more here and reach out here: leonard@haizelabs.com.

• Annette from Amdahl is building a platform that helps make small marketing teams radically more powerful. They recently helped 2 customers 10x their growth. They are looking for a data infrastructure engineer. You can reach out here: annette@amdahl.co.

• Bixby is building a platform that helps general contractors get work done faster. They are hiring a head of engineering. You can learn more here and reach out here: sm@getbixby.com.

• An anonymous VC who previously worked at places like Attentive and American Express recently launched a product consulting firm that helps startups design and build quickly. They are hiring designers and engineers. You can learn more and reach out here: founders@codeconcierge.com.

• Greenlite is building ai agents for compliance teams. They are hiring GTM people and engineers. You can learn more and apply here.

• Aligned Marketplace is a b2b2c employer health benefits company that connects employees to a national marketplace of advanced primary care providers. They launched last year and raised an $8m seed round. They are hiring a staff engineer and a data engineer. You can learn more and apply here.

• Gradient is building an ai operating system for financial services. They are hiring engineers and a deployment strategist. You can learn more and apply here.

• A team out of Stanford and Together AI is building software to transform government operations. They already have paying customers and are hiring a founding engineer. You can reach out here: shannon@getchief.ai.

• Folk is building an all-in-one CRM that helps sales team move faster. They recently raised a $9m seed. They are hiring an account executive and a software engineer. You can learn more and apply here.

Scaling startups:

• Dani from Jam is building a platform to help people fix software bugs faster. They have 175,000+ users and recently raised a Series A. They are hiring a senior product manager. You can reach out here.

• Noah from PlayAI is building a voice interface for LLMs. They recently raised a $21m round and are hiring engineers and marketers. You can learn more and apply here.

• Jasmin from Omnea is building a purchasing management platform. They just raised $20m from Accel and First Round and are hiring for nearly every “business” role - including a customer success manager, account executives, and commercial associates. You can learn more here and apply here: jasmin.h@omnea.co.

• Dwayne from Anterior is building an ai-powered platform to make clinicians materially more efficient. They raised $23.6m in funding and are hiring for nearly every department: marketing, design, clinical operations, and especially a product engineer. You can learn more and apply here.

• William previously founded Plaid (which has a $13b+ valuation). Now he’s building Column, a developer infrastructure bank. They are hiring for every role: engineering, talent, growth, compliance, sales, etc. You can learn more and apply here.

• MagicSchool is a generative AI platform that’s used by 4m+ teachers from all over the world. They are hiring a senior customer success manager. You can learn more and apply here.

• Tommy from Rho’s revenue team is hiring a growth marketer, community leader, marketing operations person, and front end designer. Rho is a business banking platform. You can learn more and apply here.

• Jesse from Decagon is hiring for revenue operations and business operations. They are building ai agents for customer service and have raised over $100m. You can learn more and apply here.

• Mr.Beast’s production company is hiring: designers, operations people, producers, accountants, and photographers. You can learn more and apply here.

• Headway is hiring for nearly every role: sales, engingeering, customer support, etc. They are building a new mental health care system that hopefully everyone can access. You can learn more and apply here.

• Claire from Acorns is hiring a lead product manager. Acorns is an investment and saving platform. You can learn more and apply here.

Are you hiring for any roles? Looking for a co-founder? Send us an email hi@nextplay.so we would love to be helpful.

Investing and other:

• Another anonymous investor is looking for a chief of staff. You can fill out this form and we’ll try to connect you.

• Polychain Capital is hiring a research associate. You can learn more and apply here.

• Katie from Khosla Ventures is hiring an investor. You can learn more and apply here.

• Softbank is hiring an investment associate. You can learn more and apply here.

• Partners Capital is hiring a senior associate. You can learn more and apply here.

Featured resources:

• Questions for VCs: When you raise money for your startup, you’ll typically have to answer lots of questions from venture capitalists. Sometimes, and this usually happens towards the end of the conversation, the VC will ask: “Do you have any questions for me?” Here are some interesting questions (they may make you laugh).

• Thompson’s note on finding your purpose: Thompson’s letter, found in Letters of Note, offers “some of the most thoughtful and profound advice I’ve ever encountered for those of us feeling a little lost.”

• Going from operator to investor: “What do you wish you knew before transitioning from operator to investor? How would you recommend someone make the switch? What has been surprising (good and bad)?”

Note:

• What can we do to make next play more useful? What should we be doing more of? Less of? Send us ideas, feedback, or just say hello: hi@nextplay.so - we respond to every message! (And we are so so grateful for you being involved in the community).

• We have dozens of people from the next play community—everyone from startups executives to staff operators to serial founders—volunteering their time to possibly try and help you on your career journey. You can apply to get access to office hours here (space is limited as this is an entirely free/volunteer-led initiative). (If you’d like to become a volunteer, you can also apply here).

• Reminder - please continue engaging and reaching out to as many opportunities as you find interesting, but do avoid spamming people in the newsletter/community. If you are reported for this too many times, we will (and have had to) remove you.

• We would really appreciate it if you could like/comment on this newsletter through Substack, and share it with your friends. Thanks again for your support!

Talk soon!

Ben + next play team