Recommended companies from Alex Brussell at Forerunner Ventures
recommended companies to join
✨ Hey there! This edition is only available to friends of next play subscribers. Joining friends of next play gives you access to our private Slack community and discounts to our favorite products. Join friends of next play today.
To help you find interesting companies we asked our friends Alex Brussell from Forerunner Ventures for recommendations on some of their portfolio companies they would check out and explore if they were in the job market. Below you’ll find their answers, as well as explanations as to what makes each company particularly special.
Fay:
Founded by Sam Faycurry and Mark Stefanski, Fay is a marketplace that's scaling in-network dietician care, so consumers everywhere can access the best nutritionists in an easy format that's fully covered by insurance. It’s one of my favorite examples of a digitally-native franchise, where both consumers and service providers win. Fay also operates with a uniquely flat organizational structure — there are only two titles: “operations” and “engineering.” Their growth has been pretty astounding. Apply for roles at Fay here.
Founded by Nick Ornitz and Shannon Kay, Topline Pro is an AI platform that helps home services pros market their businesses and operationalize the back of the house so they can focus more on their craft. When Forerunner was first considering this investment, I spent a lot of time talking to their customers, and I don’t know if I’ve ever met a group so enthusiastic. It’s easy to see why — with their tools, many pros have more than doubled their income. And with that, Topline Pro is on track to more than 10x revenue since our Series A by the middle of this year. Apply for roles at Topline Pro here.
Stan:
Founded by John Hu and Vitalii Dodonov, Stan is the easiest way to make money online — helping anyone who wants to work for themselves achieve success. There were 100 reasons why Stan could have been a terrible investment in 2021 — crazy competitive and over-hyped category, just two people and an idea, very limited capital raised, and a lot of shitposting. But John and Vitalii deeply understand their customers because as creators themselves, they are their customers. Their authenticity, creativity, and willingness to take bold bets have paid off: today Stan serves tens of thousands of customers and has grown to over $30M ARR in ~2 years, breaking away as the clear category leader. Apply for roles at Stan here.