The best way to discover what’s next—curated opportunities, gatherings, and content.
Joined March 2024
- Tweets762
- Following2
- Followers6.1K
- Likes673
PEOPLE HIRING RIGHT NOW:
@max_spero_
@AkshayNarisetti
@PamirEhsas
@emkara
@dakshgup
@bernhardsson
@williamhockey
@wadefoster
More open roles: nextplayso.substack.com/p/co…
A few companies hiring former founders (2/2):
• @amperoshealth - AI for healthcare revenue recovery (NYC)
• @BuildMonumental - Bricklaying construction robots (Austin)
• @SilnaHealth - Healthcare prior authorization automation (NYC)
• @Ema_Unlimited - AI agents for enterprise workflows (UK Remote)
• @wordware - makers of Sauna, a proactive AI assistant (Bay Area)
• @Picogrid - Defense software connecting sensors and operators (LA)
• @beaconholdings - Holding company for vertical software (Bay Area)
• @RespanAI - Observability and evaluations for AI agents (Alameda, CA)
✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)
Most of the talk about AI is about intelligence. The models keep getting smarter, they’re solving fancy math problems now, etc.
But there’s less talk about execution, which is where things seem to be stuck, especially at big companies.
89% of companies say AI hasn’t changed their productivity at all. It’s not because they don’t want AI (they mostly do). Rather it’s that making AI be actually useful at a large company is just really hard! And you might be able to unlock a lot of value if you could figure out how to make AI useful for these companies.
H Company (@hcompany_ai) is doing just that.
H trains its own AI models that use a computer the way a person does, looking at the screen and clicking and typing, so they can work across old systems without anyone rebuilding them. Then H sends engineers to sit with the customer and get real workflows automated, usually within weeks.
H started in Paris with a $220M seed led by Accel (the largest in Europe at the time) and is now building out its US team in New York and SF, hiring founding FDEs, implementation strategists, and more.
Full essay: nextplayso.substack.com/p/sh…
Thanks to @GautierCloix, Maxime Defauw, Hector Stanley, Mel Murphy, and others for chatting with us.
(10/27) A few of our favorite under-the-radar roles from fast-growing companies:
• @APolakof from @useflai is hiring a business operations lead.
• @rosner_ari from @teamairbase is hiring a business development manager.
• @brandon from @meow is hiring a GTM associate and an account executive.
• @dylanma5621 from @polymath_labs is hiring a founding strategic projects lead.
• @chirag_sf from @hobbes_ai is hiring a founding growth lead and a founding BDR.
• @aaronbaii from @affinitifinance is hiring a chief of staff and an account executive.
• @businessbarista from @tenex_labs is hiring an AI strategist and a full-stack creator.
• @maex242 from @causaprimaai is hiring a founders’ associate and a partnerships lead.
• @cultured from @whop is hiring a narrative strategist and a customer success manager.
• @ddmskr from @ConveoAI is hiring a research impact lead and a head of product marketing.
✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)
A few companies hiring former founders (1/2):
• @RekaAILabs - Multimodal AI models (US Remote)
• @taskletai - AI agents for recurring work (Bay Area)
• @useblacksmith - CI cloud for GitHub Actions (NYC)
• @retellai - AI voice agents for phone calls (Bay Area)
• @dataleapHQ - AI employees for enterprises (Munich)
• @crosbylegal - AI law firm for commercial deals (NYC)
• @LangChain - AI agent development framework (Bay Area)
• @MonacoGTM - AI sales platform replacing CRM (Bay Area)
✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)
He got into OpenAI by applying to a job he found on LinkedIn.
He didn’t know anyone there, had no referral and had no insider connection.
Six months later, his first day at OpenAI was the day ChatGPT hit 1 million users.
Meet Logan Kilpatrick (@OfficialLoganK).
Back in June 2022, Logan was searching LinkedIn for developer relations jobs.
He came across OpenAI and applied, but at the time, the opportunity didn’t work out.
The team wanted someone based in San Francisco, and Logan had just moved back home to Chicago.
So they went their separate ways, but three months later, his future boss reached back out.
OpenAI was now willing to hire someone remotely.
The interview process started again and Logan suddenly had a decision to make.
He also had an opportunity to join IBM and lead work around open source scientific initiatives, something he was genuinely excited about.
OpenAI wasn’t yet the obvious choice it would become and ChatGPT hadn’t launched.
Logan wasn’t even someone who had spent years obsessing over OpenAI’s models.
But there was one thing he couldn’t ignore.
The people.
Everyone he met during the interview process impressed him enough that he decided to take the bet on OpenAI.
Then came his first day, December 2, 2022, when ChatGPT had just hit 1 million users.
Logan joined what suddenly felt like the beginning of something much bigger than the job he had originally applied for.
Looking back, his takeaway is surprisingly simple.
You have to take shots on goal.
He keeps a sticky note above his computer that reads, “Measure in hundreds.”
His point is that we often try something once or twice, get rejected and conclude that it doesn’t work.
But one or even five applications tell you almost nothing.
Sometimes the biggest variable is simply giving yourself enough chances for serendipity to find you.
As Logan puts it, if you’re measuring in hundreds, anything below 100 almost rounds down to zero.
That feels especially relevant in a world where career advice often focuses on finding the perfect hack, introduction or unconventional way in.
Sometimes the unconventional lesson is much simpler. Apply, take the shot, then take another one.
Ben went much deeper with Logan on the Next Play podcast, including what it was like joining OpenAI at the exact moment ChatGPT exploded, choosing OpenAI over IBM, leaving for Google, having 60 to 70 conversations a week while figuring out his next move, and what he learned working at the centre of the AI boom.
Full conversation in the comments.
Listen to the full conversation with Logan Kilpatrick on the Next Play podcast here
nextplayso.substack.com/p/lo…
"I often hear from people that they want a full-time job, rather than freelancing or building a company or going fractional, because it’s “less risky.”
But… Is it really? Is it less risky to have your entire income depend on whether one person likes you? To possibly lock yourself into working somewhere you don’t like? To put all your eggs in one basket?
We tend to accept these risks as necessary. But they aren’t! Not necessarily.
Sure, full-time is one way to get the money, flexibility, and work you want. And it can be great. But there are other ways. And sometimes all you need to try something unconventional is a little push, or a little inspiration.
Wrote about this today: nextplayso.substack.com/p/do…
PEOPLE HIRING RIGHT NOW:
@James_R_Chen
@pierreeliottlal
@renebrandel
@andreinegrau
@hardikk13
@haakamaujla
@ml_angelopoulos
More here: nextplayso.substack.com/p/in…
A few successful bootstrapped companies hiring (2/2):
• @HeyEpic - electronic health record software (Verona, WI / Den Bosch)
• @MacPaw - Mac and iOS software (Boston / Ukraine / Europe / Remote)
• @Readdle - productivity apps for Apple devices (Europe / Europe remote)
• @midjourney - AI image and video generation (Bay Area / NYC / US remote)
• @column - banking infrastructure for fintechs (Bay Area / Dubai / US remote)
• @ahrefs - search and AI marketing platform (Singapore / Bay Area / Cambridge / Tokyo / Remote)
• @stickermule - custom stickers and print products (Albany, NY / Amsterdam, NY / Pisa / Remote)
• @lemlist - multichannel sales outreach platform (Paris / France remote / Canada remote / EU remote)
• @Zoho - cloud business software suite (Austin / Querétaro / Bangkok / Dubai / Middle East and Africa)
✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)
The way people build software has changed completely in the past few years.
What about hardware?
For the people building important hardware (like rockets, cars, and robots), not much has actually changed. Software engineering has undergone this agentic AI revolution and hardware engineering is, for the most part, stuck with the same tools that have been around for decades.
The startup we wrote about this week, Flow Engineering (@flowenghq), is trying to bring the AI revolution to hardware.
They started with requirements (the thousands of rules a machine has to meet), connecting them to the designs, code, and tests, so AI agents can check every change against them. But the path ahead of them is a lot more ambitious.
Rivian and Anduril are customers, plus lots of others you’d recognize that Flow can’t name publicly. And just last month, Flow raised a $50M Series B at a $750M valuation.
Should you join?
Full essay: nextplayso.substack.com/p/sh…
Thanks to @parisingh , Adam Mualem, Gabriel Louis-Kayen, and others for chatting with us about Flow.
(10/20) A few of our favorite under-the-radar roles from fast-growing companies:
• @bryantchou from @ployai is hiring a founding PM.
• @zainmfj from @ghostai is hiring an operations lead.
• @styskin from @KeenableAI is hiring a founding GTM lead.
• @ninklefitz from @tacitlabsco is hiring a strategic operations lead.
• @ChrisParsonson from @SolveIntel is hiring an account executive.
• @parth_badhwar from @lockeai_inc is hiring a member of policy staff.
• @emkara from @simdotai is hiring for founding marketing and sales hires.
• @JasonDBallard from @ICON3DTech is hiring a business development director.
• @nathanbarry from @kit is hiring a senior product manager for content creation.
• @dillonrolnick from @NousResearch is hiring a product manager for Hermes Agent.
✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)
A few successful bootstrapped companies hiring (1/2):
• @kit - email marketing for creators (Remote)
• @kinsta - managed WordPress hosting (Budapest)
• @chatbase - AI customer support platform (Toronto)
• @close - sales CRM with calling and email (US remote)
• @zapier - AI-powered workflow automation (Global remote)
• @toggl - time tracking and capacity planning (Europe remote)
• @serpapi - search engine results API (Austin / Global remote)
• @wistia - video and webinar platform (Cambridge / US remote)
• @InstantlyAI - sales engagement and lead intelligence (Remote)
• @valvesoftware - games, Steam, and gaming hardware (Bellevue, WA)
✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)