A few new unicorn companies currently hiring (2/2): • @UseCorgi - startup insurance carrier and ETF issuer (US / London) • @Mach_Industries - defense hardware and drone systems (California) • @odysseyml - generative AI world models (Bay Area / London / Zurich) • @deepseek_ai - open-source large language model lab (Hangzhou / Beijing) • @assort_health - AI voice agents for healthcare (Bay Area / NYC / US remote) • @GeneralistAI - general-purpose robot foundation models (Boston / Bay Area) • @GoToImpulse - in-space propulsion and orbital transfer (LA / Mojave / Boulder) • @isaraerospace - European orbital rocket launch company (Ottobrunn / Kiruna / Andenes) ✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)

(9/22) A few of our favorite under-the-radar roles from fast-growing companies: • @gentilello from @Optery is hiring a general counsel. • @kobyjconrad from @SunflowerSober is hiring UGC creators. • @calebychan from @TryLance is hiring a product marketing manager. • @triekki from @zero_gtm is hiring a GTM operator and a customer success specialist. • @mirandanover from @Fort is hiring a founding designer and a social content intern. • @mokshith from @sievedata is hiring a data operations lead and a product & ops lead. • @RuiCromwell from @flickartHQ is hiring a YouTube creative director and a GTM intern. • @ChrisParsonson from @SolveIntel is hiring GTM account executives and a motion designer. • @fangchangma from @nuance_ai is hiring human evaluation researchers and research fellows. ✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)

A few new unicorn companies currently hiring (1/2): • @runpod - GPU cloud for AI developers (US remote) • @OpenRouter - unified API for LLM access (US remote) • @normativeai - AI agents for regulatory compliance (NYC) • @SarvamAI - sovereign AI models for India (Bengaluru / Delhi) • @tensorwave - AMD GPU cloud compute provider (Las Vegas) • @Kpler - commodity and maritime market intelligence (Global) • @allencontrol - AI-powered counter-drone gun systems (Austin) ✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)

Tesla hired the journalist who kept scooping them. First Round Capital offered her a job the same day they met. Then a 10-person Notion made her employee #11 without even having a defined role for her. Meet Camille Ricketts (@camillericketts). Early in her career, Camille was a journalist covering green technology for VentureBeat. Tesla became about 80% of what she wrote about. She knew the company so well that every now and then, she'd uncover news they probably would have preferred she hadn't. Then one day, Tesla's head of communications called. Instead of reporting on the company from the outside, would she consider coming inside to help tell its story? Camille was 26. The Model S hadn't even launched yet. And suddenly she was helping communicate a car so early that parts of the prototype would literally fall off during demos. A few years later, another unexpected opportunity arrived. Someone Camille knew from the Stanford Daily emailed her about a VC firm that was thinking about doing some writing. She took a walk with Brett Berson and that same day was offered a job at First Round Capital. And it was at First Round that Camille crossed paths with a young founder named Ivan Zhao. Notion was still in its earliest days, and Ivan wanted advice on how to tell the company's story. Camille helped him and then they went their separate ways. More than four years later, Ivan remembered her. He reached out while Camille was figuring out what she wanted to do next. There wasn't even a defined role. He simply told her “We need a storyteller.” For what became her interview, Ivan asked Camille to create a Notion doc explaining what she thought the company should do around its brand, differentiation and storytelling. She took it seriously and while they were reviewing the doc together, Ivan asked “Do you want to come do this?” She joined as employee #11 and became Notion's first marketing hire. Camille calls moments like these a “chain of serendipity” and I think there's a useful career lesson in that. When we look backwards, careers can seem perfectly planned but living through them is much messier. A story you write today. A walk you agree to take. Someone you help when there's nothing obvious to gain. A relationship you keep alive for four years. Any one of them can unexpectedly change the direction of your career. Camille and I went much deeper into this on the Next Play podcast including what joining a 10-person Notion was really like, why leaving it felt like losing part of her identity, how she approached figuring out what came next, and how another long-standing relationship eventually led her to become a Partner at XYZ Venture Capital. Full conversation in the comments.

A few startups hiring after raising $10m-$50m (2/2): • @nebulocksec - AI threat hunting platform (US remote) • @taxwire_inc - global sales tax compliance (NYC / Remote) • @trovycard - HELOC with card access (NYC / Salt Lake City) • @joinfleek - vintage fashion wholesale marketplace (London) • @Isometric_HQ - carbon removal certification platform (London) • @bespokelabsai - AI training data curation (Bay Area / Bangalore) • @netris_io - cloud networking automation software (Global remote) • @AlliumLabs - enterprise blockchain data platform (Bay Area / NYC / Singapore / Remote) ✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)

Cristina Cordova (@cjc) first heard about Stripe at a barbecue. Nine months later, she joined as employee #27. She was 24. A friend had invited her to a YC barbecue in Palo Alto, where she happened to meet Patrick Collison. They talked, got coffee afterwards and over the next several months, Cristina kept spending time with people at Stripe. What she didn't realise was that Stripe was already recruiting her. They called it “long recruiting”: Find exceptional people early, build a relationship with them and stay close even if there isn't a role for them yet or they aren't ready to move. By the time Cristina formally interviewed, that relationship had been developing for around nine months. There was another challenge. She was joining an engineering heavy company to work on partnerships, a function some of the people interviewing her didn't completely understand yet. So she made herself useful and learned the product deeply, how to work with engineers and became the voice of customers and partners. In her words, she worked incredibly hard and stayed at Stripe for 7.5 years. There's a useful lesson here: Some of the best startup opportunities start long before someone clicks “Apply.” And getting in is only half the job. You still have to prove why you belong there. Cristina's story didn't stop at Stripe either. A reference call eventually led her to Notion, a DM eventually led her to Linear and somewhere in between, she became an investor at First Round. We went deeper into all of it on the Next Play podcast including how she spots great startups early, chooses the right people to work with, and thinks about roles when joining small teams. Full episode in the comments.

(9/15) A few of our favorite under-the-radar roles from fast-growing companies: • @gpuemi from @wafer_ai is hiring a chief of staff. • @scottgmorton from @RevelHQ is hiring product managers. • @louis030195 from @screenpipe is hiring a head of virality. • @mitesh711 from @positron_ai is hiring a technical product manager. • @minnasong from @elise_ai is hiring a chief marketing officer and a VP of growth. • @keithpeiris from @lightfld is hiring a VP of sales and a head of product marketing. • @cyril_mathew from @rtp is hiring a head of strategy and operations and a sales lead. • @plbecker from @tar_hq is hiring a head of project finance and a founder’s associate. • @mohitaron from @scifinai is hiring product marketers and enterprise account executives. • @HarryMellsop from @antiochrobotics is hiring a product marketer and an operations generalist. ✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)

A few startups hiring after raising $10m-$50m (1/2): • @tryattention - AI sales assistant (NYC) • @monogram_ai - AI user interface (Bay Area) • @hellotohera - elder care management (NYC) • @covaldev - voice AI testing platform (Bay Area) • @proceptionAI - humanoid robotic hand (Bay Area) • @alta_revenue - AI GTM agents (Tel Aviv / US remote) • @runlayer - AI tool security platform (NYC / Bay Area) • @GradiumAI - voice AI infrastructure (Paris / Bay Area) ✨ Follow Next Play for more (and link to full list in the first comment)