Harjoth Khara

Here's a new list of 31 fast-growing Y Combinator backed startups, currently hiring for REMOTE roles: Big thanks to Ben Lang for sharing this list! 1) Unriddle (YC S24) - read, write and find research papers faster 2) Stacksync (YC W24) - sync between CRMs and databases 3) Akiflow - tasks and calendars in one app 4) Finni Health (YC W23) - empowering autism care providers 5) Ply Health (YC S24) - get providers in-network with payers 6) Versable - product description enhancement for auto parts industry 7) Formance - open source infra for finance 8) Forage - payments infrastructure for government benefits 9) Hona - client communication portal for law firms 10) Zeal - automated payroll 12) Courtyard.io - invest in collectibles 13) Blueberry. Pediatrics - pediatric clinic in every family's living room 14) Centaur Labs - labeling medical data at scale 15) TrueBiz - background checks for businesses 16) Thera (YC S22) - payroll, banking for global teams 17) Recall.ai - API for meeting video, audio and metadata 18) Text Blaze - slash commands anywhere 19) Rollstack - automate decks and documents 20) Infisical - open-source secrets manager for developers 21) Arist - learning at scale 22) Optery - removes private info from the internet 23) Vendoo (YC W22) - manage sales on multiple platforms 24) Paragon - embedded integration platform for SaaS apps 25) Gordian Software - software to remove friction in travel 26) Roboflow - computer vision tools 27) Hatchet - background task orchestration and visibility 28) Typewise (YC S22) - AI customer services/sales 29) Oneleet - automated security and compliance 30) SpeedyBrand - AI marketing content for SMBs 31) Shimmer - ADHD coaching links to all of their career pages will be in the comments 👋 for more content: Follow groveto

7

I love YC Demo Day season. It’s an insane concentration of driven founders building something they deeply believe in at the frontier of tech. I know it's more trendy for VCs to complain about YC. But I believe Garry Tan when he says 5-10% of companies become worth a billion dollars. Maven’s hit rate from YC is even higher: 16% have had $B+ exits, and we’re trending toward a 40% graduation rate from Seed to Unicorn with investments we’ve made alongside YC. Since Maven’s founding in 2013, we’ve funded 12 YC startups out of the 66 companies we’ve invested in. Here are a few: Cruise: acquired by GM for $1B+ Embark: $4B SPAC, acquired by Applied Intuition Chariot: acquired by Ford before Series A May Mobility: raised $300M+ in follow on funding, including from Toyota Carrot Fertility: raised $100M+ in follow on funding, including from CRV and USVP Daybreak Health: Series A from Lightspeed, Series B from USV Moment Robotics: acquired by Cruise founder Kyle Vogt’s new company, The Bot Co (Maven is an investor) Our strategy differs from other YC investors. Many funds build a YC “index fund”, investing in many startups per batch. It’s not a bad move. But we focus on concentration, meeting all the companies in our thesis area and investing in one or two. Gratefully, I think every company from the list above can point to Maven as one of their most trusted partners that made a difference: intros to customers, closing follow-on funding from top VCs, connecting key hires, and offering genuine care and advice in both the best and toughest of moments. What are we looking for in a YC investment? 1) Team - a technical product team with startup DNA and hustle that can achieve a bold vision. Brilliant, determined founders no one would bet against who are ambitious enough to build an iconic company. 2) Vision worth fighting for - what are you bringing into the world that is worth all the time, effort and money required for success? Why aren’t existing solutions good enough? Are we proud to help bring this idea to the world? 3) Massive market - because of the valuation premium YC demands, even a $B outcome may not return today’s average Seed fund. Honestly, that math sucks. In order to pay the premium, we have to believe that if we’re right, we’ll be wildly successful. 4) Consumer trend - Maven invests in tech companies addressing emerging consumer trends. Even if some investments are B2B or B2B2C, they are always grounded in a consumer insight: autonomous vehicles in 2014, fertility care in 2017, mental health in 2020. Today, we’re looking at consumer applications of AI and frontier consumer health. Many successful companies we fund are outside of YC as well – like Zoom, Hello Heart, Epic!, Class, Wildtype. So we match YC’s Unicorn % across the rest of our portfolio, too 💪 YC founders in consumer tech and digital health: if you want to build an iconic company that delivers a positive impact for millions of consumers - I can’t wait to talk to you!

80

6 Comments

I’ve been playing around with YC Founder Matching and it seems like everyone and their mother is interested either in 2-sided marketplaces or B2C businesses, even though they’re ostensibly the least profitable and hardest-to-get-off-the-ground business models there are. Why do people do this? You only have to take a glance at enterprise vs individual pricing to want to switch gears.

4

1 Comment

Zimi (YC S24)), a startup simplifying cross-border commerce for international merchants, has raised $2 million in seed funding led by Fearless Fund, with participation from Y Combinator and other investors. Co-founded by Audrey Djiya and Peter Nsaka, Zimi’s platform tackles challenges like shipping, compliance, and payments to streamline global trade.

15

VC funding in healthcare has been more resilient than in other industries. Here are some key takeaways from recent Carta data: 👉 At the priced seed, Series A, and Series B stages, dilution for health startups has noticeably decreased, while dilution for SaaS startups has stayed flat or increased slightly. 👉 In priced seed rounds, median dilution for healthcare companies dipped to 14.2%, compared to 20% for SaaS.  👉 The frequency of bridge rounds surged in the health sector in Q1, jumping to 44.3% from 36.9% in Q4 2023. This is the first significant increase in bridge rounds in healthcare over SaaS since early 2022. 👉 More founder-friendly terms for health startups may result from enduring VC interest since COVID. Healthcare has remained strong through economic turmoil, enabling higher valuations with smaller round sizes. What are the implications? The healthcare sector might see a rise in new ventures due to favorable investment conditions and lower dilution rates. The surge in bridge rounds suggests that certain sectors within healthcare face unique challenges that require interim financing solutions. Founders and investors in the healthcare space- what are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear from you. If you know a founder innovating in healthcare, tag them in the comments! The Artemis Fund is especially interested in groundbreaking care tech companies. You can check out Carta’s full blog linked in the comments. If you haven’t read our latest blog on care tech, you’ll find that there too. #healthcare #caretech #fundraising

30

3 Comments

Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you! We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with me. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity than they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum (building the world's first utility-scale quantum computer right here in Australia!), Inventia Life Science (transforming drug discovery with high-fidelity cell models), Remedy Robotics (surgical robots for remote endovascular procedures), Opto Biosystems (minimally-invasive neural implants to treat cancer), and more. We believe that frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Clare Birch and I are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ If you know anyone that we should meet, send me their details! Cameron Elise Ben Andrew Robin Joseph Adelaide James Olivia Lucinda Raghav Jesse Christie Mohamed Tom Amee Pablo Haya Loong Hon Joshua Benjamin Megan Harry Denzil Matthew Diana Daniel Tom Deanna Justin Amar Lilly Stone Thomas

113

4 Comments

If you are thinking about a career change, I’d love for you to consider a career in crypto and Web3. There are thousands of open roles in crypto and Web3, both at startups and in profitable, stable companies like Coinbase, Uniswap Labs, and Fidelity. I started SheFi to accelerate women’s career and finances. I quickly saw the advantages of a career in web3 for women: - Flexible, remote-first culture: 2x more crypto companies are remote-first compared to tech as a whole - Growing and here to stay. Wall Street recently adopted Bitcoin ETFs. Crypto isn’t going away anytime soon, and there’s significant job growth - Competitive compensation. $11 billion of venture capital was invested in crypto in 2023. Compensation is comparable to tech and location-agnostic And “I’m not sure where to start” is the #1 reason women tell me they’re not pursuing careers in web3. SheFi solves that by training you for a web3 career. We offer: - 8 weeks of live educational instruction - Peer support from 2,500 women - Hands-on tech demos - Career support What you’ll learn: how blockchains work, what NFTs are, how careers in Web3 are different from careers in general tech. We train employees from Fidelity, Google, and Amazon, placing them in growing and profitable web3 companies like Coinbase, Uniswap Labs, and Consensys. Course tuition is just a one-time fee of $799, with limited scholarships available. Applications are first-come, first-serve so apply today for SheFi Season 11, which starts June 18, 2024: https://lnkd.in/eyJ-acq6 #Crypto #Blockchain #Cryptocurrency #Bitcoin #Ethereum #DeFi #CryptoNews #birthday #NFTs #CryptoMarket #DigitalCurrency #Web3 #Leadership #CryptoEvent #Web3 #Community #CryptoWallet #SmartContracts #Empowerment #BlockchainNews #SheFi #WomenLeaders #EmpoweringWomen #DigitalAssets #CryptoCommunity #CryptoEducation

142

6 Comments

1st10 is going into the holidays with the following open searches spread across 9 incredible Seed/A funded startups. Imagine getting into SpaceX or Stripe as one of their first engineers. That's what joining one of these startups is like. High impact, early equity, invaluable experience! Fullstack AI Engineer, SF, Elite AI Dev Shop, Shaper Ventures ML Engineer, SF/Seattle/NYC, HW/SW AI Product ML Platform Engineer, SF/Seattle/NYC, HW/SW AI Product Generalist Engineer, SF/Seattle/NYC, HW/SW AI Product Mechanical Engineer, SF/Seattle/NYC, HW/SW AI Product Firmware Engineer, SF/Seattle/NYC, HW/SW AI Product Avionics/Electrical Engineer, SF, Supersonic Jet, A16Z Flight Software Engineer, SF, Supersonic Jet, A16Z ML/Data Engineer, Los Altos, Rocketship Ventures Data/Infra Engineer, SF, AI Financial Analyst, Audacious Ventures Backend Go Engineer, Remote, Open Source Access Control, Benchmark Fullstack Developer, Chicago, File Security Security and Compliance Lead, Chicago, File Security UI/UX Lead, Chicago, File Security Backend Node Engineer, Brooklyn, LLM startup, Matrix Ventures Backend Go Engineer, NYC, Autonomous Banking, Lightspeed Fullstack Node Engineer, NYC, Autonomous Banking, Lightspeed We've asked each of our startup founders and all will be available through the holidays to review and talk with candidates. That's how startups work. Of course there's time to enjoy the holidays. But no 2-week shut down like at large companies. All hands will stay on deck with meaningful progress made. As such, 1st10 will also be open for business as well. If you're a great engineer and curious about early startups or happen to know of somebody interested, dm us. Wishing all a happy holidays!

26

1 Comment

Thanks Chinenye. I couldn't agree with you more. However while we work on this, we also have to be mindful of the fact that bias isn't just the problem in this data rather a combination of poor economy and bias. Of all these regions mentioned, Africa is the least performing market. therefore Davidson, naturally you would expect investors to do less there. They are not charity organisations but a venture set up for outsized returns.Therefore the major issue we should be discussing is, which sectors are receiving this funding in Africa? Are the investments coming to sectors that will lift the other sectors up fundamentally or to sectors that will window dress the issues? or Worst still the ones that will reap-off on the people and distort rather than disrupt the system. (eg Nigeria POS fintech and the real banking system. a discussion for another day). Until strong investments are made in the technology sectors powering manufacturing strong job growth in Africa be it REAL B2B eCommerce not repeating what is already being done, or B2C eCommerce that is truly efficient and cost effective. Equally important is the improvement in the purchasing power of the consumers via credit card system. in as much as Sub-Sahara Africa lacks good credit system that captures the average citizens and residents, B2C will continue to struggle. in as much as our logistics investments are predominantly in the last mile delivery rather than efficient crosborder logistics, both B2B abd B2C eCommerce will struggle to scale efficiently and profitability. So, it's time for the investors to do away with the low hanging fruits and start tackling the real issues that will empower and propel Africa economies. That's where the main bias lies.

4

1 Comment

A new era of deep tech has emerged. First time funds will raise “unheard of” amounts of capital to fuel next gen deep tech startups - producing outsized, superior returns for LP’s compared to the rest. Prudent investors will act on this data and shift investment strategy as LP’s or risk being left behind savvy wealth managers and CIO’s / FO’s who saw this trend begin 4 years ago.

100

8 Comments

Non-Engineering Roles at Early-Stage Startups Offering $120K+ Base Salary with Meaningful Bonus and Equity: Chief of Staff @ Milo (Consumer), Remote Biz Ops Lead @ Fractal Agriculture (FinTech), Remote; Backed by Virta Ventures Chief of Staff @ CakeAI (AI SaaS), NY; Backed by Primary Venture Partners Demand Generation Specialist @ Rootly (Consumer), Remote; Backed by YC, 8VC, Gradient Ventures Account Executive @ CommandBar (Enterprise SaaS), Remote; Backed by Soma Capital, YC, Insight Partners Product Marketing @ Slope (Enterprise), Remote; Backed by YC, Union Square Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures Supply Planning Manager @ PROVEN Skincare (Consumer), Remote; Backed by YC, FJ Labs, Soma Capital, Social Capital Account Executive @ Accrue Savings (Consumer), NY; Backed by Ground Up Ventures, Tiger Global Chief of Staff @ UNIGRID Battery (Climate), CA; Backed by Union Square Ventures, LiquidMetal Ventures Job details and the full list (40+ opportunities) are in the comments below. If you're interested in non-tech jobs focused on specific industries like HardTech, HealthTech, Climate, etc., then DM me or let me know in the comments.

22

2 Comments

Today I added stripe integrations (not as hard as I thought) and also finally added placeholder loading.tsx pages (yes it really did take me 6 months to remember you can do that 😭). https://lnkd.in/g2RUfhSh My end goal for the month of June was to be at the point I am now, so I am taking the extra time to clean up the code base and get it ready for more devs to work on. From production toggling to setting up hosted versions of the dev api, I want to make sure the people working with me have the smoothest experience possible. All of this working on a code base stuff in general is still relatively new to me, especially from the perspective of the person running the ship. It's one thing to work on a team when you're responsible for a single branch. But when you are making decisions on how best to orchestrate multiple code bases for use by multiple devs, it's a whole different ball game. Beyond that I also want to sit down and figure out the possible caching optimizations I can be making, as it's one of the big upsides of next.js. Shorter update again today, but as always if you've read this far thank you, and see you all next time <3.

8

As YC Demo Day approaches, I had the privilege of speaking with some founders from the current cohort and hearing about the numerous VC meetings they are attending. This brought to mind a piece of advice from YC that has always resonated deeply with me: "Raising the most money is not the metric of success. Building a great company is." Venture capital can be thought of as debt with the upside of equity. If it looks like debt (investors get repaid first through liquidation preference) and acts like debt (restrictive covenants on operations), it likely is debt. Moreover, if your liquidation preference is greater than 1, you effectively have an implied interest rate on that debt. For companies that have raised substantial venture capital, particularly during 2021 and early 2022, the following statements are likely true: - The company is no longer under the founders' control. - The company's valuation is upside-down, leaving founders with little incentive to stay. Venture capital often encourages companies to spend unsustainably, pushing them to grow rapidly or face failure. The assumption is that fast growth will enable further fundraising, but this is not the current reality if your last valuation was high compared to today's standards. In the summer of 2022, YC warned that a VC "winter" was coming, and it persists today. If a company boasts about its greatness based solely on the amount of money it has raised, it is wise to be cautious.

27

2 Comments

I just met with the one of the top VCs in Phoenix. Here's how they believe AZ can be one of the top startup states in the next 10 years: 1. Company Formation ⏩ Starting more startups ⏩ Growing big companies ⏩ Selling for big exits 2. Capital Velocity ⏩ More investments into AZ startups ⏩ Reinvesting back into AZ once you've exited 3. Community Vibrancy ⏩ Small/Medium/Big creators hyping up AZ ⏩ Attractive events that bring true value And the community is thriving: Shawn Allard w/ private meetups for SMB owners Sean Huntington 🍯 w/ Founders N Funders events Josue Romero w/ AZ Tech Founder meetups Josue Romero and Daniela Santangelo with Freeway (amazing dashboard to see AZ venture stats + event calendar) No better time to be an AZ Founder 🌵🚀 *** Side Note: can we find a better name to unite the startup valley? YesPHX is okay Silicon Desert is okay but way too cliche at this point

71

30 Comments

✴️ Did you see who raised funds last week? Several U.S.-based startups have secured capital at the start of 2025 to drive innovation, and they’re hiring! 🇺🇸 Rembrand (Los Altos, California) #Advertising Founders Ahmed Saad, David Wiener, Omar Tawakol, and Abdel-rahman Mohamed raised $23M in Series A funding to enhance their In-Scene Advertising platform, helping brands become part of the story rather than interrupting it. 🔗 Led by: super{set}, with participation from The Trade Desk, NAVER D2SF, #L’Oréal’s BOLD, Greycroft, and others. ✅ Hiring: 2 roles available - https://bit.ly/404w2in 🇺🇸 LTV.ai (Houston, Texas) #AI Founders Asad Rehman and Kevin Kai closed a Series A funding round (undisclosed amount) to help brands maximize Customer Lifetime Value using AI and membership models. ✅ Hiring: 2 roles available - https://bit.ly/4064BVh 🇺🇸 Veritone (Irvine, California) #AI Founders Chad and Ryan Steelberg raised $20.3M in Post-IPO Equity to develop and market their AI platform that transforms data into actionable intelligence. 🔗 The company plans to use funds for: capital expenditures, debt service, and further product development. ✅ Hiring: 14 roles available - https://bit.ly/4fLXFmh 🚀 If you're exploring new opportunities or just want to stay updated on who's raising capital, make sure to follow me! #StartupFunding #HiringNow #FundingAndHiring #Innovation

1

Sharing this primarily for markets outside the top 5 in VC as it's a problem I've experienced as well. One can and sometimes should criticize SV founders who have too much ambition in the way some pursue it, but a super serious problem almost everywhere else is not enough ambition, certainly to include NM. It may surprise some to hear that Seattle lacks ambition given headquarters of Microsoft, Amazon, Costco, Starbucks and others, but that's actually part of the problem--golden handcuffs and conformity, versus hungry and competitive when I grew up in WA in business in the 80s. It's also a problem with many VCs around the country now. They have become so focused on flipping to incumbents their (BT) dominance became a self-fulfilling prophecy. That's not the role of VCs -- if that's their goal they should be a CVC. NM has a similar golden handcuff problem to Seattle, but it's worse in some respects. The national labs pay really well relative to the local cost of living, so it's the career goal of thousands to spend entire careers working for the labs. In both markets the level of early stage funding is so low that it's difficult to leave big tech or labs to join a startup. And in both, the experience of big tech and labs doesn't apply well to startups. Very different world. A related challenge is SV rarely invests outside the region in would-be market leaders--most want to see those remain in CA. So we have a problem for certain, and big disconnect in the market.

6

4 Comments

Excited to host a 30-minute panel at Andreessen Horowitz Tech Week in SF on Wednesday, October 9. If you're a founder or sales leader at a high-growth startup who predominantly sells into the enterprise, you won't want to miss this discussion. Our expert panelists will share invaluable insights on: - Breaking through to key decision-makers - Structuring an efficient sales process - Proven techniques for closing high-value deals

29

3 Comments

I love YC. I think it's a great program for founders looking to get into the valley ecosystem. But if you think "indexing" YC is a good idea, think again. Let's take Garry's claim at face value (never mind that no YC batch has actually hit these metrics and we don't know what will happen to recent batches as they are ... recent). Anyway. Let's just say that 7% of YC companies will get to $1B in value. And let's just say that investors get to sell their stake at $1B (of course in reality some of them won't end up with any liquidity, but those who do likely will be at >$1B valuation). YC batches now tend to run roughly ~250 in size. YC invests $125k for 7% and then another $375k uncapped with MFN clause (which pretty much means they take the terms of the demo day round). And let's say that the typical YC company is raising $2M at $20M, as indicated in this post. Per batch, YC invests $500k * 250 = $125M. Per company, their $500k investment gets them ~9% ownership. Assuming that the returns from companies worth less than $1B is negligible (as is typically the case in venture), YC can expect to exit 17 unicorns at $1B valuation with 70% total dilution through future funding rounds, which pegs the value of the portfolio at 17 * 9% * 30% * $1,000,000,000 = $459M. YC gets almost 4x on their investment! Not bad, right? Good for YC, but bad for investors indexing the batch at demo day. Here's why: Let's say instead a fund invests $500k into every single company in the batch for a total of $125M at demo day. It buys them 2.5% ownership per company. Using the same assumptions as above, that fund's portfolio value will grow to 17 * 2.5% * 30% * $1,000,000,000 = $127.5M. The demo-day index fund would barely make 1x. After fees, the return would be significantly less than 1x. And put in the time cost of money of 10 years, and these returns are just absolutely dismal. Note that I'm basing my math off of Garry's post, which quotes metrics that don't actually matter for investor returns. In reality, 5% to 10% of companies becoming unicorns don't matter. It's the $5B or $10B or $100B company that goes public that really matters. In reality the math will be swung by the 1 - 2 BIG exits, not the "unicorns." In reality, each batch's performance will look *wildly* different 10 years from now. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: YC ain't magic. Even a 10% unicorn rate won't save demo day investors who don't pick wisely. #Startups #VC

561

64 Comments