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4 Newly Minted Early Stage Unicorns Hiring People Like You
Kyle Thomas
May 11, 2024
JOB SEARCH STRATEGY
UNICORN HUNT.
With the current state of fundraising, it’s challenging to raise a round of funding, let alone reach a round that puts your valuation over a billion dollars and earns you the sought-after “unicorn” title.
Against the odds, these four companies not only reached billion-dollar valuations but did so before their Series C.
Today, we’ll highlight four companies that…
Are early-stage (Series A or B)
Raised their most recent round of funding this year (since 01/01/24)
Had their valuation increase to over $1 billion
Are actively hiring
Who are they?
What are they building?
Who are they looking to hire?
Find out all that and more in this week’s newsletter.
Figure.
WHAT THEY DO: Figure AI develops commercially viable autonomous humanoid robots to support various industries such as manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, and retail. Their technology aims to address labor shortages and reduce the number of workers in unsafe jobs by deploying and automating manual labor.
WHY IT’S EXCITING: Imagine the productivity gains the world could achieve if there were no limitations to working hours. Imagine the lack of injury or life lost due to workplace accidents. Imagine having your own C3PO in your home, helping you to do chores around the house, and tutoring your kids in calculus. All of these things could be possible with the technology Figure AI is developing. It may sound dystopian to some, but to the right people, it sounds like helping to usher in a new age of AI and robotics.
COMPANY INFO
COMPANY VERTICALS
Advanced Manufacturing
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Manufacturing
Robotics and Drones
THE FOUNDER: Brett Adcock
Track Record: Founders with prior founder experience are more likely to succeed in their future companies. Brett has been a winner since the start. Here are his previous wins…
Follow him here…
THE FINANCIALS
Series: Series B
Total Raised: $845.00 million to date
Last Known Valuation: $2.68 billion as of February 2024
Funding Announcement: $675.00 million on February 23, 2024
Top Investors: OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, Bezos Expeditions, Intel Capital, Samsung Venture Investment, and many others
PitchBook Success Probability: 96% probability of success
WHY YOU WANT TO JOIN TODAY: Joining Figure AI now offers a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of technological innovation in AI and robotics. You’ll be able to contribute to game-changing projects that have significant implications for various industries, particularly in automating and improving safety in labor-intensive sectors. I see this as joining Tesla when it was 80 people.
POTENTIAL COMPANY ROADBLOCKS
Technical challenges in developing fully autonomous robots that can operate effectively in diverse and unpredictable environments.
Potential regulatory hurdles related to workplace automation and the use of robots.
Market adoption rates may vary depending on the industry's readiness to integrate such advanced technologies.
42 JOB OPENINGS: Careers Page
AI
Controls
Hardware
Humanoid Management System
Systems Integration & Test
DataSnipper.
WHAT THEY DO: DataSnipper has created an intelligent automation platform to help auditors accelerate the speed and quality of audits. Their platform automates and documents audit processes, including tests of details and controls, walkthroughs, and financial statement procedures.
WHY IT’S EXCITING: I think these hyper-niched companies will do well in this new AI application world. If you’re trying to compete in model creation with OpenAI, Meta, or any other open-sourced models, your likelihood of getting crushed is high. By targeting how you can use AI to make the lives of financial auditors easier, more accurate, and more efficient, you can craft the perfect solution specifically tailored to their needs and reduce the likelihood of a high level of competition.
COMPANY INFO
COMPANY VERTICAL: FinTech
THE FOUNDERS
Kai Bakker - Co-Founder & CTO
Jonas Ruyter - Co-Founder & Board Member
Prior Founding Experience: No
Work History: Graduated from Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in 2014 and worked for 7 years in marketing and account management before founding DataSnipper.
Follow him here…
Maarten Albla - Co-Founder & Board Member
Prior Founding Experience: No
Work History: Graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a bachelors in economics and a minor in Computer Science. He worked as a software engineer at Xomnia for 1 year before founding DataSnipper.
Follow him here…
Vidya Peters - CEO (not a co-founder)
Prior Founding Experience: No
Work History: DataSnipper got a good one here. Vidya went to Harvard Undergrad and got her MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. She worked her way up at Bain, Intuit, and then joined the executive ranks. She was CMO at MuleSoft for 2 years and COO at Marqueta for 3 years before being poached to DataSnipper to become CEO.
Follow her here…
THE FINANCIALS
Series: Series B
Total Raised: $100.9 million to date
Last Known Valuation: $1.1 billion as of January 2024
Funding Announcement: $99.25 million on January 10, 2024
Top VC Investors: Index Ventures
What the funding and investors say about the company's potential: The funding will expand the company's reach into new markets, signifying high growth potential. The fact they have a second office in New York could mean significant US expansion (more jobs for you).
Pitchbook Success Probability: 96%
WHY YOU WANT TO JOIN: The company is sub 200 people today and just broke the $1B valuation mark. With that amount of funding and a eyes set on expansion and growth you can get in today and see tremendous career acceleration. If you’re interested in AI and have a background or interest in finance or applying AI to otherwise “boring” industries this is a great opportunity to see it first hand on the frontline and rapidly rise as a company leader.
POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS: The AI world is uncertain, so who knows what will happen in the coming years. Big audit players could fund internal projects to build out their own tools. They could run into snags with regulations or product quality, which needs to be pristine since you’re dealing with something as crucial to a business as the financial audit.
3 JOB OPENINGS: Careers Page
Clear Street.
WHAT THEY DO: Clear Street is on a mission to overhaul the financial services industry with innovative tech. They’ve created a streamlined platform that improves the antiquated existing tech and enables trading across global markets, simplifying processes and eliminating inefficiencies that have plagued traditional financial institutions for years.
WHY IT’S EXCITING: If you create a better, faster, more modern platform for the world’s biggest and best financial institutions and investors to use, you have a massive total addressable market and significant market and financial upside. Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly to those in the industry), many of the tools these financial institutions and investors use are antiquated and ripe for a company to bring them into the modern age.
COMPANY INFO
COMPANY VERTICALS
FinTech
SaaS
Technology Media & Telecommunications
THE FOUNDERS
Chris Pento - Co-Founder & CEO
Prior Founding Experience: No
Work History: Chris had 30 years of experience in financial markets at the highest levels before founding Clear Street. He’s a subject matter expert regarding the systems he’s disrupting and the customers he serves.
Follow him here…
Sachin Kumar - Co-Founder & CTO
Prior Founding Experience: Yes
Work History: After graduating from the University of Michigan with a bachelors of computer science he worked as a software engineer for a high frequency trading firm where he worked for two years before founding his first company. Clear Street is the third company he has founded so he brought almost a decade of founding experience before starting Clear Street.
Follow him here…
THE FINANCIALS:
Series: Series B
Total Raised: $855 million
Last Known Valuation: $2.1 billion as of April 2024
Funding Announcement: $685 million on April 4, 2024.
Top VC Investors: Prysm Capital and Belvedere Capital Partners.
Pitchbook Success Probability: 98%
WHY YOU WANT TO JOIN: If you worked in finance and hated the outdated tools and tech you were forced to use, this is your chance to uproot the industry and build the product you wish you had. The clients of this company (hopefully) will be the companies moving around (and making) the most money in the world. Clients with lots of money are very good clients to have.
POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS: Due to regulations and the entrenchment of old technology, things can move slowly, and compliance is king.
19 JOB OPENINGS: Careers Page
Operations
Engineering & Research
Admin
Finance
Marketing
People Ops
Risk
Monad Labs.
WHAT THEY DO: Monad Labs is crafting a high-octane decentralized contract platform. They're focused on delivering lightning-fast transaction throughput using a sophisticated scalar architecture. This allows developers to create complex decentralized applications that can handle heavy transaction loads with ease.
WHY IT’S EXCITING: This is a game-changer in blockchain technology. Monad Labs' platform isn't just faster; it makes it feasible for developers to push the boundaries of what's possible with decentralized apps. The efficiency and scalability it brings could revolutionize industries relying on blockchain technology.
COMPANY INFO
THE VERTICALS
Cryptocurrency/Blockchain
FinTech
THE FOUNDERS
Keone Hon - Co-Founder & CEO
Prior Founding Experience: No
Work History: After graduating from MIT with two bachelor's and two master's in four years (Woah, save some degrees for the rest of us!) he went on to become a quant, building high frequency trading systems for financial firms for 10 years before leaning into DeFi in 2021. After spending 10 months as a Quantitative Developer for Jump Crypto he founded his own company, Monad. This guy has the brainpower and the industry knowledge.
Follow him here…
Eunice Giarta - COO
Prior Founding Experience: Yes
Work History: After graduating from MIT with degrees in computer science and finance, she worked in product management for financial technology company Broadway Technology where she worked for 3 years before taking a Senior Product Manager role at Shutterstock. After a year she left to become a pastry chef (did I mention she also went to culinary school in her spare time). After a year in the kitchen she left to start her own company for a year before founding Monad Labs.
Follow him here…
James Hunsaker - Co-Founder & CTO
Prior Founding Experience: No
Work History: After graduating from the University of Iowa, he worked in finance at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan before joining Jump Trading, where he and Keone worked together. After 8 years at Jump Trading as a Senior Software Engineer, he joined Keone and Eunice to found Monad.
Follow him here…
THE FINANCIALS
Series: Series A
Total Raised: $244 million
Last Known Valuation: $3 billion as of April 2024
Funding Announcement: $225 million on April 9, 2024
Top VC Investors: Paradigm and Coinbase Ventures
Pitchbook Success Probability: 73%
WHY YOU WANT TO JOIN: I won’t pretend to be an expert in the crypto/blockchain space but this company has a $3 billion valuation with only 39 employees. They have also increased their headcount by 33% in the last 6 months and current job openings indicate they’re looking to add another 36% ASAP.
POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS: Technological complexity, competition, regulatory uncertainty, adoption challenges, market volatility, scalability vs security trade-offs, and talent shortages are some of the things Monad will face as they look to scale.
14 JOB OPENINGS: Careers Page
Ecosystem Growth
Operations
Engineering & Research
Legal
Unicorn status is something founders strive for, but it brings its challenges.
You need to live up to that valuation and show the right growth so future rounds keep the valuation steady or increasing.
You have all that cash, but now you need to deploy it properly (sometimes companies can drown in their cash).
But, for you as a job seeker, the fact that these companies were able to achieve valuations of over $1 billion before their Series C in a fundraising environment like this speaks to what the investors see in their potential.
If you join them today, you have a chance to achieve the career acceleration and financial outcome of a lifetime.
Let’s become career champions together 🏆
Kyle
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