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9 Companies w/ 10x Potential From The Man Who Owns 1% of ALL Bitcoin
Kyle Thomas
March 30, 2024
I’m always listening to podcasts.
Making waffles at 6 am for the kids - Podcast
Driving the kids to school - Podcast
In between sets at the gym - Podcast
Taking a shower and getting myself pretty - Podcast
Bathroom break during the day - Podcast
Doing the dishes - Podcast
Getting the eyes of death from my wife because I’m always listening to podcasts - Podcast
And I’m not just doing it because I love these interviews.
Well… I do.
But there’s another reason.
That reason is because I’m looking for any little nugget that could help you with your job search.
And this week, I heard one juicy nugget I couldn’t wait to share.
On a recent episode of the My First Million Podcast, Anthony Pampliano shared nine tech startups that can 10x your income and reputation.
Who are they?
Let’s go find out together.
WHERE IT STARTED
SARAH’S LIST & POMP’S LIST.
In an earlier episode of My First Million, Sam Parr shared a job search strategy he called “Sarah’s List.”
Sarah’s List is named after Sam’s wife, Sarah, who, in 2017, joined Airbnb and, over the last seven years working at the company through a combination of salary and equity, is now a millionaire.
The qualities of companies on Sarah’s List were:
Companies you could join as a non-engineer that had the potential to make you a millionaire.
Companies that are stable, pay competitive salaries, and offer great benefits (aka not early stage).
The potential for equity in these companies to 5–10x your salary over the next five years.
You may be screaming at your computer screen, “First you were talking about Pomp and now someone names Sarah?”
Well… we’re getting there, so hold your horses.
In the first version of this list in September of 2021, the companies they chose were:
Sep 2021 valuation = $3.2B
Last known valuation = $8B
Increase = 2.5x
Sep 2021 valuation = $5B
Unknown current valuation
Increase = Unknown, but given its popularity, I’d say it’s at least 2x
Sep 2021 valuation = $46M
Last known valuation = $1.66B
Increase = 36x
Sep 2021 valuation = $1.9B
Last known valuation = $10B
Increase = 5.3x
Sep 2021 valuation = $100M
Last known valuation = $1.16B
Increase = 11.6x
Sep 2021 valuation = $5.77B
Last known valuation = $11.73B
Increase = 2x
Sep 2021 valuation = $10B
Last known valuation = $20B
Increase = 2x
Sep 2021 valuation = $1.35B
Last known valuation = $11.75B
Increase = 8.7x
Sep 2021 valuation = $250M
Last known valuation = $970M
Increase = 3.9x
Sep 2021 valuation = $7B
Last known valuation = $12.59
Increase = 1.79x
Sep 2021 valuation = $431M
Last known valuation = $1B
Increase = 2.3x
Sep 2021 valuation = $5.5B
Last known valuation = $4.5B
Increase = Loss
Of the 12 companies they chose…
4 saw increases of over 5x (33%)
9 saw increases of over 2x (75%)
1 saw a loss (8%)
So, they did pretty good.
And even if you only got a 2x return, you’re not disappointed.
This week, they had Anthony Pompliano, also called “Pomp”, choose his list of companies that he thinks could 10x in value.
Anthony Pompliano was a sergeant in the US Army for 6 years, joined Facebook’s growth team in 2014, and is best known today for his crypto investing and Bitcoin holdings.
Below I’ll break down each company on his list, Pomp’s take on them, where they are today and the roles they’re hiring for.
Note: Pomp is an investor in most of these companies, so for many of them, he’s talking his book, so take the bullishness with a grain of salt. But he’s a far better investor than me, so I’ll take his word for it.
POMP’S LIST
10x REPUTATION COMPANIES.
Pomp doesn’t believe that these companies can 10x in value but they can 10x your reputation if you join today.
What do they do: Come on now… hopefully I don’t need to describe this one to you. They created ChatGPT and are the most well known AI company.
Pomp’s Take: Likely a 2-5x potential increase in valuation but a 10x increase in reputation for working at this company during its hypergrowth phase.
Year founded: 2015
Last known valuation: $85B
Company stage: Late stage
Total raised: $11.31B
Last raise: $300M in April 2023
Employees: 800
Top VC investors: Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Y-Combinator, Tiger Global, Coatue Management
PitchBook success probability: 98%
Founders:
Sam Altman - CEO
Greg Brockman - President & Chairman
Ilya Sutskever Ph.D. - Chief Scientist
John Schulman Ph.D. - Research Scientist
Wojciech Zaremba Ph.D. - Head of Robotics
149 open roles: Careers page
Wat do they do: By harnessing virtual and augmented reality, computer vision, and sensor fusion, they're at the forefront of solving complex national security challenges and enhancing defense capabilities.
Pomp’s Take: Likely a 2-5x potential increase in valuation but a 10x increase in reputation for working at this company during its hypergrowth phase.
Year founded: 2017
Company stage: Late Stage
Last known valuation: $8.48B
Total raised: $2.32B
Last raise: $1.48B in May 2022
Employees: 2043
Top VC investors:
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Thrive Capital
Andreessen Horowitz
General Catalyst
Founders Fund
SV Angel
Spark Capital
PitchBook success probability: 98%
Founders:
Brian Schimpf - CEO
Matthew Grimm - COO
Marc Berte - Board Member
Palmer Luckey - Board Member
Trae Stephens - Executive Chairman
406 open roles: Careers page
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POMP’S LIST
10x GROWTH COMPANIES.
These are companies that Pomp believes could see a 10x in their valuation.
What do they do: Their innovative products harness technology and personal biometrics to optimize your sleep, ensuring you wake up feeling fully rejuvenated every morning.
Pomp’s Take: “I'm very good friends with a lot of folks there and I think that they are probably one of the best operators and team of operators. They do a lot of Revenue, they have only like 80 or 85 employees and I believe that they've publicly said that the company's been profitable. They're selling a hardware product plus all of the software and some of the things that they're building now are just like really cool, and I think a lot about like 10x Economic Opportunity is not just like, hey can we make more money, but you also have a really really strong Mission and so their whole idea of for eight hours a day no one tends to a human. Can they compress that can they make it healthier can they do things like body scans etc. All these kind of cool things I think that's a huge opportunity for someone.”
Pomp’s potential valuation increase: 2-5x
Year founded: 2014
Company stage: Series C
Last known valuation: $387.5M
Total raised: $161.36M
Last raise: $87.5M in Aug 2021
Employees: 200
Top VC investors: General Catalyst
PitchBook success probability: 87%
Founders:
Matteo Franceschetti - CEO
Massimo Bassi - CTO
Alexandra Zatarain - VP of Brand & Marketing
14 open roles: Careers page
Brand & Growth
Finance
Hardware Engineering
Operations
Product
R&D
Software Engineering
What do they do: Imagine a future
here we make products in space using materials from asteroids. This company is making it happen with its spacecraft infrastructure, paving the way for a more sustainable manufacturing industry.
Pomp’s Take: “The whole idea of let's go to space is not new. But, let's go to space to help us back here on Earth is huge. They've created manufacturing facilities they launch into space. Right now they’re manufacturing drugs in zero gravity and bringing it back to Earth.”
Pomp’s potential valuation increase: 2-5x
Year founded: 2020
Company stage: Series B
Last known valuation: $149.25M
Total raised: $86.02M
Last raise: $30M in March 2023
Employees: 96
Top VC investors:
General Catalyst
Khosla Ventures
Founders Fund
PitchBook success probability: 54% (big bet given space manufacturing and asteroid harvesting is a brand new industry)
Founders:
William Bruey - CEO
Delian Asparouhov - Chairman & President
Trae Stephens - Board Member
16 open roles: Careers page
Products & Materials
Spacecraft Engineering
Operations
Payload & Mechanisms
What do they do: Meet the future of labor - humanoid robots that are revolutionizing industries! Figure creates autonomous robots that can handle tasks in manufacturing, logistics, and retail, reducing the need for human workers in unsafe jobs.
Pomp’s Take: “Human labor is becoming a huge problem where there's just not enough people to do all the jobs, people get sick, they're tired, they only work so many hours. So this rise of robotics but not just like Bost Dynamic like dog robots but actual humanoid robots. These are human-looking things that walk around a warehouse they can pick things up, they can pack things, and they can do all the things a human could do. One of the best ways to evaluate a company is what enemies they pick and Brett who runs Figure AI picked Elon Musk as his competitor. So you’ve got to be a little crazy, you’ve got to be a little ambitious to raise the money this guy's raised to go after this opportunity. As an investor historically people paid attention to demographics like how old a population was, how fast it was growing, and all that. Now you're going to have to actually pay attention to Robotics because if you don't have enough people in society you're going to have to replace them with robots. So measuring how many robots are coming off the production line may be a better sense of where you should be investing versus the human demographics.”
Pomp’s potential valuation increase: 10x
Year founded: 2019
Company stage: Series B
Last known valuation: $2.68B
Total raised: $845M
Last raise: $675M in Feb 2024
Employees: 80
Top investors:
Microsoft
Nvidia
Bezos Expeditions
Ark Invest
Intel Capital
OpenAI
PitchBook success probability: 91%
Founders:
Brett Adcock - CEO
43 open roles: Careers page
AI
Business Operations
Controls
Hardware
Humanoid Management System
Systems Integration & Test
What do they do: Uber for shift work. Connecting industrial workers with open shifts at warehouses, distribution centers, and event venues, Traba offers flexibility and reliability for both workers and businesses.
Pomp’s Take: “It's one of the fastest growing companies in Founders Fund’s portfolio. What they figured out is, similar to Uber where you press a button and a car shows up, all of these light industrial manufacturing facilities need tons of labor. What they do is they go to these temp work providers but the problem working with the temp work providers is you'll be like, ‘Hey I need 50 people tomorrow’ and they'll like, ‘Cool we'll send you 30 because that's all they have,’ and then of the 30 that they're supposed to send, 20 of them show up and five of them are hung over from the night before. So it's a horrible experience, it's super expensive. I met the founders and they were like, ‘We have an Olympians work ethic, we’re just going to outwork everyone,’ and I was like I'm in.”
Pomp’s potential valuation increase: 10x
Year founded: 2021
Company stage: Series B
Last known valuation: $120M
Total raised: $49.21M
Last raise: $22M in October 2023
Employees: 66
Top VC investors:
Khosla Ventures
Founders Fund
General Catalyst
PitchBook success probability: 94%
Founders:
Michael Shabat - CEO
Akshay Buddiga - CTO
Gonzalo Mujica - Operations & Strategy Executive
19 open roles: Careers page
Business Operations
Engineering
Finance & Accounting
People
Product & Design
Sales & Account Management
Strategy & Operations
What do they do: Understanding offline customer behavior is key for retailers, and this company's platform makes it easy. By analyzing human movement and generating actionable insights, they empower businesses to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition.
Pomp’s Take: “This Israeli guy was like, ‘Hey I'm gonna use cell phones to create better mobile analytics. Not what you're doing on the phone but where you are. I'm going be able to tell people when you drive into the parking lot and what aisles you walk through in the store and we're going to sell all this really really granular location data.’ They just publicly announced that they're doing a $100 million dollars in annual revenue. $100 million in revenue means they have pretty much derisked it and if you want to have a career in B2B software or analytics I think Placer still has probably a 10x potential upside. I think the latest public valuation is like a billion dollars so it's not hard to see a business that already is doing $100 million dollars in annual revenue growing pretty quickly.”
Year founded: 2013
Company stage: Series C
Last known valuation: $1.04B
Total raised: $166.2M
Last raise: $100M in July of 2022
Employees: 776
Top VC investors: 500 Global
PitchBook success probability: 91%
Founders:
Noam Ben-Zvi - CEO
Oded Fossfeld - CTO
Ofir Lemel - CPO
Zohar Ben-Yehuda - Data Scientist
9 open roles: Careers page
Customer Success
Finance
IT
Sales Ops
Solutions Engineering
Strategy & GTM
What do they do: Water scarcity is a global challenge, but this company is tackling it head-on with their pro-human approach. By leveraging cutting-edge technology like large-scale numerical modeling and deployable drones, they're maximizing precipitation and making a real difference for communities and organizations worldwide.
Pomp’s Take: “Rainmaker makes it rain. They're flying precision drones into clouds and dropping chemicals in the clouds to make it rain. It's called cloud seeding and people have been doing it in China and the Middle East but there's a world where not only can they make it rain but also if you can change the weather pattern you may be able to prevent hurricanes from hitting land. That's kind of crazy and is probably the riskiest one on the list.”
Year founded: 2023
Company stage: Pre-seed
Last known valuation: Unknown
Total raised: Unknown
Last raise: Unknown amount in November 2023
Employees: 6
VC investors:
BBQ Capital
Starship Ventures
PitchBook success probability: N/A
Founders:
Augustus Doricko - CEO
Open roles: Careers page
General interest
What do they do: Industrial cybersecurity is crucial, and Galvanick's platform is leading the charge. By aggregating and analyzing telemetry data, they help operations and security teams identify and respond to malicious behavior faster, minimizing cyber risks to industrial infrastructure.
Pomp’s Take: “If you look at the cyber security version of all these deep tech companies, there's this guy Joshua Steinman who was on the National Security Council in the Trump Administration, and he realized there are no companies that protect all of our public infrastructure. The example he gave me was, imagine what happens if someone can hack the water treatment plants and change the pH levels of the water and have massive carnage or really really screw with a local area by simply hacking this one facility that's public infrastructure. The company is super small and probably on the higher end of the risk spectrum, but it's just a cool mission that if you can protect public infrastructure, there's unlimited demand for this type of service. You can see how these businesses could get quite big given all the concerns with our adversaries and people kind of getting better at cyber warfare.”
Year founded: 2021
Company stage: Seed
Last known valuation: Unknown
Total raised: $16M
Last raise: $10M in June 2023
Employees: 8
Top VC investors: Founders Fund
PitchBook success probability: 65%
Founders:
Joshua Steinman - CEO
Feliks Pleszczynski - COO
Brandon Park - CTO
9 open roles: Careers page
Engineering
The thing that I like about these companies is that they’re all interesting.
When you’re interested in the company, the product, the mission, and the founders it leads you to be more willing to go above and beyond in your job search approach.
My entire goal here is to help you land a startup job that you enjoy, where you can work for many years and become a millionaire along the way.
I hope that if you join one of these companies and these predictions are right, you will see gains that far surpass what I have made from early employee equity.
And maybe you can throw a few shares my way as a thank you.
Let’s become career champions together 🏆
Kyle
Listen to Pomp explain these companies himself in the video below…
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