sam & jony & jordan & you
meet the latest bright-eyed fintech founders + who’s for gelato?
A good morning to everyone still trying to keep track of everything Google announced at I/O last week. But most importantly, to everyone who can’t stop thinking about Sam and Jony’s coffee date. Can anyone else remember an announcement with this kind of production quality? (Outside of Apple, maybe) The vibes were Nancy Meyers meets the future.
In the video, announcing OpenAI + io, Jony said something I think is worth noting as you search for a job. And this is certainly true for VCs deciding where to invest:
“If you’re trying to have a sense of where you are going to end up, you shouldn’t look at the technology, you should look at the people who are making the decisions and you should look at what drives, motivates—and look at values.”
May you all find someone who looks at you the way Jony looks at Sam 🥰 ❤️🔥
-Jordan
Company spotlight: Affiniti
You love to see the young ones soar. 🥹
Affiniti cofounders Aaron Bai and Sahil Phadnis have raised a total of $28 million ($11 million seed + $17 million series A just six months apart) for their SMB expense-management platform.
Julie Bort of TechCrunch notes that the young lads “didn’t come from a startup school like Y Combinator. They didn’t have to, the founders said. They met while attending UC Berkeley, which helped them form a solid network in Silicon Valley for introductions to VCs and others.” (BI has their pitch deck)
Bai, who’s 20, can’t even legally drink in the U.S., and I’m sure Phadnis, 22, is still getting carded. Let youth never be a barrier in your way.
No open jobs (yet), but I’ll be watching and I’ll let you know what I know when I know it.
Job opportunities
Read AI cuts down on the noise and mess of work, for us normals and for enterprises, backed by a $21 million series A. They have 20 open jobs in Seattle, WA. Check them out here.
Doji has built a virtual try-on app. Users create their AI likeness to try on clothes before they buy. The company is hiring several founding engineers with their $14 million seed (ground floor, baby!) Cofounder and CEO Dorian Dargan is an alum of Apple and Meta, but also McKinsey and Morgan Stanley.
HR tech won’t slow down. Dublin-based Kota builds infrastructure for employee benefits. Big global enterprises famously struggle with benefits admin across borders. This is a growth sector. They’ve got jobs open in Dublin and London + a few remote.
NetBox Labs builds an open-source network for infrastructure management—think ISP and telco, hybrid cloud, data centers, campus networks, and the like. They’re hiring for U.S.-based remote jobs. See them here.
Who’s for Gelato? The enterprise-grade roll-up-as-a-service platform is hiring for globally remote jobs, and they offer flex-time. See those positions here.
Mysten Labs is an OG contributor to the layer 1 Sui blockchain. They’re all for interview transparency: See a walk-through of their tech interviewing process. Now hiring for US-based remote jobs (+ one in Europe).
Dub announced its $30 million series A on May 1. The copy-trading platform says it will roll out dub 3.0 in the next six months. It’s got a bunch of open hybrid roles in NYC. Apply here.
Trawa helps companies source renewable energy through optimized energy supplies, battery storage, and asset control. They have 17 Berlin-based jobs open now.
Decagon, which makes an AI-powered customer service agent, is expanding to NYC and offering a $20,000 referral bonus. Lots of jobs in NYC and in SF: Apply here.
TobyTalks (expert advice on landing that next j.o.b.)
🤫 One of the best places to get indirect job search advice is by watching recruiters/hiring managers/founders talk (and maybe complain) to each other—and then be the solution to their problem, the answer to their prayers, the balm to their abrasions.
Take this thread from Keone Hon (@keoneHD), cofounder of Monad (they’re hiring, BTW). The tl;dr is this:
Employers are bombarded with inbound applicants; networks matter. A warm intro is as good as gold, esp. if it’s from a VC. Be a face, not just an application.
Build a solid bench of recommenders who can talk specifics about your work.
Hon laments over and over that the hires he most regrets were highly skilled but ill-suited to the role. Be rigorous in your evaluation of the job + company to avoid a lot of grief in the future.
Required reading
😬 Duolingo’s CEO Luis von Ahn said ok ok sorry I didn’t mean it when he said they’d be replacing contractors with AI. This comes just after Klarna’s Sebastian Siemiatkowski walked back similar comments.
👉 Bloomberg’s round-up of African startups to watch in 2025.
⏮️ Rewind: It’s worth revisiting this 2014 Vogue profile of Jony Ive to remind yourself of how low-profile he’s always been for years. The man can cultivate mystique, and that’s always been part of his appeal.
😘 Thanks for reading—how can I help you + your job search? Just hit reply or the comment button to tell me.
PS… Don’t forget to apply to the a16z talent network. We actually look through the roster, then match applicants to startups! We’ve placed >40 folks with stealth startups this year!!