?? ?? High Paying & Hiring ?? Apply to Vertical Gen AI ??, Meta on Fire?? ??, Reddit $5B IPO? ??

Feb 04, 2024 - High paying cos are hiring, Meta stock and bonuses lift, and Reddit may finally IPO

Originally posted on Substack: https://toptechnewsletter.com

?? Hiring Trends

?? The 3-Pointer

1. Funding in generative AI startups surged over 250% to reach $29 billion globally in 2023 according to Pitchbook, thanks to large rounds for OpenAI, Anthropic, and others.
2. But downstream vertical AI startups saw even faster growth, with deal activity in healthcare AI specifically doubling in 2023
3. As the AI market matures, vertical AI solutions in areas like manufacturing, agriculture, and medicine may be overlooked areas to target in your search

?? Salary Spotlight

Meta gave out bigger bonuses with its big earnings win, while other big tech companies like Microsoft didn’t give merit increases to many.

• Despite layoffs, Meta’s financials and stock performance have been soaring
• Meta reportedly is giving big bonuses this year
• Other tech companies cut bonuses, even completely for some orgs

What else would be valuable for your job search? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Leave a comment

?? Get Hired

?? Job Search amp; Negotiation Tips

Tip: Mass Personalization Job Search

1. Volume: Apply broadly to 100+ jobs per week
2. Quality: Focus on 20 jobs for high-touch outreach
3. Automate: Use Simplify Chrome Extension to auto-fill job applications
4. Track: Create a job tracker (sheets work) to stay organized
5. Say Yes: Take any interview you get for practice, at least at first

BONUS Tip: LinkedIn “Open To Work” (Recruiters only)

???? A candidate I was coaching got 3 tech recruiter emails just 1 day after doing this LinkedIn trick ??

3 simple steps:

1. First, go to your LinkedIn profile, click on 'Open To', and select 'Finding a new job'.

2. Next, list job titles that are at or one level above your current role. Set your status to 'immediately looking for jobs' and choose 'recruiters only' to keep it from your current employer.

3. Hit “Save” and watch your inbox fill up.

?? BONUS:

1. Turn this off and on every 1-2 weeksand

2. Reply to recruiter messages fast??…to get LinkedIn's algorithm to boost you to the top of recruiter searches.

I was surprised that a Sr. Product Director I used to manage told me he had no idea this feature on LinkedIn existed, so I think everyone should watch this.

?? Company Power Rankings

Now it's time to take action… Here are this week's company power rankings, so go start those reach-outs!

Legend:

?? Pays top of market

?? Pays competitively

?? Heating Up

Tip: Consider these as targets

1. ?? Meta - Stock surged 20% after strong earnings and dividend announcement
2. ?? Reddit - Confidentially filed for IPO, targeting $5B+ valuation

???Raised Funds This Week

Tip: Should be hiring soon. Reach out to hiring managers before they even post the jobs

1. DataSnipper - $100M Series B at $1B valuation for auditing automation startup (Amsterdam)
2. Kore.ai - $150M round for conversational AI provider (Orlando). One of the largest AI-focused rounds.
3. Watershed - $100M Series C at $1.8B valuation for carbon accounting startup (San Francisco)
4. Teamshares - Raising $100M+ for employee ownership startup (Brooklyn)
5. Plex - $40M Series C-3 round for media streaming software
6. Zum - $140M Series E at $1.3B valuation for school transportation startup
7. Rebellions - $124M Series B at $658M valuation for AI chip startup (South Korea)
8. SmithRx - $60M Series C for prescription benefits platform (San Francisco)
9. XReal - $60M round at $1B+ valuation for AR glasses maker (China)
10. Metronome - $43M Series B for usage-based billing software (San Francisco)
11. Oasis Security - $40M round for server/IoT security platform (Tel Aviv)
12. LightBeam - $17.8M Series A for data privacy compliance platform (Palo Alto)
13. Splash - $14.1M Series A extension for fantasy sports betting platform (Denver)
14. Codeium - $65M Series B at $500M valuation for AI coding platform (San Francisco). Backed by top VC Kleiner Perkins at a high valuation.
15. Inari Agriculture - $103M round at $1.63B valuation for crop yield improvement startup (Cambridge, MA). Over $1.5B valuation is rare for an early stage agtech startup.
16. Accompany Health - $56M Series A for personalized healthcare startup (Maryland). Large round for an early stage healthcare AI company.
17. Cube.Exchange - $12M Series A for crypto trading platform (Chicago). One of the few crypto companies raising amid the recent market crash.

?? Proceed with Caution

1. 23andMe - DNA testing startup collapsed from $6B valuation to <$1/share
2. PayPal - Laying off 9% (2,500 employees) of workforce
3. Block - Will cut headcount by 10% (1,000 employees)
4. Polygon Labs - Crypto startup cut 19% (60 employees) of workforce
5. iRobot - Amazon abandoned acquisition spurring 30% layoffs

Forward Top Tech to a friend! Everyone should be building their job options in 2024.

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?? Who's Hiring

Companies posting new roles this week

Public

• ?? Amazon - ?? 17d ago, time-consuming ATS, 12,326 open jobs
• ?? Tesla - ?? 6mo ago, 5,925 open jobs
• ?? Meta - Huge stock and earnings lift, ?? 25d ago, 1,519 open jobs
• ?? Google/Alphabet - ?? 13d ago, time-consuming ATS, 1,411 open jobs
• ?? NVIDIA - Still rising, 1,675 open jobs

Private

• Reddit - ?? Planning up to $5B IPO, 3,000 employees, ?? 8mo ago, 136 open jobs
• ?? Databricks - ?? $43B valuation, 8,000 employees, on IPO watchlist, 332 open jobs
• ?? Jane Street - 2,000 employees, 171 open jobs
• SpaceX - ??, $150B valuation, 12K employees, 1,067 open jobs
• ?? Stripe - ?? $50B valuation, 8,000 employees, ?? 7mo ago, 329 open jobs
• ?? DRW - 1,800 employees, 92 open jobs
• ?? OpenAI - ?? $29B valuation, 1,100 employees, ?? 79d ago, 138 open jobs
• ?? Rippling - ?? $11B valuation, 2,000 employees, 342 open jobs
• ?? Scale - ?? $7B valuation, 2,000 employees, ?? 13mo ago, 80 open jobs
• ?? Anthropic - ?? Unicorn, $4B valuation, 240 employees, 62 open jobs

Sourced some signals from TrueUp.io

Top 20 Highest Paying Companies (Source: Levels.FYI, Staff Engineer)

IPO Watch

The biotech IPO boom and lowering valuations could reopen the tech IPO window starting in the next few months, with AI/cloud/cybersecurity startups as prime targets according to some VCs.

???Promising

• ?? Reddit - Confidentially filed for IPO, targeting $5B+ valuation
• Circle - Major USDC stablecoin developer confidentially filed for IPO
• Shein - Chinese fast fashion giant seeking approval for US IPO, but Beijing investigating
• Zeekr - Chinese electric vehicle company planning 2024 IPO
• Reddit - Social media community platform planning March or April IPO, but could push
• Rubrik - Data management and security company pushed back plans to Spring 2024 or later
• SeatGeek - Sports/concert ticket marketplace filed for IPO in April 2023, expected in 2024
• Turo - Car-sharing startup has delayed IPO plans a few times, but could go public in 2024

???Still waiting

• High-paying ?? Databricks, ?? Plaid, and ?? Stripe have all not yet revealed IPO plans
• Unfortunately, ?? Databricks, SpaceX, and ?? Stripe have all allowed employees to sell shares to investors recently to delay the need for an IPO
• Navan, Fanatics, and Klarna have all been quieter after earlier IPO speculation

???Recent IPOs:

• Oddity Direct-to-consumer beauty brand
• Arm England-based chip designer
• Klaviyo Marketing automation platform
• Instacart Grocery delivery

Forward Top Tech to a friend! Everyone should be building their job options in 2024