Hey! Andrew Yeung and Ivor Stratford from The Shortlist NYC team here.
This is our first issue of The Shortlist. You're getting this because you either signed up to our talent network or applied as a founder to pitch. Thanks for being here from the beginning.
After spending the last few years immersed in the NYC tech ecosystem, we've both observed one clear opportunity: the most ambitious operators want to work at the next OpenAI, Stripe, or Airbnb - but have no way of identifying them.
On the other side, the founders of hyper-growth startups want to hire the best, but have few ways of reaching them.
So we’re introducing The Shortlist New York: Where NYC’s exceptional talent meets breakout founders.
The Shortlist New York is a monthly event series and newsletter connecting exceptional talent with breakout founders in NYC.
Every two weeks, we'll send you a regular newsletter featuring under-the-radar job opportunities.
Every month, we host a founder showcase where eight founders will take the stage and tell YOU why you should grab a seat on their rocketship.
How to get involved:
Attend our first event → Limited spots for our January 27 Founder Showcase at betaworks, where eight founders will be presenting. We have a few spots left.
Join our talent network → Tell us what you're looking for. We'll connect you with companies that match before roles go public. Sign up here.
Founders: Apply to pitch → Raising pre-seed through Series B? Hiring for key roles? We want to feature you.
The events will be highly curated, free to attend, and application-only.
Who this is for
The Shortlist is for ambitious engineers, designers, and GTM operators (sales, growth, marketing).
You might be:
A senior engineer at a big tech company, wondering what it would feel like to build something from zero
An operator who's ready to join something earlier and own actual outcomes
A former founder planning your next act
Someone who's been at a mid-stage startup and wants to go even earlier
A high-trajectory person who's exploring what's next
If you're optimizing for brand name and stability, this isn't for you. If you're optimizing for impact, ownership, and being in the room where it happens - keep reading.
Why attend?
Our events are designed around one principle: put the right people in a room with founders you should know, and get out of the way. That means:
You’ll meet founders before everyone else does. These are second and third-time founders who are months away from their breakthrough moment. You’re getting introduced before the hype, and you’ll hear directly from the founders and CEOs of these companies.
Curation is our single most important factor. You’re not one of a thousand people, but one of 50. The person sitting next to you might be a senior engineer at Google exploring their next move. The person across from you just left a Series C startup to go earlier.
It won’t be boring. After sitting through dozens of corporate speaker events, we know exactly what not to do. This will be somewhere you actually want to spend your Tuesday night. Our north star metric is the number of hires made from presenting founders.
Upcoming events
January 27: Founder Showcase (RSVP)
Our inaugural showcase at betaworks. Eight founders pitch what they're building, why it matters, and what roles they're hiring for. Limited to 50 attendees.
January 28: Junto Founder Dinner (RSVP)
Founders only. An Intimate dinner for seed to Series B founders and CEOs. Application-only.
February (Date TBA): Startup Engineer & GTM Mixer
For growth marketers, sales leaders, and GTM operators exploring early-stage roles. Details coming soon.
The Shortlist
These are the breakout startups hiring in New York this month — meet them before everyone else does.
Probook
Probook is the AI-powered dispatching software for the $700B home services industry (plumbers, electricians, HVAC). Founded by Ben Cervantez and George Eliadis (both Wharton). Series A company backed by Tier 1 investors (to be announced).
Hiring: software engineers, founding account executive, chief of staff, strategy associate, marketing director, GM. Details here.
Basic Capital
Basic Capital is reimagining retirement savings by providing $4 of financing for every dollar in 401(k) contributions. Founded by Abdul Al-Asaad, backed by Bill Ackman, Forerunner Capital, Lux Capital, BoxGroup, Henry Kravis, and SV Angel ($25M Series A).
Hiring: full-stack software engineers, founding GTM associate, growth manager (IRL), operations associates. Details here.
Lora
Lora is a consumer AI software platform, sitting at the intersection of spirituality, self discovery, and astrology. Founded by the former Chief Product Officer of Hinge and ex Netflix, Spotify, Kayak product exec, Michelle Parsons. Backed by AlleyCorp.
Hiring: founding engineer, head of design, growth, product, and content roles. Details here.
Goodword
Goodword is a smart networking copilot powered by AI and emotional intelligence. It’s built to help you unlock the full value of your relationships. Founded by Caroline Dell (former Chief, Bain) and Chris Fischer (former Aaptiv, Shutterstock). Backed by Futureback Ventures and Human Ventures ($4M seed).
Hiring: full-stack engineer, AI engineer, frontend engineer, customer success associate, strategy & operations lead. Details here.
Carry
Carry is a tax-optimized wealth platform for business owners, freelancers, and founders. Founded by Ankur Nagpal (funder of Teachable; sold for $250M), backed by Accomplice VC, Balaji Srinivasan, Sam Parr, Sophia Amoruso, and Codie Sanchez ($10M Series A).
Hiring: software engineers, growth marketing manager, and content lead. Details here.
Heidi AI
Heidi AI is an AI-powered medical scribe that automates clinical documentation for healthcare providers, transcribing patient visits and generating notes, referrals, and follow-ups in 110+ languages. Founded by Dr. Thomas Kelly (former vascular surgeon) and Waleed Mussa (former Goldman Sachs), backed by Point72 Private Investments, Blackbird, Headline, and Latitude, with a $65M Series B (valued at $465M).
Hiring: solutions engineer, designer, head of sales, partnerships manager, senior and junior customer success roles. Details here.
Upscale AI
Upscale AI is a platform that leverages AI to help brands tap into the power of streaming TV and video for performance marketing, so that they can generate, run, and optimize TV-quality video ads automatically. Founded by Mike Chang and Kevin Weatherman (industry execs from Google, Twitter, and Salesforce), and backed by Microsoft’s Venture Fund and Eniac Ventures, with a $5.5M Seed.
Hiring: machine learning engineer, data scientist, software engineer, head of growth marketing, and account executive roles. Details here.
Why we’re bullish on New York
Five years ago, if you wanted to build a serious company, you moved to San Francisco. That's changing.
What San Francisco has in AI infrastructure, New York is developing in applied AI companies that understand real industries. Engineers leaving Google, Meta, and the AI labs aren't moving to SF — they're starting companies here.
Ramp, Kalshi, Warby Parker, Hugging Face, Etsy, Clay, Kickstarter, ZocDoc — all unicorns built in NYC.
The density of talent, capital, and domain expertise is reaching critical mass. We want you in the room as it happens.
Want to attend? Know a founder who should be featured? Reply to this email … we read everything.
Andrew, Ivor & the Shortlist NYC team.