2,000 applications. 106 invites. 6 founders on stage.

Last week, we hosted our first Founder Showcase — designed to solve one problem: the best startup opportunities never make it to LinkedIn. By the time they're posted publicly, the founding team is already set.

Six founders stood up and pitched what they're building: Basic Capital, Sandbar, Goodword, Lora, Edge, and Probook AI. No investor fluff. No hypotheticals. Just: here's the problem, here's what we're doing about it, here's where we need help.

Then the mixer. Drinks, intros, and the conversations that don't happen on LinkedIn. Founders and candidates actually talking. No staged networking, no forced small talk—just people figuring out if this could be their next chapter.

This is how early-stage hiring should work.

The Shortlist New York is a monthly event series and newsletter connecting exceptional talent with breakout founders in NYC.

Every two weeks, we send you a curated newsletter featuring under-the-radar opportunities at companies that are actually moving.

Every month, we host a founder showcase where eight founders take the stage and tell YOU why you should grab a seat on their rocketship.

How to get involved:

The events will be highly curated, free to attend, and application-only.

Six companies. Seed to Series B. Spanning financial services, consumer AI, consumer social, commodity risk management, and home services.Each founder had 8 minutes to pitch what they're building, why it matters, and what roles they're hiring for.

Basic Capital – A financial technology company expanding access to ownership by enabling Americans to finance long-term investments. Using a model inspired by the mortgage, they help individuals and employees increase their investing power inside retirement accounts. Founded by Abdul Al-Asaad and Anjan Karanam. Built by alumni of Goldman Sachs, Uber, Square, Robinhood, and WeWork, and backed by LUX, SV Angel, and BoxGroup.

Hiring: full-stack software engineers, founding GTM associate, growth manager (IRL), operations associates. Details here.

Sandbar – An interface company building tools that act as extensions of the self, helping people better navigate the world around and inside them. Founded in 2023 by Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong, Sandbar is creating new interaction models, including Stream, a self-extension for building ideas, and Stream Ring, a voice-first input device. Backed by Upfront Ventures, True Ventures, and betaworks.

Hiring: iOS Product Engineer. Details here.

Goodword – 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.

Hiring: full-stack engineer, AI engineer, frontend engineer, customer success associate, strategy & operations lead. Details here.

Lora – A consumer app for self-discovery and connection, using astrology as a cultural entry point and AI-driven personalization to deliver relevant, conversational insights. Founded by Michelle Parsons (Ex-Chief Product Officer of Hinge) and backed by AlleyCorp.

Hiring: founding engineer, head of design, growth, product, and content roles. Details here.

Edge – Building the modern stack for commodity risk management by combining AI-driven market intelligence with embedded financial products. Founded by Ajinkya Deshpande. Raised $9M and backed by Future Back Ventures, Convective Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, 645 Ventures, and Manresa Ventures.

Hiring: Full Stack Engineer (back-end), Design Engineer, Growth Associate. Email us.

Probook AI – An AI-powered dispatching and operations platform built for the $700B home services industry, including plumbing, electrical, and HVAC businesses. The software automates scheduling, routing, and job coordination to help operators run more efficient, scalable service operations. Founded by Ben Cervantez and George Eliadis (both Wharton). Series A company backed by tier-one investors.

Hiring: Founding Account Executive, Deployment Strategist, Software Engineers. Details here.

These weren't companies hoping to raise a seed round. These were companies scaling, hiring, and moving fast.

"Finally, an event where founders are actually hiring, not just building their brand."

"I talked to three companies I'd never heard of. All three are crushing it."

"This felt less like networking and more like... actually finding what I've been looking for."

"Best talent density I've seen at any NYC event this year."

We're doing this again on February 23rd. Same format. Different founders. More roles you won't find on job boards.

If you want in on the next one, get on the list. Spots fill before we announce.

High demand. Limited spots.

👉 Secure your spot now!

If you're a founder and want to pitch or collaborate, reach out to [email protected].

If you're hiring and want to work with us, we're selective but always looking.

On February 10th, we are bringing together ambitious founders and builders from around the world for dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant.

On February 10th, we are bringing together ambitious founders and builders from around the world for dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant.

Our monthly, curated, application-only evening connecting early-stage founders with exceptional operators in New York—spots are limited and demand is high.

Every month, we bring together a select group of people from the venture community for an intimate breakfast to discuss industry trends, collaborate, and make friends.

Conversational AI infrastructure that doesn't sound like a robot. Co-founded by Malte Kosub (CEO) and Stefan Ostwald (CPO)—building enterprise-grade voice agents that actually work for customer service. Advanced agentic AI technology that people don't hate talking to.

Raised $350M Series D led by General Catalyst at a $3B valuation, bringing total capital raised to over $560M. Backed by EQT Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Durable Capital Partners, and Mosaic Ventures. Scaling across DACH, Southern Europe, UK, and the U.S.

Hiring: field marketing, sales (enterprise), forward-deployed & solutions engineers, product, design, and technical program roles. Details here

Code review and CI tooling that doesn't make engineers want to quit. Founded by Merrill Lutsky, Greg Foster, and Tomas Reimers—ex-Google, Facebook, and Oscar engineers who built the tools they wished existed. Modern, AI-driven code review that engineering teams actually want to use.

Raised $52M Series B led by Accel, backed by Menlo Ventures (Anthology Fund with Anthropic), Shopify Ventures, Figma Ventures, a16z, and The General Partnership. Based in New York. Acquired by Cursor in late 2025.

Hiring: engineers (AI, frontend, backend), product & design, GTM, sales, and developer relations. Details here

Launch a mobile service that runs itself. Founded by Hermann Frank (CEO) and Dennis Bauer—the world's best mobile networks in one automated platform. Infrastructure for companies to launch wireless services. Stripe for phone plans.

Raised $73M Series B led by Ribbit Capital, backed by Google's Gradient, Y Combinator, and Speedinvest. Launched in 2021 through YC. In production.

Hiring: engineering, GTM, brand, marketing, people, and support roles across Europe and the U.S. Details here

AI platform built for midsize law firms and in-house legal teams. Founded by Rutvik Rau, Thomas Bueler-Faudree, and Joseph Parker in 2023. Formerly Vecflow—rebranded to focus on what actually matters for legal ops.

Raised $7M seed in August 2025 from NEA, Pear VC, Afore Capital, plus angels from OpenAI and Ramp. Based in New York.

Hiring: founding engineers, AI, product, design, growth, and early sales roles. Details here

AI-native search built to organize all knowledge. Founded by Will Bryk (CEO, ex-Cresta) and Jeff Wang (ex-Plaid)—not Google with a chatbot slapped on. Actually rethinking how search works for LLMs.

Raised $85M Series B led by Benchmark at a $700M valuation, backed by Lightspeed, Y Combinator, and NVentures (NVIDIA's VC arm). Built different.

Hiring: founding GTM / account executive (NYC). Details here

The support operations platform enabling great support, from workforce planning to AI automation. Founded by Ryan Wang (CEO), John Wang (CTO), and Brian Sze—forecasting, scheduling, and analytics that actually help modern support teams. Built for teams that need more than spreadsheets and guesswork.

Raised $51M Series B in 2022, backed by Emergence Capital (Jake Saper) and NEA (Vanessa Larco, Hilarie Koplow-McAdams). In production.

Hiring: software engineers (AI, infra, data), customer success, implementation, sales, and marketing. Details here

AI video generation that's already in production. Co-founded in 2018 by Cristóbal Valenzuela (CEO), Alejandro Matamala-Ortiz, and Anastasis Germanidis—merging art and science to simulate the world. Used by creators, studios, and teams who need to move fast.

Raised $308M Series D led by General Atlantic, backed by Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, Nvidia, SoftBank, and others. Total capital raised: $536.5M. Not a demo. In production.

Hiring: enterprise GTM and AI engagement roles. Details here

Content engineering platform built for marketing teams who actually need to ship. Founded in early 2022 by Alex Halliday (CEO), Berna Gonzalez, and Matt Hammel—ex-MasterClass and Bungalow. AI for SEO and content creation that works at scale.

Raised $40M Series B led by Mike Duboe at Greylock, backed by over two dozen CMOs and marketing leaders, plus Unusual Ventures, Wing VC, Frontline, Xfund, Village Global, and Founder Collective. In production.

Hiring: AI, data, engineering, product, GTM, marketing, and customer-facing roles. Details here

Payments infrastructure for platforms. Founded in 2021 by Jose Bethancourt (CEO), Jesus Marco del Carmen (CTO), and Mit Shah (COO)—embedded finance that actually works. Liability connectivity API for automated debt repayment, built for fintechs and lenders who need it to just work.

Raised $42M Series B led by Emergence Capital, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Avra, Samsung, Truist, and Ardent. In production.

Hiring: engineers, product, finance & ops, customer success, growth, and enterprise sales. Details here

AI infra and health tech are still getting the big checks

In the last couple of weeks, multiple AI-heavy rounds have cleared the $250–300M mark: Baseten raised roughly $300M to make it easier to deploy and scale models, and OpenEvidence picked up $250M at a $12B valuation to build an AI assistant for doctors. Add Upwind's $250M Series B (Bessemer) and Decagon's $250M Series D (Coatue), and the signal is clear: late-stage capital is still flowing into AI infra and applied health, even if everything else feels frozen.

Recent funding rounds worth watching

RobCo ($100M Series C, Lightspeed) — robotics automation. Rogo ($75M Series C, Sequoia) — AI for manufacturing. Matic ($60M venture, Sutter Hill) — fintech infrastructure. Outtake ($40M Series B, ICONIQ) — content tech. Flapping Airplanes ($180M seed, GV) — aerospace. These are the companies that'll be hiring founding teams and early operators in Q1.

NYC's AI and tech pipeline is crowded, not quiet

Since 2019, more than 1,000 AI-related companies in NYC have raised around $27B in funding, with AI now accounting for roughly 35% of all local tech capital. Recent rounds include Excelsior Sciences ($70M Series A in AI-powered biotech) and Paradigm ($78M Series B in AI-driven healthcare analytics)—the kinds of companies that quietly spin up new technical and GTM roles before they ever post.

Top NYC AI startups are suddenly global search terms

Several New York AI startups are seeing steep search and interest growth going into February. AI Lawyer is now pulling about 49.5K searches a month with roughly 489% growth over two years, while Raspberry AI and Stay AI are also on multi-hundred-percent growth curves. When non–New Yorkers are Googling your local AI companies this much, it's usually a leading indicator for hiring, partnerships, and new product lines about to drop.

See you next week.

Know a founder who should be featured? Reply to this email.

Looking for a role we didn't list? Tell us what you're looking for.

Are you a founder wanting to collaborate on a private event with top talent? Reach out to [email protected]

Want to grab coffee? We're always around.

[email protected]

Sangavi, Ivor, Andrew & the Shortlist NYC team.