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Revolutionizing Connections, Careers, and Cash

September 26, 2023

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Welcome to the 33rd edition of our newsletter, where we feature the most exciting early-stage startups, job openings, and valuable resources, all in a single newsletter.

Now, let's delve right into what's in store for this week.

Sponsored by Masterworks

A Banksy got everyday investors 32% returns?

Mm-hmm, sure. So, what’s the catch?

We know it may sound too good to be true. But thousands of investors are already smiling all the way to the bank, thanks to the fine-art investing platform Masterworks.

These results aren’t cherry-picking. This is the whole bushel. Masterworks has built a track record of 16 exits, including net returns of +10.4%, +27.3%, and +35.0%, even while financial markets plummeted.

But art? Really? Okay, skeptics, here are the numbers. Contemporary art prices:

  • outpaced the S&P 500 by 131% over the last 26 years

  • have the lowest correlation to equities of any asset class

  • remained stable through the dot-com bubble and ’08 crisis

Got your attention yet? Open Scout readers can skip the waitlist with this exclusive link.1

Startups to watch

TL;DR: A consumer, social network based on your personality.

Here's how it works: You engage in a series of personality quizzes, and the app then compares your traits with those of your friends who are also using the platform. It assesses your workplace behaviors, love compatibility, and shared values.

Dimensional distinguishes itself from Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok in several ways. Instead of a constant stream of content, it offers a one-time experience: You take the quizzes, wait for your friends to do the same, and then compare results. This limits the time you spend on the platform, providing a refreshing break from the never-ending content consumption elsewhere. Using Dimensional feels more like reading an article about yourself; there are no photos, likes, or performances for an anonymous audience. Rather than promoting personal brands or serving as megaphones, they encourage introspection, allowing users to upload their self-reflection into the cloud.

Critics often dismiss personality testing as pseudo-science, equating it to psychological flattery or "astrology for men." While Myers-Briggs was never intended as an employee screening tool, personality assessments designed for that purpose often suffer from issues like manipulated responses and questionable validity.

However, reducing personality testing to mere pseudoscience overlooks its true potential: (1) as a mirror reflecting our inner selves, (2) as a vocabulary and framework for understanding our inner world, (3) as a remedy for feelings of alienation, and (4) as a lens through which we can better comprehend others.

Founded: 2020, Canada

Founders: Saeid Fard (CEO) - ex-President and GM @ Sokanu; Alvin Lim (CTO) - ex-Senior Software Engineer & Product Manager @ Sokanu (both were the founding employees @ Sokanu, acquired in 2021)

Industry: Consumer—Social

Funding: N/A

Some things about Dimensional:

  • 4.9/5 rating on the App Store

  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70 (70+ is deemed excellent), growing at 30% per month

TL;DR: An employer branding and candidate engagement platform.

Puck is a no-code website builder that assists hiring teams in creating all the necessary collateral, ranging from career sites to interview guides, to support a comprehensive candidate experience. It enables you to share your team's story and attract the best candidates for your open positions. Puck seamlessly combines audio and software to help you distribute content across your professional presence, allowing you to enhance your employer brand and reach candidates wherever they are.

Why Puck? In today's tech-driven world, the hiring process often reduces candidates to mere filters and checkboxes. However, selecting a job or hiring for a role is one of the most crucial decisions we make. Puck offers a more human-centric approach to hiring, one that captures the culture and character that defines your team. Through the use of audio clips and analytics, Puck assists you in creating content that resonates with candidates and helps you identify the ideal candidates for your open positions, transforming them into valuable team members.

Founded: 2020, US

Founders: Tali Rapaport (CEO) - ex-VP Product @ Lyft, Director of Product Management @ Groupon; Joshua Krall (CTO) - ex-Co-founder & VP, Technology @ Boom Supersonic, Director of Engineering, MerchantOS @ Groupon; Harrison Bowden (Designer) - ex-Senior Product Designer @ Lyft

Industry: B2B—Recruiting and Talent

Funding: $2.5 million (Seed)

Investors: N/A

TL;DR: Banking and accounting for the self-employed.

WorkMade is an automated finance app, exclusively built for the self-employed. WorkMade handles the tasks typically managed by finance, accounting, and operations experts in seconds. It takes care of the less interesting tasks that freelancers are usually not well-versed in — and generally prefer not to deal with — and completes them perfectly.

Why WorkMade? “A substantial and continually growing portion of the American workforce lacks employer-provided health care or 401(k) plans to build retirement savings, requiring them to contribute twice as much to Social Security as their peers. These individuals don't have access to paid time off and must cover their own business expenses. Additionally, their earnings can be subject to unpredictable fluctuations. These individuals are America's independent workers2”. writes Kweilin Ellingrud in Forbes. WorkMade is an all-in-one banking and accounting app designed specifically for the self-employed. As you use your WorkMade account to deposit income and pay business expenses, it will automatically identify write-offs, calculate your tax liability, and set money aside, ensuring you're always prepared for when taxes are due.

Founded: 2022, US

Team: Nick Simpson (Founder) - ex-Co-founder @ Storetasker; Ben Howdle (CTO) - ex-CTO @ Letter (wealth management for high net worth individuals)

Industry: Fintech

Funding: $1.9 million (Pre-Seed)

Investors: 1517 Fund, Pareto Holdings, M13, Slack Fund, Jon Oringer (Founder Shutterstock), Edward Lando

Which early-stage startup should we feature next? Send us a reply. (Criteria: Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A startups)

Deals

  • Series, a software company focusing on centralizing and automating businesses' finance and operations stacks, secured $25 million in funding across Seed and Series A rounds. The investment was led by 776 and Basis Set Ventures, with participation from Pear VC, Kleiner Perkins, Day One Ventures, Hustle Fund, Caffeinated Capital, Wischoff Ventures, and several angels.

  • Secoda, a startup developing an AI-powered data search and cataloging platform, raised $14 million in a Series A funding round led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Abstract Ventures and angel investors.

  • Peregrine Hydrogen, a Santa Cruz, CA-based climate tech company, secured $7.8 million in Seed funding led by Bidra, with participation from Builders, Gates Frontier, Presidio Ventures, RiSC Capital, and Schox. The funds will be used to scale their proprietary technology and enter commodity chemical markets.

  • Chai AI, an AI chat entertainment app, secured an $8 million investment from CoreWeave, valuing the company at $450 million. Chai aims to offer a unique AI-driven chat experience, blurring the lines between human and machine creativity.

  • Beehiiv, a newsletter publishing startup, has acquired Swapstack, an advertising marketplace for newsletters, to gain access to their technology and advertiser relationships.

  • Amazon announced on Monday (Sep 25), that it will be investing $4 billion in Anthropic, an AI safety and research company known for models like Claude 2, which competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT. This marks Anthropic's 5th funding round in 2023, with previous rounds including $300 million from Google in Feb 2023, $450 million from Spark Capital in May 2023, $100 million+ from SAP in Jul 2023, and $100 million from SK Telecom in Aug 2023.

More for your eyeballs

Who's hiring

  • Superpower, a company aiming to create the world's most comprehensive and user-friendly personal health management platform, is currently looking for a Founding Full Stack Engineer with 3-10 years of full-stack experience.

  • Azuki, a metaverse brand featuring a collection of 10,000 avatars granting membership access to The Garden, an online space where art, community, and culture seamlessly merge, is in search of a Visual Designer with 4+ years of experience in visual or graphic design.

  • Assort Health is developing an AI-enhanced contact center and care navigation platform that supports various modes of communication, including text, audio, and video. They are actively seeking a Founding Engineer with 3-10 years of software engineering experience.

  • TheGuarantors, a company dedicated to revolutionizing rental solutions for renters and operators worldwide, is currently seeking a Senior Software Engineer (Backend) with 8+ years of production experience in back-end web development to join their internal support platform team.

Interested in any of these jobs? Send us a reply for more info.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thank you for sticking with us until the finish.

We're open to hearing your suggestions for future newsletter topics, so feel free to share what you're grappling with or what you'd like to see from us in upcoming editions.

Have a great week.

Kenneth ✌️

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