Career-changing startups to join right now

"Michelin guide for startups"

purpose

To help top talent find career-changing startups by showcasing startups early in their stories. To be signal amongst the noise.

methodology

We asked 50 world-class investors to recommend one startup to join in 2024. We make no money and take no sponsorships.

under 10

under 100

under 1,000

Under 10 employees

Flagship

Flagship helps creators build thriving ecommerce businesses. Creators are the new community and sales leaders; any modern consumer or B2B startup has distribution a la content at their core of their strategy. I love their founding observation in 2022: “culture leadership has shifted.” This impressive team of 6 has experience at Instagram, YouTube, and Google Brain. They come recommended by Rex Woodbury (Daybreak) who says “Flagship is building the rails for creator commerce, underpinning a new generation of boutique storefronts that power discovery-driven online shopping.” Flagship has the chance to build an important platform and you have the chance to join them in the first inning.

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Aerodome

Aerodome is an air support operating system that turns drones into first responders. Imagine, for a second, being the victim of a crime (I’m sorry). You immediately press an emergency button from your phone and the nearest drone is sent to your location, capturing every piece of data possible to help law enforcement find the criminal and possibly even break up the crime in the act. Even if I’ve done a terrible job capturing the future Aerodome is building, it’s worth checking out their site and tech. The team of <10 is based in San Francisco and remote friendly. Backed by a16z. Recommended by: anonymous.

Visit Aerodome

Braintrust

Braintrust is helps enterprises ship AI products with a suite of tools: evaluations, prompting, continuous integration, datasets, and more. The team of four is based in San Francisco and has raised funding from Greylock, Elad Gil, Basecase, and a host of executive angels. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Class Companion

Class Companion is the teacher's new pet, giving education systems and teachers superpowers with AI. This team of <10 works from the San Francisco Bay Area and is backed Index, OpenAI’s Startup Fund, and Andrej Karpathy. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

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Coris AI

Coris is a data intelligence and risk management platform focused on SMBs. Their two products let sellers know their SMBs with one simple API and centralize risk management. Recommended by: Charley Ma (Exponent Founders Capital).

Visit Coris AI

Crux Climate

Crux Climate is tackling climate change with data. This small but mighty team is backed by Lowercarbon Capital and stands to make a difference on the largest problem our world faces. Recommended by: Shawn Xu (Lowercarbon).

Visit Crux Climate

Krea

Krea AI is a creative suite supercharged by generative AI. This is a crowded space but I’ve been impressed by what this team of <5 has built in a short amount of time. Krea is backed by Google’s AI Fund. Recommended by: Leeor Mushin.

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Lassie

Lassie makes it easier for doctors to run their practices. While little has been made public about the company, I know co-founder Steijn from my On Deck cohort. He’s a killer. They’ve been thoughtfully building this product for four years with what seems like a true heads-down focus on customers and avoidance of ego-inflating startup press. Recommended by: Hunter Walk (Homebrew).

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Norm AI

Norm AI is a team of AI researchers, lawyers, and compliance professionals building agents to streamline regulatory compliance. Norm is founded by the well-respected John Nay and the team is based in New York, NY. While little information has been made public about Norm, my spidey sense tingles with Norm. Recommended by a talented (anonymous) investor at a well-respected multi-stage firm.

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Partiful

Partiful makes party planning joyful. If you're the slightest bit social and have spent time at tech parties within the last three years, you've probably used their product. I think Partiful is sneakily big and overlooked by many. The product is solid and seems to be built and lead by a stellar team of <20. What's more promising, their core founding team remains at Partiful and stuck with the product through the troughs of Covid. This could be a fun team to work with and a huge financial opportunity that avoids major competition as it wrongly gets dismissed. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

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Pika

Pika lets you turn ideas into video using generative AI. They are the best generative AI video platform I have personally used and are led by an impressive founding team. Recommended by: anonymous.

Visit Pika

Pomerium

Pomerium builds secure, clientless connections to internal web apps and services without a corporate VPN needed. The team is <10. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Resend

Resend is a team of ~10 building the modern email sending platform. The resilience of email is astonishing — protocols (eg SMTP) built in 1982 still hold up as the primary business-to-consumer communication medium. Resend is backed by Y Combinator, Dylan Field, Guillermo Rauch, Elad Gil, and Lachy Groom. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

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Spherepay

Spherepay enabled companies and creators to accept low-friction crypto payments. With a team that could fit in a minivan, this Chicago-based startup is backed by The Chernin Group and Hudson River Trading. Recommended by: Gaby Goldberg (TCG Crypto).

Visit Spherepay

Val Town is a social website to write and deploy TypeScript. The team of <5 is based in New York. If you love dev tools, Val Town is worth a look. Recommended by: Peter Zakin (Upfront).

Visit Val town

Midjourney

Midjourney is a creative tool expanding the imaginative powers of humans. Perhaps the only thing wilder about that statement is that it still doesn’t capture how powerful Midjourney is and stands to be. Founder David Holz just hired a former Engineering Manager for the Apple Vision Pro to lead hardware efforts at Midjourney — an exciting and thought-provoking glimpse into possible futures. Midjourney receives two Zichelin stars and comes with my highest recommendation to join immediately. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

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Vacation Inc

Vacation Inc is a lifestyle and consumer goods company. But that doesn’t quite capture the essence of this company and brand. In an age of mimetic branding (thank you Stripe and Linear for setting the pace), Vacation Inc and Poolsuite jettisoned the status quo to create a cohesive, strong, memorable brand based on a nostalgia many of us are too young to remember. Their products have received rave review from United States Royal Family leader Kim Kardashian, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and the likes. Vacation is led by Executive Pool Boy and brand genius Marty Bell. The sub-100 team is largely based in the United States. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

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Mercury

Mercury offers digital-native banking. Today, Mercury is built for startups. I’ve been a happy customer for four years. Tomorrow, one can imagine Mercury disrupting much more than startup banking. I will keep my lips sealed for now; but there is plenty reason to be excited to join this sub-1,000 person team in 2024. Mercury is still early in their story with a lot of room to run. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

Visit Mercury

Under 100 employees

Harvey AI

Harvey gives law firms superpowers using generative AI. I especially like their cofounders are deeply familiar with the pain they are solving and seem to be capturing marketshare on what I assume is a sticky industry accustomed to signing long-term contracts. They seem to be hyper-scaling with team size of <100 and 30+ roles open as of writing. According to one Harvey investor, the team “operates like a Series A startup” and has “great customers and growth.” I recommend giving Harvey serious thought in the early part of 2024. Recommended by: Ilya Fushman (Kleiner Perkins).

Visit Harvey AI

Hex

Hex is a collaborative data workspace with an impressive list of customers. A representative from their customer, Notion, says Hex is “low overhead [yet] flexible enough to handle exploratory analysis to complex data science workflows.” The Hex team is under 100 people, based in the US, and remote friendly. Notable investors include the usual heavy hitters: Sequoia, a16z, Databricks, Snowflake, and 137 Ventures. Recommended by: Christian Garrett (137 Ventures).

Visit Hex

Mach Industries

Mach is a defense technology company founded by Ethan Thornton, a Thiel Fellow and MIT dropout. The team of <50 is building hubs in Austin, TX and Boston, MA after receiving funding from Sequoia in the firm’s first defense tech investment in the firm’s history. Recommended by: Danielle Strachman (1517 Fund).

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Pano AI

Pano helps detect and eliminate fires faster than ever before. I’m excited about Pano because climate change remains the single most important problem we face yet most climate-tech companies lack a clear near-term financial value. Pano seems to excel here given their product has demonstrable ROI for government and private entities alike. Fire departments and wildlife services are clear customers while utility companies, landowners, farmers, insurance companies, and asset managers all have a financial interest in detecting fires early and extinguishing them as quickly as possible. This team of <100 is based in San Francisco. Recommended by: Garry Tan (Y Combinator).

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Standard Bots

Robotics may be the most exciting platform to build (and build for) in the 2020s. Every small business owner I speak seems to have the same painpoint — hiring reliable workers. Robots will replace (and are replacing) undesirable human labor and we will do it to ourselves. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Together AI

2

Together AI helps developers everywhere build on open and custom AI models. If you believe the future of humanity is better off with open source AI, Together AI is a company to keep on the top of your list. Based in San Francisco, this team of <50 has plenty of funding ($100m series A) from some of the best investors in the world including Bucky Moore at Kleiner Perkins, NEA, Greycroft, 137 Ventures, and Lux Capital. Recommended by: anonymous.

Visit Together AI

1v1Me

1

1v1Me is turning video games into a high-stakes, high-reward playground. Based in New York, this team of <20 is backed by Banana Capital, Pomp, Austin Rief, and Erik Torenberg. Turner Novak says they're 'the future of gaming,' and with over $21,000,000 paid out to gamers, it's hard to disagree. Recommended by Turner Novak (Banana Capital).

Visit 1v1Me

Antora Energy

1

Antora makes thermal batteries to soak up excess solar and wind electricity and use it to heat blocks of carbon for to deliver electricity and heat. Antora is one of the most exciting companies working to stop climate change. The team of <100 is based in the Bay Area. Recommended by Chris Sacca (Lowercarbon).

Visit Antora Energy

Aven

Aven is a credit card that allows homeowners to use home equity to get relatively low rates on credit. The team is <100 and backed by Khosla, Founders Fund, and Sequoia. Recommended by: anonymous.

Visit Aven

Beehiiv

Beehiiv is a newsletter platform with modern growth tools included. Tyler Denk, CEO, first impressed me as a highly responsive and high velocity leader while I sent him product feedback in their early stages. The initial product was built on earned secrets from Tyler’s time at Morning Brew and this team’s shipping velocity seems second to none. They are the obvious choice when starting a newsletter. The team of <80 is fully remote. Recommended by: Nicole Quinn (Lightspeed).

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Bun

Bun is the all-in-one JavaScript runtime & toolkit that's got developers hungry for more. Based in San Francisco, this team of <20 is baking up a storm with their fast, efficient tools for JavaScript & TypeScript projects. If dev tools get you fired up, Bun is worth a shot. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Comulate

1

Comulate is a revenue automation and insights platform for the insurance industry. They believe they can reduce manual work by 90% while lifting revenue 4% and increasing quality 35%. Offering something that is better, faster, and cheaper is impressive - especially when it’s purpose-built for the massive insurance industry. The team of <20 is based in San Francisco. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Copilot Money

1

Copilot Money is.. well.. a copilot for your money. The award-winning iOS app helps average consumers navigate their finances with confidence. The product’s design seems stellar and a mutual angel investor, Andrew Farah, sings the team’s praises for their ability to execute. Their small team size of <15 is limited to engineering, design, and customer support - a fantastic base to build upon. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

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Crossmint

1

Crossmint seems to be one of the most exciting crypto startups of 2024. According to one investor, Crossmint offers real utility and 10x'd volume in the crypto winter while their competitors died. "They are going to be one of the big stories of this next crypto wave." says one investor. Recommended by: Dave Fontenot (HF0).

Visit Crossmint

ElevenLabs

1

ElevenLabs lets you create natural-sounding voices across dozens of languages with AI. the first time I used ElevenLabs it felt like magic. I excitedly reached out to Piotr, a cofounder, eager to send feedback and help their London-based team. Three things to mention about this opportunity: (a) the product still feels like magic (b) the opportunity for cross-language audio content is massive and (c) we’re still early; the space is risky given AI’s nature, in-part, as a sustaining innovation (e.g. YouTube will implement instant voice translation). They’ve raised capital from a16z, Daniel Gross, Nat Friedman, and Mike Krieger and built a team of ~50 people primarily based in London. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Heygen

1

HeyGen lets you produce studio-quality videos that say anything, in just about any language and voice, in a few minutes. The first time you see a HeyGen translated video, it seems like magic. The team of <30 is largely based in Los Angeles in one of my favorite neighborhoods, Playa Vista. Recommended by: Sarah Guo (Conviction).

Visit Heygen

Hume

1

Hume is an API that lets businesses understand the mood and emotions of consumers. I’m not entirely sure what Hume does tbh but, from what I can tell, it seems like something from a Black Mirror episode. And I take that to be a good time. The team of <30 is based in New York and seems to be remote friendly. Recommended by: anonymous.

Visit Hume

Inflection AI

1

Inflection AI is the creator of Pi, a friendlier and more personalized AI assistant relative to its peers. The company was founded in 2022 by experienced entrepreneurs and researchers Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan. Inflection is structured as a public benefit corporation and the team of <50 is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Recommended by: Reid Hoffman.

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Inworld AI

1

Inworld lets game developers create immersive, dynamic worlds by giving dynamic dialogue to NPCs. Gaming - and especially immersive gaming - as a category is extremely compelling. Combined with generative AI, the possibilities are hard to overstate. Inworld’s team of <100 is based in San Francisco. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

Visit Inworld AI

LangChain

1

LangChain lets developers build content-aware reasoning applications with flexible abstractions. Despite being one of the most-discussed startups with plenty of capital, the team remains under 20 strong. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Meter

1

Meter provides Internet infrastructure for businesses. The company designs and builds its own networking hardware-controllers, switches, and wireless devices. Recommended by: anonymous.

Visit Meter

NewMe

1

NewMe promises to be India’s answer to Shein (if you don’t know Shein, ask your niece or nephew what the first day of school smelled like this year). NewMe targets the rapidly-growing and now 50 million Gen Z consumers in India that are Instagram- and social media-native. The team is based in Bengalaru, India, and is under 100 employees. Recommended by: anonymous.

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ProfJim

1

ProfJim is revolutionizing education with AI. This US and India-based, remote-friendly team of under 50 is backed by Behind Genius, Hannah Grey, and Avalanche VC. They're making learning personal, one AI tutor at a time. Recommended by: Paige Doherty (Behind Genius Ventures).

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Rupa Health

1

Rupa Health is building the infrastructure to make root cause medicine the standard care for every person on the planet. The team of <100 is headquartered in San Francisco with a remote-friendly work culture. "World class team and I'm impressed by their leadership and commitment to the vision." says recommender Todd Jackson (First Round).

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Senra

1

Senra designs and manufactures high-quality wire harnesses for Aerospace and Defense companies. The team of <15 is based in the greater Los Angeles area and led by a former SpaceX R&D Manager. If you love manufacturing, Senra is one of the most promising early-stage companies out there. Recommended by: Delian Asparouhov (Founders Fund).

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Sleeper

1

Sleeper is a fantasy sports platform for what seems to be everything under the sun. I like Sleeper because things are more fun when it’s gamified and social; hence why a game night is oftentimes better than sitting in a circle talking to each other. The team is under 100 people and is backed by a16z, General Catalyst, and Expa. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Triumph

1

Triumph lets game developers add cash tournaments to games thereby increasing engagement and revenue. The team of <20 is based in San Francisco. Recommended by: Niko Bonatsos (General Catalyst).

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Truemed

1

Truemed allows health and wellness businesses to accept customer HSA/FSA funds from customers. This opportunity is massive and compelling - Truemed claims $150 billion of HSA and FSA funds are readily available for consumers to spend. The team is <25. Recommended by: Vedika Jain (Weekend Fund).

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Turnkey

1

Turnkey makes it easier for developers to build crypto products by generating and managing private keys across blockchains. According to their site, a developer can “spin up thousands of wallets and sign millions of transactions without compromising on security.” The team is <25. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Under 1000 employees

Anduril

2

Anduril is a long-standing company on this list because they are still small relative to what they will be. It’s still early, folks! Anduril makes me even more proud to be living in the US… What a damn cool thing to be able to say. Not only am I a huge fan of Palmer Lucky and their leadership team, I’ve been impressed by everyone I’ve met that works at Anduril. Backed by all the usual suspects. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

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Pinecone

1

Pinecone is a vector database that helps power AI applications for Notion, Microsoft, and an impressive list of companies in between. Team is <150 and is based in New York. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Replit

1

Replit is another familiar face on the Zichelin guide. With a team of <200, Replit is still incredibly early in their journey towards frictionless, collaborative software development. The team is led by the well-respected Amjad Masad and earns high praise from top investors. Recommended by: Lenny Rachitsky.

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Runway ML

1

Runway gives video editors superpowers and stands to expand the market for and definition of a video editor. A New York-based team of <200, they are committed to building tools that will usher in a new era of human creativity. Recommended by: anonymous.

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Teamshares

1

Teamshares helps SMB owners give employees ownership in the companies they help build. It’s a powerful and compelling mission: put $10 billion in equity wealth into the hands of hard-working Americans. Employees (should!) want equity stakes in the businesses they help build and business owners should want their employees to act more like owners than renters. I find Teamshares exciting and joining their team of <200 people in 2024 could be a great opportunity. Recommended by Sam Lessin (Slow Ventures).

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Triple Whale

1

Triple Whale gives you real-time analytics across all channels. Their growth seems impressive from the outside and customers seem to love the product - only one analytics platform has better ratings according to g2. I’d bet on leadership to expand their now ~150 person team in a thoughtful manner. Recommended by: anonymous.

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