Hi friends!
I'm so sorry for disappearing on you all. I took Thanksgiving Day Thursday off and then severely overestimated my ability to write a newsletter the following Thursday while traveling back from Mexico with a toddler. And then lucky me –– I came down with back-to-back illnesses these last two weeks. What a winter...
We've also been busy wrapping up work in 2022 and preparing for Brianna to go on maternity leave, because... she gave birth to her baby boy on Tuesday!!! 😭 [*ugly cries into multiple tissues*] This time of year is always a little chaotic and it's extra true this year given the market and our excellently timed pregnancies. (I'm due in ~6 weeks, so we're really tag teaming it.) So sincere apologies if anyone was counting on these newsletters for their job search!
As for the job market, I really wasn't sure how Q4 would end. Many companies who had layoffs earlier this year decided to hold off on renewing with Key Values until they start to actively hire again (or allocate more budget to hiring/recruiting). That said, more companies than I was expecting did renew and/or asked us to help them update or rewrite their profiles for the new year. A good sign for all of us!
In fact, I'm introducing a brand new team today: AllSpice! They're a seed-stage startup that's figuring out how to take the best practices that have evolved in software development and apply them to hardware engineering. Hardware engineers can now use AllSpice's platform to automate their development process and collaborate on designs in one place. Culturally, they're one of the few teams to have ever selected Supports Physical Wellness. And I must say, it's refreshing to see, especially from an early-stage startup! Most stereotypes in tech stem from a seed of truth, like not having any work/life balance on an early team, but there are always exceptions. So look for them!
Whether you have decided to take it easy until the new year or want to make moves while everyone else rests, always keep your eyes and ears open. If you just keep an open mind and allow yourself to be surprised, you'll live a much richer and luckier life, I swear it. Now let's get into it and see if anyone or anything piques your interest!
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AllSpice (profile) 📍 Boston, San Francisco, or Remote (US/Canada)
Does not provide relocation support. Sponsors work authorizations on a case-by-case basis.
AllSpice is building a hardware collaboration platform. Their co-founders Kyle (an electrical engineer) and Valentina (a mechanical engineer and PM) noticed how stuck the hardware industry was relying on PDFs, email, and in-person meetings. So they set out to fix that with a software-driven approach. Their team keeps meetings light, regularly contributes to open source projects, and after raising a $3.2M seed round in January 2022, is looking for more backend engineers to join them! 🙌
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PicnicHealth (profile) 📍 San Francisco, CA or Remote (US/Canada)
Provides relocation support on a case-by-case basis. Can transfer existing visas.
PicnicHealth is an easy-to-use, secure dashboard that gives patients ownership over their medical records and contribute anonymized data to medical research. They are one of the few companies I can even recall raising a growth round during the "thick" of it this year (a $60M Series C), which puts them in a great position to continue focusing on their patients, being a psychologically safe place to work, and ofc hiring.
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Sparrow (profile) 📍 Remote (US)
Does not provide relocation support. Does not sponsor work authorizations.
Sparrow’s leave management platform simplifies all types of paid leave for both companies and their employees. Their CEO, Deborah, founded Sparrow after seeing so many close friends struggle with the paperwork. The rise in medical and mental health leave, combined with ever-changing state and federal laws, sets them up to solve real-world problems. Hence the $20M Series A they raised in February!
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Local Kitchens (profile) 📍 Bay Area, CA or Remote (US)
Provides relocation support. Sponsors work authorizations.
Local Kitchens is a growing network of micro food halls. They license menus from local restaurants and operate the kitchens themselves. Engineers (like Sai who's working on an algorithm to dynamically set cook time predictions) regularly respond to customer feedback and work shifts in the kitchen, too. Since raising a $25M Series A in 2021, they've ramped up to $25M in sales within two years. 👏
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Gordian (profile) 📍 Bellevue, WA or Remote (North and South America)
Does not provide relocation support. Sponsors work authorizations on a case-by-case basis.
Gordian builds software to make air travel easier. While the airline industry was one of the first big industries to digitize in the 1960s, the technology hasn’t kept up. They’re untying the proverbial Gordian knot of air travel. Their ~18-person engineering team makes up more than half of the company and they're growing quickly with plans to scale their product globally and double in size in 2023.
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LaunchDarkly (profile) 📍 Oakland, CA or Remote (US)
Provides relocation support on a case-by-case basis. Sponsors work authorizations.
LaunchDarkly is a feature management platform. While many teams have slowed hiring, they’ve hired 130+ people (including more than 40 in Product Delivery) and will end the year at 500+ employees. We recently did a major refresh of their profile and are happy to see so many individual team members share how they changed careers before joining LaunchDarkly's Product Delivery team. 🦋
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As some of you already know, I'm always pooh-poohing new years resolutions. 😏 So here's my obligatory push to not wait for January 1st. Whatever you want to achieve next year, whoever you want to become –– start today! There's no better time than right now.
Finally, I hope everyone finds what they're looking for this holiday season, whether that's time spent alone or with family, focusing on hibernation or celebration, grinding or resting. I've always felt like there's so much pressure this time of year to follow various traditions and have this picture perfect vacation that it can feel extra isolating or lonely to do anything else. But it shouldn't be this way! There is no "right" way to spend the holidays, and for some folks, the only tradition you have is not having any at all. So for those of you doing something a little "different" this year, I support and salute you! Whatever you want and need, you do you, booboo.
Big big hugs!
❤️✌️,
Lynne (@lynnetye and @keyvaluesio)
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