Coastal Recruiting - Hot Startups Hiring, Jan 1

Hey there! 👋 David and Asher here, Co-Founders of Coastal Recruiting.

As we kick off 2025, I know many of you are reflecting on your career goals and considering what's next. Perfect timing! We're a specialized talent partner that connects exceptional engineers with high-impact roles at venture-backed startups across NYC, SF, and remote positions. Our partner companies are backed by elite firms like Sequoia, a16z, and Founders Fund, and we support their growth from Seed through IPO.

What sets us apart? We're engineers' trusted career advocates, not just recruiters. January is traditionally the strongest month for engineering career moves, and we're here to help you make the most of it. We carefully curate opportunities at startups that are building revolutionary technology, offer compelling equity packages, and provide genuine growth potential.

📈 Hiring Market Intelligence

• New year, new budgets: 2025 is launching with unprecedented startup hiring momentum - making January the ideal time for your next move

• SF founders are doubling down: We're seeing 2x increase in engineering headcount plans for Q1

• NYC tech scene explosion: Local founders are matching the West Coast's ambition with 2x hiring targets

• Engineering talent has strong negotiating leverage as demand outpaces supply (perfect for starting fresh in 2025!)

• Hottest sectors: AI/ML continues to surge, with fintech and crypto showing renewed strength

• Notable trend: SF and NYC are seeing a revival of in-person culture and community

Hot Startups Hiring in San Francisco 🌉

No-Code Data Analytics Platform - Seed (Bessemer, YC)

• Mission/Vision: This startup is revolutionizing data analysis by enabling visualization and insights without coding requirements.

• TLDR:

  • Explosive growth: 1M+ registered users and $3M+ ARR in first year

  • AI-powered platform writing 1M+ lines of code monthly

  • 7M+ data visualizations generated to date

  • Backed by elite investors including Bessemer, YC, AI Grant, and founders of Notion, Vercel, Replit, Perplexity

  • Dynamic hacker culture focused on rapid shipping and iteration

• Open Roles:

  • Sr. Frontend Engineers

  • Sr Fullstack Engineers

  • Product Designer

Leader in AI Legal Tech - Series A (T1 VCs)

• Mission/Vision: This startup empowers plaintiff lawyers to achieve justice for their clients by streamlining manual, time-intensive work with cutting-edge AI technology.

• TLDR:

  • Platform leverages AI to ingest and process case information from legal business and communication systems

  • Explosive growth: 5x ARR increase to multiple millions in just 6 months

  • Massive Series A round led by T1 investors (announcing VERY soon)

  • Previously backed by Lightspeed and Menlo Ventures at Seed

• Open Roles:

  • Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer

  • Staff Platform/Infrastructure Engineer

Enterprise Conversational AI Platform - Series B (Bain Capital, a16z)

• Mission/Vision: This startup is building the most advanced conversational AI agents for enterprise applications.

• TLDR:

  • Impressive client roster including Eventbrite, ClassPass, Substack, Rippling, and BILT

  • Seasoned founders with successful previous exits

  • $100M raised from top-tier investors including Bain Capital, a16z, Accel

  • Small, tight-knit engineering team of 6

• Open Roles:

  • Sr/Staff Engineers (Frontend, Backend, Fullstack)

  • Applied AI/ML Engineer

Hot Startups Hiring in New York City 🗽

Financial AI Platform - Series A (Khosla)

• Mission/Vision: This startup is building Generative AI for Financial Institutions, aggregating financial and customer data into a simple AI chat platform to streamline key workflows.

• TLDR:

  • Elite client base including top Investment Banks, Hedge Funds and PE funds

  • Impressive growth: 0 to $1M ARR in under 10 months

  • $18M Series A from Khosla Ventures

  • Team of 25 based in NYC

• Open Roles:

  • Staff Frontend Engineer (Eng Lead)

  • Staff Backend Engineer

Autonomous Cyber Defense Platform - Seed (a16z)

• Mission/Vision: This startup is revolutionizing enterprise cybersecurity through autonomous defense systems powered by advanced AI.

• TLDR:

  • Platform leverages data fusion and expert autonomy to enhance enterprise security teams

  • Already deployed at Fortune 100 companies, US Space Force, and US Navy

  • Elite technical team from Palantir, Shield AI, CrowdStrike, and US Government

  • $6.2M Seed round led by a16z, with backing from notable angels

  • Massive Series A soon to be announced

• Open Roles:

  • Security Engineer

  • Frontend Engineer

  • Fullstack Engineer

  • AI/ML Engineer

Next-Gen Content Discovery Platform - Seed (776 Ventures)

• Mission/Vision: This startup is building the "Spotify of writing," with a mission to make all writing freely accessible.

• TLDR:

  • Platform analyzes internet-wide content to deliver personalized reading recommendations

  • Impressive $6M Seed round from elite investors including 776 Ventures, Sound Ventures, and notable angels

  • Ground-floor opportunity: join as employee #3 alongside founding team

  • Backed by tech luminaries Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, and Anthony Pompliano

• Open Roles:

  • Founding Fullstack Engineer

  • Founding Product Designer

Remote-First Opportunities 🌎

AI-Powered Content Creation Platform - Series A (Tiger Global)

• Mission/Vision: This startup helps small businesses, agencies, entrepreneurs, and creators generate on-brand content in one click, revolutionizing the content creation space.

• TLDR:

  • Real-time document editor with collaborative features and thousands of dynamic templates

  • Explosive growth: $0-10M ARR in under 8 months, 100K+ paying customers with 30% MoM growth

  • $50M Series A from elite investors including Tiger Global, Floodgate, General Catalyst

  • Fully distributed team of 20

• Open Roles:

  • Senior Product Designer

Leading L1 Blockchain - Series B (a16z, Jump Crypto)

• Mission/Vision: This startup is creating foundational infrastructure to accelerate the adoption of decentralized protocols based on blockchain technologies, building the Sui network.

• TLDR:

  • Massive $300M raised from elite crypto investors including Jump Crypto, a16z, Binance Labs

  • $175M Series A round led by a16z, Paradigm, Thrive Capital

  • World-class founding team of blockchain thought leaders

  • Globally distributed remote-first culture

• Open Roles:

  • Senior Frontend Engineer

  • Staff Frontend Engineer

  • Senior Data Engineer

  • Smart Contract Engineer

Blockchain Data Infrastructure Platform - Series A (Theory Ventures, Kleiner Perkins)

• Mission/Vision: This startup is providing the best blockchain data infrastructure for crypto analytics and engineering teams across institutions and funds in the industry.

• TLDR:

  • Strong GTM with impressive clients including Visa, Stripe, Bloomberg, Fidelity, Phantom, Magic Eden

  • Strong growth: $1M ARR achieved, on track to triple by EOY

  • Raised $21.5M Series A from top-tier investors (Kleiner Perkins, Theory Ventures)

• Open Roles:

  • Senior Backend Engineer

  • Senior Product Engineer

What Our Candidates Say:

"In the moment I began my job search, Megan unexpectedly emailed me with a promising opportunity. Though it wasn't the perfect fit, she quickly found another that matched all my criteria. Throughout the process, she stayed in touch, acted as a liaison, asked the right questions, and even presented another great option after I had an offer. She truly cared—professionally and personally—like a close friend. I feel lucky to continue working with her in the future."

Ready to make 2025 your best year yet? Let's chat - no pressure, just an honest conversation about where the market is headed and what opportunities align with your new year goals.

Know a talented engineer looking to start fresh in 2025? Forward this their way - we love referrals from our network!