👋 Hey there,
This holiday edition of Good People is stuffed with AI-native roles at companies that are scaling: a GTM data platform running millions of agents, stealth teams building autonomous IT, and next‑gen code review trusted by the names you know. If you’re optimizing for comp, trajectory, and real impact, these naughty and “nice to haves” mean you’re in the right inbox.
Unwrap the hot seat, skim the quick hits, and grab an intro before the year rolls over.
But first → A poem.
🎁 'Twas the Night Before Deploy 🎁
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the code,
Not a bug was stirring, not even one node.
The PRs were merged in the repo with care,
In hopes that production would run without flair.
The engineers sat there, no sleep, that's the test,
On a 9-9-6 schedule, you don't get to rest. And I at my terminal, under fluorescent light,
Had just fixed a blocker at 2 AM last night.
When out in my Slack there arose such a clatter,
I alt-tabbed from VS Code to see what was the matter.
Away to the channel I flew like a flash,
Praying the deploy hadn't caused a full crash.
The glow of the monitor lit up my face,
As IntelliSense saved me from one more disgrace.
When what to my dev eyes should appear,
But a thread full of P0s from PMs this year!
With a standup so early, a sprint never done,
I knew in a moment, there's nowhere to run.
More rapid than hotfixes, the tickets they came,
And Jira kept pinging and calling them by name:
"Now Tennr! Now Factory! Now Reducto and Hedra!
On Ironsite! Orchard! On Unify, et cetera!
To the top of the backlog! To the top of the stack!
Now ship it away! Ship away! No turning back!"
But I spoke not a word, and went straight to my work,
Squashed all the bugs open, then merged with a smirk.
And laying my finger aside of my nose,
I pushed to main branch, and my eyelids finally closed.
I slumped at my desk, gave my Slack one last whistle,
And away went my worries like a shipped-feature missile.
But I mumbled, half-dreaming, as sleep won the fight,
"Happy deploy day to all, and to all a good night."
🎅 Santa's Hot Seat 🎅
GTM Data Platform | AI-Native Revenue Intelligence
This Startup is building the data warehouse for GTM teams at modern software companies, consolidating fragmented signals across product, sales, and marketing to help revenue teams focus on the right accounts and close faster.
🏙️ Location: NYC, SF
💰 Comp: $180K–$265K
🚀 Stage: Series B, $58M
🏦 Backers: Battery Ventures, Emergence, OpenAI, Thrive Capital
The Opportunity: This Startup uses AI to score and prioritize high-intent leads, automate cross-tool workflows, and surface product-qualified leads using live usage data. They're not just a dashboard—they're a system of action, running millions of AI agents at scale every month.
Why This Matters:
✅ Replacing the RevOps Frankenstein, forget 10 tools duct-taped together
✅ Already trusted by rocketships: Perplexity, Cursor, Together AI, Flock Safety, Hightouch
✅ Growing 20% MoM with core team from Ramp, Scale AI, Airbnb, Uber, Spotify, Datadog
✅ One of OpenAI's largest customers
Roles: Engineering Manager, AI/ML, Staff Backend Engineer, Senior Full Stack Engineer
📰 Tech’s Naughty List 📰
🤬 Micron lands on the Naughty List: record profits, but DRAM shortages keep PC builders empty-handed.
⁉️ What am I talking about: Micron reported record DRAM and NAND revenue, driven by AI data center demand, but warned that DRAM shortages will persist beyond 2026. After discontinuing the Crucial brand, it still supplies PC and phone memory, yet expects to meet only half to two-thirds of demand for key customers.
❄️ The North Pole Roster ❄️
Company | Role | Comp | Stage | Why Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
AI Observability Platform Remote | Sr. BE, Sr. FS, Staff SWE, Sr. FE | 💰 $180k - $270K | Series C: $131M+ | 1T+ inference spans processed. Strategic investors: Microsoft, Datadog, PagerDuty. |
Healthcare AI Automation 🏙️ NYC | Sr. FS, Sr. FE, AI/ML, Sr. BE | 💰 $180K–$250K | Series C: $140M | 2nd fastest growing in a16z portfolio. 800% YoY revenue growth. $0→$1M ARR in <8 months. |
Document Intelligence API 🏙️ SF | Sr. BE, Sr. FE, AI/ML, Infra | 💰 $150K–$300K | Series B: $109M | 1B+ documents processed. $600M valuation. 60 years of runway. Backed by Benchmark + a16z. |
🧦 Startup Stocking Stuffers 🧦
🤖 Enterprise Security Robotics | AI, Robotics
📍 SF (5 days onsite) | 💵 $180K–$280K | 🚀 Seed, $15M
This Startup is building next-gen perception systems — solar-powered camera networks for real-time visibility across data centers, stadiums, and logistics hubs. Already has 10 Global 2000s under contract with backing from Founders Fund and the founders of Anduril and Palantir.
Roles: Sr. FS, Infra, Staff MLE, Staff SWE
🏗️ Construction AI Wearables | AI, Computer Vision
📍 SF (5 days onsite) | 💵 $100K–$300K | 🚀 Seed, $13M
This startup is the "Anduril of Construction" - AI-powered wearables giving superintendents real-time worker productivity analytics like fantasy football stats for job sites. 15,000+ hours of labeled footage with plans to scale to 5,000 hours daily. Backed by 8VC.
Roles: AI/ML, Platform Eng, CVI, Sr. BE
🔀 Universal LLM Router | AI Infrastructure
📍 Remote | 💵 $180K–$255K | 🚀 Series A, $40M
This startup is the Stripe of LLMs—one API to access Claude, Llama, Mistral, and dozens more. Already at $100M+ run-rate with just 20 people, powering 2M+ developers. Co-founded by OpenSea's Alex Atallah and backed by a16z and Menlo Ventures.
Roles: Senior Full Stack Engineer, Senior Backend Engineer, Staff Backend Engineer
🦃 The Carving Board: Engineering Comp Calculator 🦃
Still not sure what you should be making?
⭐️ Our Engineering Compensation Calculator is powered by hundreds of verified offer letters from VC-backed startups.
Find out what engineers with your:
Years of experience
Tech stack
Location
Company stage
...are ACTUALLY getting paid (base + equity + signing bonuses).
⏰ Last Call for This Week
Look, you've read this far. That means something.
You're either: 🔥 Actively looking and need the right intros 🤔 Passively curious but open to the perfect opportunity or 👀 Just scouting the market (smart move)
All three are valid. All three are worth a 15-minute conversation.
Here's what happens next:
1️⃣ Book a slot below (takes 30 seconds)
2️⃣ We talk about where you want to be in 12-24 months
3️⃣ I intro you to 2-3 companies that actually fit
4️⃣ You interview on your timeline (or not at all)
🤝 Know Someone Who'd Benefit?
💸 We pay generous referral bonuses.
If you know a sharp engineer (0-10 YOE) who should see these opportunities, just reply with their email. If they get placed, you get paid.
Refer a Friend → Just respond to this email and cc them!
📮 One More Thing...
Not ready to book a call? Totally cool.
Hit reply and tell me:
What stage companies interest you most (Seed? Series B?)
Which tech stacks you want to work with
Whether you prefer SF, NYC, or remote
I'll make sure next week's newsletter has more of what YOU want to see.