everything you need to read this week by @stephthefounder (October 27th)

The goal is to be the best weekly newsletter to be the most succinct + fun way to learn about all the best things you need to know across tech, startups, VC, etc, sent out every Monday. (and at the minimum, it will include the links I post about every week on instagram!). Feedback (and a better/more creative newsletter name than the boring one I have now) always welcome!

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happy monday! 💛

i get asked a lot about advice on becoming a creator and how i grew my following (to ~350K followers across platforms) since just starting in january, and now i have the answers for you!

My good friend, Neal, who’s also the co-founder/CEO of Beacons (the link in bio company I’m sure you’ve seen all over social media) started a new podcast about the intersection of creators x business/entrepreneurship and I was honored to be interviewed for it! Listen to the episode here:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/RnbwlxQa5kg

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2F0U3d5KOVMlyoOGR8EjvX?si=l7VUn9OxRPut8hZYq-mtHg

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/always-peaking/id1848437350

💰 Companies that will make you a millionaire

Every week I highlight a few of my favorite startups that I personally think are really promising. They’ve typically received funding that week + are hiring, and occasionally I’ll include some special bonus ones.

And now you can easily earn some cold hard cash 💰: you can now use PINpoint (a fun product my company has been building) to earn $$ (anywhere from $5K to $30K) for successfully referring people to top startups. The brilliant part about this is:

1) you don’t even need to know the person who’s ultimately hired - if you post a link on LinkedIn and the algorithm shows it to someone who ultimately clicks the link and is hired, you get the $$$ 😏 

2) all of these companies are great and highly respected, so your friend (or random person who saw your post) will also thank you 😉 win win

(PS are you a founder or do you work at a cool startup that’s hiring? reply back with the name so we can give you guys a shout!)

This week’s featured companies:

1. Sesame: From the minds behind Oculus comes a new frontier in conversational AI. Sesame is building a platform that lets users talk to AI agents as naturally as to people — no scripts, no rigid prompts. The company just came out of stealth with a $250M raise and a beta launch, backed by Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and Thrive Capital. Its goal: make AI interactions feel more human, intuitive, and useful across work and personal life.

   1. Job openings can be found here

2. LangChain: One of AI’s earliest infrastructure darlings just hit unicorn status. LangChain, known for its open-source framework that powers countless AI apps and agents, raised a $125M round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark, pushing its valuation past $1B. The company plans to expand its developer ecosystem and enterprise tools as demand for AI-native workflows keeps growing.

   1. Job openings can be found here