Startups I'd work for if I were looking for a job

I’m starting a company, which means I keep meeting other people doing the same. Some are just starting, many are way ahead of me. At the same time, I’m reconnecting with old friends who’ve gone down this path too.

It creates a strange split: half my friends are hunting for jobs, the other half can’t find great people to hire. Job seekers only look for a while, but founders are always hiring. So I made this post to keep track of companies I’d recommend. The main goal is to have a link I can send to friends, but I thought I might as well make it public in case it helps others.

If I were looking for a job, this is where I’d apply. My criteria are simple:

Strong technical skills of founders/team
People you actually want to work with

Here’s the list:

Langfuse (Berlin & SF): Tracing and logs for LLM calls.
Telli (Berlin): Voice agents for outbound sales.
Vet Dodo (SF): Voice agents for healthcare.
Nunu (Zurich): Automated testing for computer games with VLMs.
Soff (SF): AI for SME procurement and sales.
Zauber (Berlin): AI agents for freight forwarders.
Mimic Robotics (Zurich): Manipulation with a dexterous hand (hardware + ML).

If we know each other, I’m happy to introduce you to the founders. If we don’t, then my introduction isn’t worth much—so I suggest going through the regular application process.