Harvey gives law firms superpowers using generative AI. I especially like their cofounders are deeply familiar with the pain they are solving and seem to be capturing marketshare on what I assume is a sticky industry accustomed to signing long-term contracts. They seem to be hyper-scaling with team size of <100 and 30+ roles open as of writing. According to one Harvey investor, the team “operates like a Series A startup” and has “great customers and growth.” I recommend giving Harvey serious thought in the early part of 2024. Recommended by: Ilya Fushman (Kleiner Perkins).

Hex is a collaborative data workspace with an impressive list of customers. A representative from their customer, Notion, says Hex is “low overhead [yet] flexible enough to handle exploratory analysis to complex data science workflows.” The Hex team is under 100 people, based in the US, and remote friendly. Notable investors include the usual heavy hitters: Sequoia, a16z, Databricks, Snowflake, and 137 Ventures. Recommended by: Christian Garrett (137 Ventures).

Mach is a defense technology company founded by Ethan Thornton, a Thiel Fellow and MIT dropout. The team of <50 is building hubs in Austin, TX and Boston, MA after receiving funding from Sequoia in the firm’s first defense tech investment in the firm’s history. Recommended by: Danielle Strachman (1517 Fund).

Midjourney is a creative tool expanding the imaginative powers of humans. Perhaps the only thing wilder about that statement is that it still doesn’t capture how powerful Midjourney is and stands to be. Founder David Holz just hired a former Engineering Manager for the Apple Vision Pro to lead hardware efforts at Midjourney — an exciting and thought-provoking glimpse into possible futures. Midjourney receives two Zichelin stars and comes with my highest recommendation to join immediately. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

Pano helps detect and eliminate fires faster than ever before. I’m excited about Pano because climate change remains the single most important problem we face yet most climate-tech companies lack a clear near-term financial value. Pano seems to excel here given their product has demonstrable ROI for government and private entities alike. Fire departments and wildlife services are clear customers while utility companies, landowners, farmers, insurance companies, and asset managers all have a financial interest in detecting fires early and extinguishing them as quickly as possible. This team of <100 is based in San Francisco. Recommended by: Garry Tan (Y Combinator).

Robotics may be the most exciting platform to build (and build for) in the 2020s. Every small business owner I speak seems to have the same painpoint — hiring reliable workers. Robots will replace (and are replacing) undesirable human labor and we will do it to ourselves. Recommended by: anonymous.

Together AI helps developers everywhere build on open and custom AI models. If you believe the future of humanity is better off with open source AI, Together AI is a company to keep on the top of your list. Based in San Francisco, this team of <50 has plenty of funding ($100m series A) from some of the best investors in the world including Bucky Moore at Kleiner Perkins, NEA, Greycroft, 137 Ventures, and Lux Capital. Recommended by: anonymous.

1v1Me is turning video games into a high-stakes, high-reward playground. Based in New York, this team of <20 is backed by ODF, Banana Capital, Pomp, Austin Rief, and Erik Torenberg. Turner Novak says they're 'the future of gaming,' and with over $21,000,000 paid out to gamers, it's hard to disagree. Recommended by Turner Novak (Banana Capital).

Antora makes thermal batteries to soak up excess solar and wind electricity and use it to heat blocks of carbon for to deliver electricity and heat. Antora is one of the most exciting companies working to stop climate change. The team of <100 is based in the Bay Area. Recommended by Chris Sacca (Lowercarbon).

Aven is a credit card that allows homeowners to use home equity to get relatively low rates on credit. The team is <100 and backed by Khosla, Founders Fund, and Sequoia. Recommended by: anonymous.

Beehiiv is a newsletter platform with modern growth tools included. Tyler Denk, CEO, first impressed me as a highly responsive and high velocity leader while I sent him product feedback in their early stages. The initial product was built on earned secrets from Tyler’s time at Morning Brew and this team’s shipping velocity seems second to none. They are the obvious choice when starting a newsletter. The team of <80 is fully remote. Recommended by: Nicole Quinn (Lightspeed).

Bun is the all-in-one JavaScript runtime & toolkit that's got developers hungry for more. Based in San Francisco, this team of <20 is baking up a storm with their fast, efficient tools for JavaScript & TypeScript projects. If dev tools get you fired up, Bun is worth a shot. Recommended by: anonymous.

Comulate is a revenue automation and insights platform for the insurance industry. They believe they can reduce manual work by 90% while lifting revenue 4% and increasing quality 35%. Offering something that is better, faster, and cheaper is impressive - especially when it’s purpose-built for the massive insurance industry. The team of <20 is based in San Francisco. Recommended by: anonymous.

Copilot Money is.. well.. a copilot for your money. The award-winning iOS app helps average consumers navigate their finances with confidence. The product’s design seems stellar and a mutual angel investor, Andrew Farah, sings the team’s praises for their ability to execute. Their small team size of <15 is limited to engineering, design, and customer support - a fantastic base to build upon. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

Crossmint seems to be one of the most exciting crypto startups of 2024. According to one investor, Crossmint offers real utility and 10x'd volume in the crypto winter while their competitors died. "They are going to be one of the big stories of this next crypto wave." says one investor. Recommended by: Dave Fontenot (HF0).

ElevenLabs lets you create natural-sounding voices across dozens of languages with AI. the first time I used ElevenLabs it felt like magic. I excitedly reached out to Piotr, a cofounder, eager to send feedback and help their London-based team. Three things to mention about this opportunity: (a) the product still feels like magic (b) the opportunity for cross-language audio content is massive and (c) we’re still early; the space is risky given AI’s nature, in-part, as a sustaining innovation (e.g. YouTube will implement instant voice translation). They’ve raised capital from a16z, Daniel Gross, Nat Friedman, and Mike Krieger and built a team of ~50 people primarily based in London. Recommended by: anonymous.

Hume is an API that lets businesses understand the mood and emotions of consumers. I’m not entirely sure what Hume does tbh but, from what I can tell, it seems like something from a Black Mirror episode. And I take that to be a good time. The team of <30 is based in New York and seems to be remote friendly. Recommended by: anonymous.

Inflection AI is the creator of Pi, a friendlier and more personalized AI assistant relative to its peers. The company was founded in 2022 by experienced entrepreneurs and researchers Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan. Inflection is structured as a public benefit corporation and the team of <50 is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Recommended by: Reid Hoffman.

Inworld lets game developers create immersive, dynamic worlds by giving dynamic dialogue to NPCs. Gaming - and especially immersive gaming - as a category is extremely compelling. Combined with generative AI, the possibilities are hard to overstate. Inworld’s team of <100 is based in San Francisco. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.

LangChain lets developers build content-aware reasoning applications with flexible abstractions. Despite being one of the most-discussed startups with plenty of capital, the team remains under 20 strong. Recommended by: anonymous.

Meter provides Internet infrastructure for businesses. The company designs and builds its own networking hardware-controllers, switches, and wireless devices. Recommended by: anonymous.

NewMe promises to be India’s answer to Shein (if you don’t know Shein, ask your niece or nephew what the first day of school smelled like this year). NewMe targets the rapidly-growing and now 50 million Gen Z consumers in India that are Instagram- and social media-native. The team is based in Bengalaru, India, and is under 100 employees. Recommended by: anonymous.

ProfJim is revolutionizing education with AI. This US and India-based, remote-friendly team of under 50 is backed by Behind Genius, Hannah Grey, and Avalanche VC. They're making learning personal, one AI tutor at a time. Recommended by: Paige Doherty (Behind Genius Ventures).

Rupa Health is building the infrastructure to make root cause medicine the standard care for every person on the planet. The team of <100 is headquartered in San Francisco with a remote-friendly work culture. "World class team and I'm impressed by their leadership and commitment to the vision." says recommender Todd Jackson (First Round).

Senra designs and manufactures high-quality wire harnesses for Aerospace and Defense companies. The team of <15 is based in the greater Los Angeles area and led by a former SpaceX R&D Manager. If you love manufacturing, Senra is one of the most promising early-stage companies out there. Recommended by: Delian Asparouhov (Founders Fund).

Sleeper is a fantasy sports platform for what seems to be everything under the sun. I like Sleeper because things are more fun when it’s gamified and social; hence why a game night is oftentimes better than sitting in a circle talking to each other. The team is under 100 people and is backed by a16z, General Catalyst, and Expa. Recommended by: anonymous.

Triumph lets game developers add cash tournaments to games thereby increasing engagement and revenue. The team of <20 is based in San Francisco. Recommended by: Niko Bonatsos (General Catalyst).

Truemed allows health and wellness businesses to accept customer HSA/FSA funds from customers. This opportunity is massive and compelling - Truemed claims $150 billion of HSA and FSA funds are readily available for consumers to spend. The team is <25. Recommended by: Vedika Jain (Weekend Fund).

Turnkey makes it easier for developers to build crypto products by generating and managing private keys across blockchains. According to their site, a developer can “spin up thousands of wallets and sign millions of transactions without compromising on security.” The team is <25. Recommended by: anonymous.

Vacation Inc is a lifestyle and consumer goods company. But that doesn’t quite capture the essence of this company and brand. In an age of mimetic branding (thank you Stripe and Linear for setting the pace), Vacation Inc and Poolsuite jettisoned the status quo to create a cohesive, strong, memorable brand based on a nostalgia many of us are too young to remember. Their products have received rave review from United States Royal Family leader Kim Kardashian, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and the likes. Vacation is led by Executive Pool Boy and brand genius Marty Bell. The sub-100 team is largely based in the United States. Recommended by: Zack Hargett.