Introducing the Equal Ventures Talent Network

By Ali Afridi, Principal at Equal Ventures

One of the startup hacks that I realized early in my tech journey was that VCs are an incredible resource for figuring out the best startups to join, especially at the earliest stages. In a world where >50k startups get started every year, and >10k raise seed rounds, it can be daunting for an individual to figure out which private companies are showing promising signals and starting to grow. However, on the investment side, VCs have access to far more information, giving a guiding signal to some of those that may be most promising. 

I first met Rick Zullo (one of the founding GPs of Equal) while I was trying to connect with VCs to get their perspectives on what startups were the most promising to work for. Rick, who was at Lightbank in Chicago at the time, and a few other VCs highlighted a few incredible opportunities at startups that have since gone from stealthy seed companies to becoming massive businesses. I ended up joining Lightbank as an Analyst instead, but admittedly would be sitting on some hefty equity had I joined one of those companies early given how much they’ve grown!

Many investors on our team have worked with startup operators at various levels of their careers to advise them on companies we view as exciting - both in our portfolio and otherwise - but this has historically been on an ad hoc basis and limited in nature given bandwidth constraints. Today, we’re excited to kick-start a new initiative called the Equal Ventures Talent Network to systematize these connections and referrals in a more scalable fashion.

The Talent Network operates as a single portal for operators and builders in the startup world to reach out to our team and indicate the types of roles and companies they’d be interested in for their next challenge. Whether you’re looking actively or considering roles passively, the tool will highlight relevant roles in an automated fashion as well as through referrals our team will facilitate. 

In addition to opportunities to join promising venture-backed companies, we’ll also leverage the Talent Network to search for executives and founding team members for our incubations.

If you’re considering a potential new role in the startup world, we encourage you to complete your application for the talent network. We look forward to finding something to work together on soon!