NYC Startups Prioritize Engineers Who Have Shipped Side Projects
Early-stage New York City startups are increasingly seeking to hire "multi-modal" engineers who have experience shipping end-to-end products. On a recent Acquired podcast, one CTO stated their ideal candidate is someone who has built and launched a side project, even if it failed, valuing the ownership mindset. Active hiring is noted at AI and SaaS startups like Fermion, Loop Social, and Credence.
- In the NYC AI startup scene, the most in-demand roles are for Machine Learning Engineers, Data Scientists, and AI Product Managers, with a particular need for NLP/LLM Engineers who specialize in language models and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines. Companies like Hebbia, an AI-powered analysis platform for finance and legal, and EliseAI, which builds conversational AI for property management, are actively hiring for these positions. - Venture capital investment in AI-focused startups is significant, with these companies raising a third of all venture capital in 2024. Seed-stage AI startups are seeing a 42% premium in valuations compared to their non-AI counterparts, with a median pre-money valuation of $17.9 million. This trend continues into later stages, with the median Series A valuation for an AI startup reaching over $50 million. - For engineers building on the side, a key productivity tactic is to decide what to work on before you start, to avoid wasting limited time. Successful indie hackers recommend waking up early to work on your project before your full-time job begins and committing to a consistent schedule, even if it's just for an hour each day. - To start building AI agents, engineers can utilize frameworks like LangChain, AutoGen, or the Microsoft Agent Framework to manage memory, tool use, and multi-step workflows. A foundational understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs) and how they perform reasoning is the first step, followed by learning to connect them to external tools and APIs to take action. - Vertical SaaS, which targets specific industries like healthcare or construction, presents a significant opportunity for entrepreneurs. Successful vertical SaaS companies focus on solving a critical industry pain point to gain a foothold, rather than trying to build a full platform from the start. Due to the specialized nature of these products, a strong customer experience often leads to word-of-mouth referrals, which is a primary growth channel. - For consumer and social apps, a common user acquisition strategy is to implement a referral program that incentivizes existing users to invite their friends. This can be amplified by integrating social sharing buttons directly within the app. Other paid strategies include targeted social media ads and collaborating with influencers in the app's niche. - A blueprint for transitioning from employee to full-time indie hacker is the story of Tony Dinh, a software engineer who built four products over two years while working full-time, eventually reaching ~$45,000 in monthly revenue before quitting his job. Another example is Tim Bennetto, a former locksmith who taught himself to code in the evenings and built Pallyy, a SaaS product that reached $1.2 million in annual revenue.
