Hey builders,
Would you turn down $1 billion from Meta?
Do you have that level of conviction in what you’re doing?
Could you walk away from that offer?
24-year-old Aussie Angus Dorney, reportedly did.
Crikey!
In this week’s newsletter.
New Startup Spotlight: Kaizen is building RL environments for autonomous AI with fresh funding and traction from frontier labs.
AI News Recap: Meta’s $1B offer, Anaconda’s $150M raise, and the startup securing AI agents against each other.
Recent Job Postings: Infra in NYC, health tech with real ownership, and a founding role offering up to $1M in equity to help build AGI.
Let’s go.
26
Engineer spots left this month
Each month, I work with a curated group of cracked 0→1 engineers. The kind founders want to hire or co-found with.
As of this issue, only 26 spots remain.
If you’re building something on the side, bored at Big Tech, or just too good to be cold applying, this is your sign.
🔍 Startup Spotlight
Kaizen
Kaizen is building the infrastructure that lets AI learn by doing.
Their environments use reinforcement learning, so models can train from experience instead of relying on labeled data.
They’ve already landed partnerships with top frontier labs and are scaling fast.
Now they’re hiring engineer number four to own the platform and internal tooling.
TL;DR
— Reinforcement learning environments for autonomous AI
— Deploy scalable systems on AWS/GCP supporting high-volume AI training
— Full-stack meets DevOps in a deeply technical platform role
— Based in San Francisco, with in-person collaboration preferred
Megan’s Take
Every AI researcher wants faster iteration. Kaizen is quietly solving the bottlenecks that slow teams down. If you're the kind of engineer who builds tools that builders love, this is one to look at.
🤖 AI / Industry Recap
💰 ICYMI - Meta Offered $1B to Poach Aussie AI Prodigy
Did Meta really offer 24-year-old Angus Dorney, an AI engineer at Thinking Machines a $1B only to be turned down?
🔐 Noma Security Raises $100M for AI Agent Protection
Israeli startup Noma Security, which secures enterprise AI models and autonomous agents, closed a $100 million Series B, signaling surging demand for AI-native cybersecurity.
🐍 Anaconda Scores $150M Series C—$1.5B Valuation
The open-source Python platform for scientific computing and AI raised $150M from Insight Partners at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Megan’s Take
The most important signal this week isn’t that Meta offered $1B, it’s that someone believed their own mission was worth more. That kind of conviction is showing up everywhere right now, and it’s where the real upside lives.
Recent job posting in
NewYork
jobTitle Forward Deployed Engineer_
{
// TLDR: Deploy Antimetal into real infra stacks and own customer onboarding end-to-end.
// Company: Antimetal;
// Location: New York (On Site);
// Base: $180k - $220K;
// Funding: $20M Series A
}
OUTPUT:
Recent job posting in
NewYork
jobTitle Founding Product Engineer_
{
// TLDR: Own design-to-code execution on a personal health OS — first eng hire after founders.
// Company: HealthOS;
// Location: New York (On Site);
// Base: $200k - $300K;
// Funding: Backed by Sunflower Capital & Box Group
}
OUTPUT:
Recent job posting in
SanFrancisco
jobTitle Founding Engineer_
{
// TLDR: Build a fake internet for AI agents — early team, big comp, wild problems.
// Company: Matrices;
// Location: San Fran (On Site or Remote);
// Base: $250k - $330K;
// Funding: $5M from Index, AI Grant, Naval
}
OUTPUT:
Recent job posting in
SanFrancisco
jobTitle Founding Full-Stack / Platform Engineer_
{
// TLDR: Build AGI infra from scratch — CI/CD, dev tools, and scalable AI training systems.
// Company: Kaizen;
// Location: San Fran (On Site);
// Base: $220k - $280K;
// Funding: Undisclosed, backed by Frontier Lab
}
OUTPUT:
On the fence about your next move?
Let me know what you’re into and I’ll see if I can help. It only takes 30 seconds.
AMA
Question:
How do I pick between two early-stage offers when both seem promising?
Answer:
Which team would you bet on if the product changed tomorrow?
Early-stage startups pivot all the time. Plus, the market and roadmap might shift.
So, choose the team you trust to figure it out.
— This question was from Aisha.
Send me your question by replying to this email.
💡
Thought Prompt of the Week
What’s a belief you’re holding onto that might be holding you back?
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Megan sent me one role that was perfect. Something that I could step into and start contributing right away. She understood what I was looking for. Simple as that.