Why a fresh round means hiring
Startups raise money mostly to hire. A company that has just closed a round has a plan for the people it needs and the cash to pay them, so its roles are new and real, and early hires often get more scope than they would anywhere else.
SEC Form D filings
A US company that sells shares in a private round under the common exemptions must file a Form D with the SEC no later than 15 days after the first sale. The filings are public on the SEC's EDGAR system, often before any press release. A Form D shows:
- The company's name, address and industry.
- How much it is raising and how much it has sold so far.
- The date of the first sale.
- Its executive officers and directors by name.
It does not show the investors or the valuation, and a few companies raise without filing one. Search EDGAR for recent Form D filings by industry or state, or by a company name you have heard of.
Other places rounds and hiring show up
- Y Combinator's company directory lists every YC company with its batch, and its job board lists their openings.
- Hacker News “Who is hiring?” A thread on the first weekday of each month where companies, many of them startups, post their own openings.
- Venture firms' job boards. Many firms run a board of their portfolio companies' jobs on their own site.
- Funding news and newsletters that list the week's rounds.
Check before you apply
- Hiring pace: how many roles it opened in the last month or two against before. A team adding engineers quickly is growing.
- Recent layoffs, which public notices and news report.
- The careers page itself, since startups post there first and often nowhere else.
