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👋 This week's Shortlist has landed, welcome! On the desk today:
AFC Fractional is one month old: 29 operators live, five more profiles in build, enquiries already landing
New on the board: founders can share a brief and have operators come to them, no scrolling required
279 of you voted on what the Shortlist should be, and 99% of you said the same thing
Three AU startups worth watching: Ascenda, cascayd and Wiingman
Ops Lead at Co Ventures - fund ops with Maxine Minter and Alexey Mitko, remote, 0.4-0.6 FTE, and carry in the fund
10 more roles from Dovetail, Relevance AI, Buildkite, Blinq, Secure Code Warrior, Brighte, Atomi, SiteMate, Vow and Roller
Plus what's inside The Startup Shortlist community, and how to get in
Last week, we asked “What would make the Shortlist more useful to you?” - 279 of you voted, and the answer was basically one thing
We asked what would make the Shortlist more useful to you. 279 votes came in, and 277 of them went to the same idea in two different forms: show us the people.
Hot candidates - profiles of people worth meeting, whether or not you have a role open - 147 votes
Fractional profiles - senior operators available part-time - 130 votes
The video series - hiring how-tos - 2 votes
Something else - 0 votes
A near dead heat at the top, and almost nothing anywhere else.
Fractional is already running - 29 operators live and the board is only a month old - we will start profiling these operators. Hot candidates is the piece we don't have yet, and it's now the thing we're building - we will start building this from The Startup shortlist (more on this at the bottom of the email).
The other read is that this list isn't one audience. Some of you are hiring this quarter, some of you want an operator for three days a week, some of you are quietly looking yourselves. Right now you all get the same edition. That's the next fix - we're working on segments so you get the version of this that matches what you actually came here for.
What's happening in fractional land
29 of you are live, with another five profiles being built right now and it's still only a month old!
Enquiries are already landing. I can see them come through, so you don't need to go hunting for evidence that this thing works. For the number of people live and the time it's been running, I’m so pleased to hear people are booking meetings! A directory this young usually spends its first few months as a listing with nothing happening. This one didn't because we already have community that feeds both side of the market.
What I'm seeing in the data is that founders are reading properly rather than skimming. The profiles pulling enquiries aren't the ones with the most traffic. They're the ones where someone read the page and knew straight away whether to make contact. That's the whole game at this stage, and it's why the ranking changes above are weighted the way they are.
The work now is on distribution, so more founders land on your profile in the first place. Three things on that:
I'm talking to a former Head of Data and Analytics at Seek, who's also run PPC, about helping grow traffic to the board
I'm building something that scrapes fractional opportunities from across the market and drops them into our exclusive Slack channel, to save you doing the work.
Search and ranking now actually reward a good profile, which they didn't a week ago
If you know a founder who needs someone, send them this bit
Founders don't have to browse the board and work out who's who. They can post a brief instead.
There's a "Share a brief with our operators" option on the board. A founder describes what they need, it goes out to our operators through Slack, and the people who fit put their profile and proposal in front of them directly. No scrolling through 29 profiles, no guessing, no recruiter in the middle.
It's free, it takes a few minutes, and it works in both directions. Every brief that comes in is a shot for someone on this board.
So if you're talking to a founder who's circling a fractional hire and hasn't pulled the trigger, point them at it. It's the single most useful thing you can do to create work for yourself and everyone else here.
What's changing in global hiring?
Global hiring is changing fast. From AI's impact on HR to evolving compliance requirements and international expansion strategies, the rules are constantly shifting.
Oyster's events bring together HR leaders, founders, operators, and global employment experts to discuss what's working now—and what's coming next.
Whether you're hiring internationally today or planning for tomorrow, you'll walk away with practical insights you can actually use.
Want to get in front of startup hiring managers and the talent they're looking for?
The Startup Shortlist goes out every week to the people building teams and looking to join them across Australia and New Zealand. If you've got a product, platform or service that helps companies hire better or helps people level up their careers - there's a spot with your name on it.
You can also feature your own role in the newsletter - with your own video, your own story, and your own campaign.
Before we jump in, let’s look at the companies that should on your radar!
The AU startups worth watching:
Ascenda - performance analytics that flags hidden review burden, trust volatility and burnout in AI-accelerated engineering teams before they hit quality or retention.
cascayd - keeps your website continuously optimised so it grows your business instead of going stale.
Wiingman - a marketplace connecting events-industry freelancers to jobs, suppliers and each other.
🌱 Founders: want your roles in the digest automatically? Tell us whether we should pull from your ATS or your newsletter list - just hit reply with your career page URL!
Jobs from our AFC Community:
Jobs from the wider ecosystem, continued below 👇
Rare opportunity to work with the incredible Maxine Minter (highly respected investor) + Alexey Mitko (Ex Euc)
🧑💼 Operations Lead @ Co Ventures
Build the fund operations function - compliance, the valuation cycle, ESVCLP reporting and AML - at an early-stage VC firm designing AI-first workflows from the ground up. Real ownership, plus carry in the fund.
📍 Remote (Australia)
💼 Fund ops / legal ops | 0.4-0.6 FTE, fully remote | Fund admin or legal ops experience, hands-on with AI tools
👉 Apply here: Read the full JD here & either apply via the email in notion or DM Alexey in the AFC Slack
Jobs from the wider Ecosystem:
🎯 Product Marketing Manager @ Dovetail
Own positioning, messaging and launches for Dovetail's customer-research platform - one of Australia's best-loved product tools.
📍 Sydney
💼 Product marketing | Full-time | Series A B2B SaaS (research / AI)
👉 Apply here: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/dovetail/aeb6aeac-8014-411b-9900-736d3ad45932
Want to see more from Dovetail? https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/dovetail
🧑💼 AI Deployment Strategist @ Relevance AI
Work hand-in-hand with customers to roll out AI agents that actually stick - a client-facing role at one of Australia's leading AI-native companies.
📍 Sydney
💼 Deployment / solutions | Full-time | Series B AI agents
👉 Apply here: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/relevanceai/a104c172-046e-4e47-962c-de14f184b022
Want to see more from Relevance AI? https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/relevanceai
💻 Staff ML Engineer @ Buildkite
Build the ML systems behind Buildkite's CI/CD platform, used by engineering teams worldwide - senior, high-impact work at a well-loved Aussie dev-tools company.
📍 ANZ (remote)
💼 Staff ML engineer | Full-time | Series B dev tools
👉 Apply here: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/buildkite/jobs/5205766008
Want to see more from Buildkite? https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/buildkite
💻 Senior Backend Engineer @ Blinq
Scale the backend powering the world's most popular digital business card - millions of contacts shared and counting.
📍 Sydney
💼 Senior backend engineer | Full-time | Series A B2B SaaS
👉 Apply here: https://jobs.lever.co/blinq/da32ab4c-1fab-43fd-ae47-e6181beb2267
Want to see more from Blinq? https://jobs.lever.co/blinq
💻 Distinguished Engineer, R&D Lead @ Secure Code Warrior
Lead R&D at the secure-coding platform helping thousands of developers write safer software from the first line - a senior technical leadership role.
📍 Sydney
💼 Distinguished engineer / R&D lead | Full-time | Series C cybersecurity
👉 Apply here: https://jobs.lever.co/securecodewarrior/8a3c7661-6a53-4433-a593-b1c008413eea
🧑💼 Technical Business Analyst @ Brighte
Bridge product and delivery at the green-finance platform helping Aussie households fund solar and home upgrades.
📍 Sydney
💼 Technical BA | Full-time | Series C climate fintech
👉 Apply here: https://jobs.lever.co/brighte/3bd048bf-74a9-4a32-9692-34c94bf24bc2
Want to see more from Brighte? https://jobs.lever.co/brighte
🧠 VCE Content Creator @ Atomi
Create the lessons and resources that help thousands of students learn - a fully remote content role at a growing Aussie edtech.
📍 Remote (Australia)
💼 Content creator | Full-time | Series A edtech
👉 Apply here: https://jobs.lever.co/atomi/168d8438-e5f0-4c09-bcbd-7beec7d8679f
Want to see more from Atomi? https://jobs.lever.co/atomi
🧑💼 Account Manager, SMB @ SiteMate
Grow and retain SMB accounts for the construction-software platform digitising quality, safety and environmental workflows on job sites worldwide.
📍 Sydney
💼 Account management | Full-time | Series A construction SaaS
👉 Apply here: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sitemate/fa57e454-0fb5-4839-9b62-b5b290fb7e2e
Want to see more from SiteMate? https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sitemate
⚡ Manufacturing Technician (Biochemist) @ Vow
Get hands-on in the lab producing cultured meat at one of Australia's boldest climate-food companies.
📍 Sydney
💼 Manufacturing technician / biochemist | Full-time | Series A climate / cultivated meat
👉 Apply here: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/vow/18336f54-117c-4001-8738-84546022d820
Want to see more from Vow? https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/vow
🧑💼 Lead Account Executive (APAC) @ Roller
Own APAC new-business for the platform running ticketing, POS and payments for attractions and venues around the world.
📍 Melbourne / Sydney
💼 Lead AE | Full-time | Series C B2B SaaS
👉 Apply here: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/roller/jobs/5182676007
Want to see more from Roller? https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/roller
Want us to scrape your job board? We're doing a wide scrape across startup job boards right now, getting open roles in front of a community of founders, operators, and startup talent. Want yours in the mix? Send us an email and we'll add your board to the rotation.
Have you joined The Startup Shortlist’s Community?
There's a members space behind this newsletter built for startup talent with a year or more in startups behind them. Inside:
Comp data on what startups actually pay (in the works)
First look at new Kairos roles before they go public
A members-only space with people who get startup life (warming up but live!)
A profile that puts you in front of hiring companies
Whether you're plotting your next move or just want to know your worth - this is the room to be in. Please note, we’re in build phase so this will get better with time & momentum!
That's a wrap for this week - see you in Slack in the meantime.
Catch you Tuesday!
Megan 🚀