Amit Ranjan’s Post

When people look at my LinkedIn, all they see is: - Worked at Google and Microsoft. - Has a large LinkedIn network. - Traveling the world, meeting inspiring people. - Built an AI stratup and raised funding. What they don’t see is: - I have been working on FAANG AI for the past 12 months with NO salary. - Over 100 rejections from Big Tech companies before getting my “yes.” - Working 7 days a week, 10 hours a day, fueled by hope (and caffeine). - Rejected by more accelerators than I care to admit. - The countless late nights spent fixing problems no one else notices. - The self-doubt that comes free with every “no,” and the grit that turns it into fuel. We’re still at the beginning of this journey. It hasn’t been easy, and it never will be. But building something meaningful—something that helps people—makes every late night and every challenge worth it. That’s why we created www.faangai.com to help YOU practice for your dream job interviews and go get that dream job of yours like I got mine! #StartupJourney #AIForGood #CareerPrep #JobInterviews #TechStartups #Resilience #FANG #Googliness #InterviewTips #DreamJob #PracticeMakesPerfect #Entrepreneurship

This and to everyone who keeps telling me I’m “blacklisted”. 🙄 Ok. But ask yourself why? Because I dared to do what my Vizient customer asked me to do which is get them the isolation gown THEY DESIGNED for .60 cents? Or is it because I dared to create my own app that solved for the gaps in the procurement software I use to sell? BTW, it only took 5k to figure out how to fix what product kept telling me couldn’t be done. Or is it that I worked with a Vizient supplier who was going to give 3% to LLS for pediatric cancer research only for Vizient to cancel the suppliers contract and they had to lay people off? And now at Impensa we have an amazing app where I can finally tackle the product categories I couldn’t touch in my former life and y’all some of my former customers are treating me like I kicked their dog. I mean because clearly I’m a menace to society, totally the worst person you know. 🤷🏼♀️😂 I don’t get it. But 1/2 of Oklahoma hospitals are on the verge of closure. I have documented saving my customers a ton of money before. I’m not understanding the malfunction of why folks do not think I’m capable of repeating my performance just because I’m some where different. Y’all are weird.

Want to know a trick for evaluating startup talent? In a recent conversation with Mo Al Adham, Founder and CEO at Frec I asked him how he identifies great people. He states: “I look for people that are outstanding in their field and can add value in another domain. Think of a designer who can double as a front-end engineer, an engineer who’s a great content writer, or a marketer who can do great branding design.” In the era of AI, this multidisciplinary approach is more possible and valuable than ever before. All founders should consider hiring talent that not just fulfills a job description, but does much more. Feel free to check out more insights from Mo in our recent edition of FounderMail below and subscribe for free! https://lnkd.in/gq-p7EuV

Hello LinkedIn fam! Ready to level up your hiring game? Join us next week Thursday, 8th August by 5pm on X(Twitter) Space as we dive into 'How Al and Data are Changing the Way Companies Hire.' with Temitayo Anifowose You don't want to miss this insightful session! Set your reminder now: bit.ly/4d8DmPw #Hiring #AI #Data #ProDevs #Entrepreneurs #Startups

I am impressed about all the likes, comments, and messages about the "build in public" webinar I am hosting on Friday. 🤩 It's great to see so many people excited about #nocode! 🎉 Just to remind you, this webinar is a part of Product Launchers Club where we describe, analyze and launch trending startups every month! Ideas described so far: ◾ Summaletter.com: #AI newsletter summarizer, built and SOLD! 📰 ◾ Mindscrapper: Turns your spoken ideas into organized notes with AI. 🧠 ◾ MeetNLink: Speed dating-inspired video networking platform. 💼 ◾ Careercraft: This month's build - turning resumes into personalized career maps. 🛠️ ◾ SeniorRemote: A job board for 50+ professionals. 👴👵 The Club is a perfect place for all the aspiring entrepreneurs or just curious about no-code. By joining, you’ll enjoy: 🎥 Exclusive Webinars: Dive deep into product building. 💸 Monetize New Products: Opportunity to buy and sell ready-to-use products. 👥 Community: Connect with fellow innovators. 📚 Learn: Grow with the guidance of experts. Let's innovate and build amazing things together! 🚀 #startup #product #launch #community

We all remember Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) getting fired (temporarily) from one of the biggest tech companies in the world. It wasn’t because of poor performance or lack of vision—it was because of internal politics and bureaucracy. If a giant like that can get tangled up in such nonsense, what hope do businesses like ours have? At WanderOn, I’m constantly on my toes, making sure there’s no room for politics or bureaucracy. I’m seriously allergic to that stuff. It’s a surefire way to kill creativity, drain motivation, and derail progress. A couple of months ago, I had to let go of two people from senior positions because of this. - For teams to thrive, they need a safe and open work environment. - No one should have to go through office politics just to do their job. - They should focus on what they do best—creating, collaborating, and delivering great results. Creating this kind of space isn’t just good for the team; it’s needed for the business. When people feel supported and free from bureaucracy, they bring their best ideas to the table and execute them brilliantly. And any day, I believe, people run businesses more than any process. So, whether you’re running a big or small startup, watch out for politics and bureaucracy and take action immediately. Your team will thank you, and your business will be better for it. #startups #enterpreneurship

Why Do Offers Get Declined? Let’s Talk. Over the next two weeks, I’ll dive into one of the biggest challenges in hiring—offer declines. At Hop, we’ve supported thousands of offers in the AI/ML and GenAI talent market and seen firsthand how often promising opportunities fall through at the final stage. Each decline taught us valuable lessons as a company, and I’ve documented all of them. Now, I’ll be sharing what we’ve learned—better strategies, missed opportunities, and critical missteps. Week 1: I’ll be focusing on startups—how early-stage founders can avoid common traps and win top talent without overselling or overextending. Week 2: I’ll focus on large-scale hiring within big companies, with layered teams and intricate decision-making processes. If closing offers for AI/ML or GenAI roles feels like a challenge, follow along to learn what works, how to protect the effort you’ve already invested, and avoid losing momentum when it matters most. What’s your biggest challenge with closing offers? Drop it below or DM me, and if I have the answer, I’ll include it in the series.

🚀A year ago, I was the new kid who didn’t get the cool, hip lingo. Tech felt like a secret club with its own language; and I was stepping in from a world of in-person connections, hands-on problem solving, and leading teams face-to-face. The shift to tech startups couldn’t have felt more foreign. 💻 If you’d told me we’d be working with Python, I’d have smiled politely and wondered if it bites. 🐍 Fast forward to today: I’ve learned a lot (including that cookies aren’t just for eating 🍪). ✨ What hasn’t changed? My superpower: building trust and relationships. From coffee meetups to Zoom screens, the medium may have evolved, but the mission hasn’t. ⚡ Tech startups are a different beast. Fast-paced. Relentless. Demanding. But there’s nothing like the excitement of seeing progress every day; every move matters, and every step forward counts. 👂 Active listening. Quick thinking. Courage to connect. Turns out, these aren’t just survival skills: they’re thrival skills (yeah, I went there ). 💡 Here’s the truth: You don’t need to code to thrive in tech. You need to show up, adapt, and bridge the gap between jargon and human connection. 🌱 Growth doesn’t come from knowing all the answers. It comes from rolling up your sleeves and figuring it out along the way. 🤝 To anyone stepping into the unknown: your skills are more transferable than you think. Leadership? Team-building? Problem-solving? They’re gold. Don’t underestimate them. 💬 What skill did you bring into a new world? Let’s share and inspire each other to keep growing. 🚀 #hidn #WomenInTech #StartupLife #GrowthMindset

Two personal updates: my wife and I welcomed our first son, Theo, into the world, and I started a new job. After years of working as an operator in companies, I have joined Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross investing in startups. We lead rounds from seed to growth, investing between $1M and $100M at a time. I'll be meeting one-on-one with 1000s of founders this year, so please reach out if you are working on something great! I had the fortune to first encounter Daniel online in 2018. I received a grant for tracking street art around the world, using computer vision and social media exhaust. From there, when I started my first venture backed company, Daniel was the first institutional investor that I partnered with. While I transitioned from startup to working at OpenAI, Daniel's career advice helped me navigate various teams and responsibilities. In my new role, I want to extend my recent experience working in OpenAI to founders in the A.I. field, and my experience working across industries, company sizes, and product categories, to help startups grow. For startups with product market fit, please reach out if you want help understand where A.I. fits into your strategy! For engineering and product operators considering your next project, please reach out if you want to talk through ideas and opportunities I am seeing. For company leaders working at in larger organizations, please reach out if you want feedback around staffing or building out A.I. expertise in your organization.

Exciting News! 🎉 I'm thrilled to announce that we've recently closed a pre-seed round with Floode and joined the betaworks AI Agent Camp last February in NYC. Whether you're a founder, investor, marketer, real estate agent, or even event planner, we all face the same problem: we're overwhelmed by hundreds of inbound emails all day long. We spend an absurd amount of time interrupting our work to catch up with everything, making sure not to miss important info amidst the chaos. And for years, people have settled for slightly better solutions or added some nice-to-have AI features without truly solving this problem for everyone. We've decided to push our creativity further and completely rethink how we organize and manage our personal communication. Goodbye to the 30-year-old inbox system & endless scrolling. Our goal with Floode is to put in everyone's hands (not just executives) an AI executive assistant that manages and automates all your personal communication tasks. Every time you receive an email, your AI agent determines the appropriate set of action to ensure it’s correctly handled. Each incoming email is filtered, sorted based on your priorities, tasks are extracted and a response is drafted. If a meeting needs to be booked, your Floode assistant drafts an invite based on your availability. And if you want to perform more complex and time-consuming tasks, you can directly ask your assistant to carry them out, just as you would with a human. Your assistant prepares, suggests, drafts, but only executes when you decide to, so you can maintain real control. A huge thank you to our investors, partners, mentors, friends and early users for following us with our crazy vision, especially betaworks, Mozilla Ventures, Nicolas Granatino, Differential Ventures, Diaspora Ventures, BROADSHADE INVESTMENTS, Founders Capital, Nathan Stoll, Natalie Novick (full list in comment) Hard work begins now 💪 — We are currently hiring and onboarding users, so you can go to https://www.floodehq.com or DM me if you want to try it.