A startup that just raised money has a budget, a hiring plan and a deadline to grow into its new valuation. That makes it the best kind of company to apply to. The hard part is finding these companies early, and knowing which ones are hiring for your kind of role. Here's how to do it, from free and manual to fully automatic.
1. Funding announcements
Most startups announce a round on their blog, on LinkedIn and through a press release, often picked up by tech publications and newsletters. Announcements are the most visible signal and the most crowded: every recruiter and sales team reads them too. Use them to build a list, not as your only source.
Tip: the announcement usually says what the money is for ("to expand our engineering team", "to launch in Europe"). That sentence tells you which roles are coming and gives you something specific to mention when you apply.
2. Investor portfolio pages
Venture firms list their portfolio companies, and many run a portfolio job board. If you like the kind of companies a particular investor backs, their portfolio is a well-filtered list. The catch is that portfolio pages include companies of every age, so you still need to check when each one last raised. On JustBacked you can browse startup jobs by lead investor for recent rounds only.
3. SEC Form D filings
US companies raising money under the most common exemptions file a short Form D with the SEC, due within 15 days of the first sale of shares. Filings are public on the SEC's EDGAR system and sometimes appear before the announcement. They are a good early signal with two caveats: plenty of rounds never produce one, and filings show an amount raised but say nothing about hiring. When we compared September 2026 funding data with EDGAR, only about a quarter of announced rounds had a matching Form D, mostly seed rounds.
4. Funding databases
Databases such as Crunchbase, PitchBook and VCbacked collect rounds from all of the above and let you filter by date, stage, industry and location. They are the fastest way to build a long list. They don't tell you who is hiring for your role today.
5. Check who is actually hiring
For each company on your list, open its careers page. Most startups use a hiring system such as Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby or Workable, and the careers page shows every open role with a posting date. Look for three things:
- New roles since the round closed. Roles posted after the announcement are the ones the money is paying for.
- Several roles in your function. One opening may be a backfill; five means a team is being built.
- Stale postings. Roles that have been open for many months are less likely to be a priority.
The shortcut
This is exactly what JustBacked automates. Every day it reads the hiring system of every venture-backed startup that raised in the last six months and shows each open role next to the round, the amount, the date and the lead investors. You can:
- see the newest rounds on Just raised, or the weekly funded & hiring report;
- filter the job board by role, location, stage, investor, pay and how recently the company raised;
- save a search and get an email when a startup that just raised posts a matching role.
Next step: how to get hired at a startup that just raised.