Engineering Leader at ZZAZZ AI • Prev. SSE at Novo & Postman • GitHub Star • GSoC Mentor at AsyncAPI • Adores JavaScript

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Vinit Shahdeo • Peerlist

The AI job hunt is mostly research. I did it for you. Figuring out which startups are actually funded, what they build, and whether they're hiring engineers or just making noise.I was doing that legwork for my own search, so I turned it into a list and made it public.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://github.com/vinitshahdeo/awesome-ai-startups-hiring">awesome-ai-startups-hiring</a> is a curated table of 160+ funded AI-first startups, each tagged with category and latest funding round. It spans agent infrastructure, LLM inference, AI dev tools, data and retrieval, AI security, voice, and AI-fintech.Every row tells you the same four things: the company, what they do, how much they've raised, and who led the round. Enough to shortlist in an afternoon instead of a week.Two honest caveats:<ul><li>Funding numbers are AI-mined, not hand-verified. Spot-check before you rely on them.</li><li>It's open source. Company missing, or a number gone stale? Send a PR.</li></ul>If you're an engineer trying to break into AI, start here. I hope this saves you hours of job searching. If you find it helpful:<ul><li>⭐ Give the repo a star</li><li>🔄 Share it with anyone in your network looking for their next opportunity</li></ul>Happy job hunting! 🚀

Awesome AI Startups Hiring in 2026

Hey, I'm Vinit Shahdeo 👋 — a software engineer who likes building things that scale and writing about what I learn along the way. I'm a 3× GitHub Star, a GSoC mentor, and currently lead engineering at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://zzazz.com/">zzazz</a> (previously Postman and Novo).This blog is where backend and distributed-systems work gets the long-form treatment — not hot takes, but deep dives drawn from real production systems. I write about distributed systems and event-driven architecture, API and system design, JavaScript and Node.js internals, Go, and where FinTech meets AI.Recent reads:<ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://vinitshahdeo.substack.com/p/ai-native-backend-llm-api-design">The AI-Native Backend: How LLMs Are Changing API Design</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://vinitshahdeo.substack.com/p/stop-burning-claude-tokens-like-venture">Stop Burning Claude Tokens Like Venture Capital</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://vinitshahdeo.substack.com/p/ai-assisted-coding-interviews-what-it-means-to-be-an-engineer">The Future of Hiring: AI-Assisted Coding Interviews Are Changing What It Means to Be an Engineer</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://vinitshahdeo.substack.com/p/claude-md-best-practices">CLAUDE.md Best Practices: The 5 Rules That Actually Matter</a></li></ul>If you've ever shipped something that returned 200 OK while everything behind it was on fire, this is for you. New posts on systems, APIs, and the craft of AI-native backend engineering — subscribe for free.

Engineering Blog

<h3>🚀 Digital Footprint for Software Engineers | Book</h3>Most engineers spend years mastering systems, scaling products, and solving hard problems — yet remain invisible outside their org.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://digitalfootprintbook.com/">Digital Footprint for Software Engineers </a>is a practical, no-fluff guide to help you change that.This book is for developers who build quietly… but deserve to be seen.Inside, you’ll learn how to:✨ Turn your GitHub, LinkedIn, blogs, and side projects into a living portfolio ✨ Build visibility without becoming cringe or salesy ✨ Make your work discoverable by recruiters, founders, and AI search agents ✨ Create leverage through open source, writing, speaking, and community ✨ Design a long-term personal brand that compounds over timeNo influencer tactics. No fake hustle.Just proven, engineer-friendly frameworks to help your work travel further than your resume ever could.In a world where search engines and AI agents increasingly drive hiring, your digital presence is becoming as important as your technical skills. At some point, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://dev.to/vinitshahdeo/at-some-point-your-code-stops-being-enough-2aj8">your code stops being enough</a>.<h3>Write code for machines. Build a footprint for people.</h3>If you’re a software engineer who wants your impact to outlive your commits — this book is for you. 💡 <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://vinitshahdeo.substack.com/p/digital-footprint-for-software-engineers">Read why I wrote this book</a> 📚 <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://www.amazon.in/dp/937197527X">Buy on Amazon</a> 🎁 <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://peerlist.io/vinitshahdeo/articles/digital-footprint-for-software-engineers">Giveaway</a>

Digital Footprint for Software Engineers

A responsive, mobile-first website that helps the community find <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/how-chhath-puja-is-celebrated-samoolam/9QXxQ8xSNXhwjw?hl=en">Chhath Puja</a> celebrations across Bengaluru. Built with festive aesthetics featuring sunrise gradients, marigold colors, and traditional motifs.

Chhath Puja Celebrations in Bengaluru

<h3>Create clean, realistic digital signatures and export them as transparent PNGs — in seconds.</h3>Digital Signature Generator is a minimal, no-signup web app for creating professional-looking signatures without any friction. Type your name with 20+ handwriting fonts or draw it freehand, tweak the font, size, and color, then export a crisp transparent PNG ready for documents, email signatures, and social graphics.<h3>What it does</h3><ul><li>Type or draw your signature</li><li>Tweak basic styling (font, size, color)</li><li>Export as a transparent image for documents and emails</li></ul>That’s it — keep it simple: sign, tweak, export. ✍️It’s fully open source — explore the code, ⭐ star the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline" href="https://github.com/vinitshahdeo/digital-signature-generator">repo</a>, and contribute if you’d like to improve it.Disclaimer: Signatures created with this tool are for personalization and creative use only and are not legally binding. For legal documents, please use a certified e-signature service.

Digital Signature Generator

Creating your personal website has never been easier or more fun. With the Stellar Astro Dev Portfolio Template, you can quickly build a professional and impressive online presence. It's a sleek, modern, highly customizable portfolio showcasing your work, skills, and featured articles. Built with Astro and Tailwind CSS, this template is minimalistic and optimized for performance and SEO.<h3>Key features:</h3><ul><li>📱 Fully Responsive: Optimized for all screen sizes, ensuring a seamless user experience across devices.</li><li>⚡ Fast and SEO Optimized: Built for speed and search engine visibility, with comprehensive Open Graph meta tags for better social media sharing.</li><li>🎨 Fully Customizable: Tailor the template to match your style and requirements effortlessly.</li><li>📄 Comprehensive Pages: Pre-built pages include <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://vinitshahdeo.com/">Home</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://vinitshahdeo.com/about">About</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://vinitshahdeo.com/now">Now</a>, and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://vinitshahdeo.com/featured">Featured</a>.</li><li>🚀 Self-Host Ready: Easily deployable on platforms like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://www.netlify.com/">Netlify</a> or <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://vercel.com/">Vercel</a>.</li><li>📊 Google Analytics Integration: Simple setup for insightful analytics.</li><li>🔍 Automated SEO Tools: Automatic generation of robots.txt and Sitemap for better search engine indexing and navigation.</li></ul><h3>Perfect Lighthouse Score</h3>This portfolio is designed to be performant and accessible, achieving a perfect score on Lighthouse. Check out the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://lighthouse-metrics.com/lighthouse/checks/6476d271-f309-4ff3-aa53-3a6863acc0eb">Lighthouse Report</a>.<ul><li>Performance: 99</li><li>Accessibility: 100</li><li>Best Practices: 100</li><li>SEO: 100</li></ul>👉 Discover the GitHub repository here: <a target="_new" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://github.com/vinitshahdeo/portfolio">GitHub Repository</a>👉 Learn more about creating a stellar developer portfolio: <a target="_new" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://vinitshahdeo.dev/create-stellar-developer-portfolio-astro-tailwind-css">Read the Blog</a>👉 Get your <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="break-all link-break text-gray-500 hover:underline text-green-text rich-link" href="https://astro.build/themes/details/stellar-astro-dev-portfolio">Astro theme </a>here.

Stellar Astro Dev Portfolio

Introducing a Markdown badge generator for any Peerlist profile! 💚 Style your GitHub Profile README with a Peerlist badge to showcase your work. A Peerlist profile serves as a versatile platform to present your resume or portfolio. Now, integrate an awesome Peerlist markdown badge directly into your README.md. This tool has been seamlessly integrated into the official Peerlist platform. Try it out here: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-green-text rich-link break-all link-break" href="https://peerlist.io/tools/readme-badge">Peerlist README Badge Generator</a>.

Peerlist README Badge Generator

OpenAPI Web Search project is all about providing a simple way for developers to find existing Swagger and OpenAPI definitions on the open web—mostly from lesser-known sources. The ultimate goal of this project is to build a search engine for APIs where API consumers and producers can discover APIs using keywords that abstract away the complexity of searching the web for specific terms, helping identify APIs in a sea of web pages. Learn how Open API Web Search can help <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-green-text rich-link break-all link-break" href="https://vinitshahdeo.dev/open-api-web-search">unleash the power of open APIs</a>.

Open API Web Search

A simple NPM Package that returns random Inspirational Quotes | Used by 300+ open-sourced applications | 18K+ yearly downloads

Inspirational Quotes

A web app to display the (nearly) real-time and graphical state-wise reported corona cases in India so far.