In this issue: Zeki and OneValley: a new strategic partnership / GTM is the new most valuable player in the talent market / Periodic Labs at $7B — but is the talent reality keeping up?
TALENT TRENDS
The most valuable talent in the market isn't who you'd think
The most sought-after operator right now isn't the researcher or forward deployed engineer. It's a new breed of GTM talent built for the AI age—more consultative, more technically fluent, co-designing solutions with enterprise clients rather than selling preconfigured SaaS.
In seven of eight verticals across the 1,100+ scale-ups backed by a16z, Sequoia and Salesforce Ventures, GTM hiring is now outpacing technical hiring. Sales Development Representative roles jumped 18 places in the scale-up hiring rankings. Solutions Engineer climbed 19. "GTM" itself went from rank 88 to rank 10.
Hiring Velocity of Technical and GTM Talent in the Last Year Across Verticals
This talent is genuinely scarce.
Sales reps from Big Tech don't translate cleanly to the scale-up world—particularly in AI and data infrastructure, where enterprise sales now require more technical and consultative skills. Tracking which portfolio companies can attract and retain this cohort is one of the cleanest leading indicators of who's about to compound, and who's about to stall.
This is one of seven findings in our latest Portfolio Diagnostic Report, built on 11 million data points across the complete portfolios of a16z, Sequoia and Salesforce Ventures.
Zeki and OneValley join forces to bring talent intelligence to founders and investors worldwide
Zeki has entered a strategic partnership with OneValley, the global platform supporting startups, investors and entrepreneurial ecosystems. The partnership brings Zeki's intelligence layer—and its invite-only hiring marketplace, Zeki Talent Market—to OneValley's founders, investor partners and Entrepreneur Support Organisations.
Two capabilities flow through the partnership. Zeki Intelligence gives investors, ESOs and corporate partners a clearer view of any startup's technical strength: the team, what they've shipped, and how they compare to the market.
The same intelligence is trusted by Salesforce, Google, Google DeepMind, Citadel and the UK Government, and is a named data source in the 2026 Stanford AI Index Report.
Zeki Talent Market is the hiring side: an invite-only network where the top product, engineering and GTM operators meet companies that can change their trajectory — candidates who don't appear in searches and are typically on the market for just ten days.
"OneValley has built one of the most credible founder ecosystems in the world," said Tom Hurd, co-founder and CEO of Zeki Data. "Bringing our intelligence into that network means founders, investors and partners can make decisions on evidence rather than narrative. That is the standard the AI age demands."
Periodic Labs is reportedly raising at $7.5B. Our data says CuspAI is closing the gap.
Two AI-materials science companies are raising right now. Periodic Labs—backed by a16z, Felicis and Accel—is reportedly closing at around a $7.5 billion valuation. CuspAI is reportedly raising at a fraction of that and is in talks to raise $200M at a valuation above $1 billion. .
The valuation gap is one story. The talent gap is moving the other way.
Our latest Talent Diagnostic Report finds Periodic Labs' quality of hire has diminished over the last eight months. After seven high-quality founding hires in May–June 2025, the company has made only five comparable hires since—even as headcount grew past 40.
Recent hires lean toward physical-build roles (a first lab technician, senior systems and automation engineers) instead of GTM, suggesting the company is still building out infrastructure rather than scaling.
Percentage Talent Mix at Periodic Labs and Comparator Companies
CuspAI, in the same period, has made eight world-leading hires—including Aron Walsh as Chief Science Officer. Walsh is one of the most globally prestigious researchers in materials science and the research lead for modelling and simulation at the Henry Royce Institute, the UK's national institute for advanced materials research.
CuspAI's internal recruitment team is led by the previous talent acquisition lead at Isomorphic Labs.
Periodic Labs has no dedicated recruitment team.
Without one—and without published, validated scientific progress—Periodic Labs will struggle to compete for the scarce world-class talent it needs as it scales.
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