- The Hunter Report
- Posts
- Tools Of The Trade
Tools Of The Trade
Hey All!
Welcome to The Hunter Report.
Here is a dose of what stood out to me this week.
Platform for Jobseekers: Teal
In today’s competitive market, it’s essential to stand out as a candidate. That starts with optimizing your resume and LinkedIn.
Teal offers an incredible fleet of AI-powered tools to optimize your job search. Helping you build better resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Their Job Application Tracker allows you to stay organized in your search so nothing slips through the cracks.
Even if you’re not looking for something new right now, having a spiffy LinkedIn profile is important for personal branding.
I recommend Teal to all my candidates.
A tool I’m loving: Lavender
I love writing, but I’m always looking to write more effective sales emails. That’s where Lavender comes in. They’re an AI-based writing tool that helps you write better emails.
A standout feature is Email Coach, which grades your email out of 100 and helps refine your wording with data-backed specifications to improve response rates. Once you’re in the 90s range, you’ll know it’s good to go.
Lavender also provides key data insights to showcase how your emails are performing while suggesting areas to improve.
Below is a snapshot of Email Coach from an email I crafted earlier today. Noticed how it says “Too Complex” - the 8/12 means it’s reading at an 8th-grade level. According to the data gathered by Lavender, emails that are written in 3rd to 5th-grade levels can increase response rates by 10%.

Venture Funding:
US-based AI companies saw 24 rounds of funding totaling $223.5M. A significant drop from last week’s $913M. The biggest move this week was Cisco Systems’ purchase of Splunk for $28 billion, the largest deal of the year. This further underscores the importance of money going to the convergence of AI and cybersecurity.
I spoke with a VC this week who invests in various verticals within tech, including AI. Their portfolio companies are focused on trimming excess and maximizing revenue streams. Focusing on lean models to ride the storm for the next 6 to 8 months.
Company Spotlight: SambaNova Systems
Last week I mentioned a company that’s competing with Nvidia. Well, here’s another. Samba Systems. Founded in 2017 with $1.2B in venture funding, Samba builds AI hardware and integrated systems to power AI applications from the data center to the cloud.
We’re all talking about the AI tools we’re using, but it’s incredible to learn about the foundational hardware these apps are built on.
Employment Data:
Unemployment remains at a low 3.8%, with 21K fewer people filling for unemployment benefits in the last week.
On a bright note, my LinkedIn feed was flooded with people posting their acceptance of new jobs. The most I have seen in the past 12 months. My network is a mere sliver of the employment population but it’s a trend I enjoy seeing.
Quote to start the weekend:
You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.
James Clear, Atomic Habits
Thank you for tuning in and have a great weekend ahead!
-Alex
Founder @ hunter-recruiting.com