Matt Wilson, Co-Founder & CEO at Jack and Jill, on AI Career Agents, Talent Density, and Building the Next Network-Effect Marketplace

This week on Riding Unicorns, Matt Wilson returns to the podcast. Matt previously joined us in September 2022 to talk about Omnipresent, which has since been acquired by Deel. He is now back building Jack and Jill, one of the most talked-about venture-backed companies in Europe right now.Jack and Jill is bringing conversational AI to job hunting and hiring, with two agents built for two audiences:Jack, an AI agent for individuals that learns who you are, what you want, and monitors the job market for you, while also helping with career coaching, CVs, and interview prep.Jill, an AI agent for companies that learns what you are hiring for, then works with Jack to make high-signal introductions at scale.In this episode, we cover:Why careers and hiring remain massively under-optimised, and why that mattersHow Jack and Jill avoids the marketplace cold start by winning in “single-player mode” firstWhy Matt is building a flatter, leaner org this time, and staying closer to the actionTalent density in an AI-native company, and why paying above-market is a deliberate strategyWhat “escape velocity” looks like in a two-sided marketplace, and the metric they trackThe long-term moat: network effects over featuresMatt’s future unicorn picks, plus dinner party guests (with Steve Jobs, Reid Hoffman, and a very specific competitive curiosity)If you care about AI agents, marketplaces, or how recruiting changes when everyone has an AI working on their behalf, you’ll enjoy this one.