Content Lead, Startups

I recently celebrated 3 years as the Director of Content at Ashby. In these 3 years, not once have I thought about SEO.

Or posting to a blog regularly.

Or whether there's enough made up eyeballs - I mean, traffic - to gate a form nobody wants to fill out just so a sales rep can call them later.

And while most of that is still true today, I'm now hiring the first Content Lead on my team who will think critically about publishing to a blog and increasing our organic AEO visibility.

First, you may be wondering: How am I running a 6-person Content department without thinking about algorithms? Harriet, Benjamin, and I took an early bet that too many companies are afraid of taking: Investing in high quality content programs that are completely ungated, or experienced full in-person, will create authentic community conversation that drive real interest in our business and product. So far, it's working.

And while that ethos is still the core of what we do, we recognize it's time to add a new layer of AI search. We're approaching it with an immense amount of thought and specificity for where it fits in our strategy.

We have a hungry audience of startup talent leaders and hiring-focused founders who could use tangible playbooks right now, and the internet is giving them noise instead of signal. So for the first time I'm hiring someone to actually write on our blog, while still contributing to the kind of team I've been describing in every one of my hiring posts: high-value pillars, clear ownership, and people who think in first principles instead of default playbooks.

Our Startup Content Lead will:

• Build and publish Ashby's startup recruiting blog
• Own X.com as a useful channel for this audience, not just a place we repost links
• Partner directly with our Startup Partnerships team (Allison Schneider, Kat Fergerson) and the VC talent community we support
• Develop the special Ashby recipe for sharing quality content while still being relevant in AEO (not writing for AEO and retrofitting to Ashby's bar)

A few notes before you apply:

• Please read the JD in full. This role is explicitly not about writing to whatever an SEO tool tells you, and it'll be obvious in your application whether you caught that nuance.
• We are not an organization who believes AI should write our blog content. If that's core to how you work today, this probably isn't the role for you.
• I read every application response closely. A thoughtful answer to the application questions will matter more to me than being first to apply. Just have yours in by the deadline.
• Unfortunately due to the volume of applications I review, I am unable to respond to direct messages or email outreaches. A thoughtful application will do far more than hoping I see your name in my overloaded LinkedIn inbox. My promise to provide fairness in reviewing everyone equitably.

Posted by: Anum Hussain, Head of Content

Hi, I'm Anum, and I've led the Content team here at Ashby for the past three years. Since I started this function at Ashby, I've been very intentional about how we grow with big plans for the years to come. From day one, we have built high trust internally to avoid becoming a service desk for content needs and instead operating as a strategic lever that thinks critically about our audience's needs and delivers on it consistently.

Historically, our reliance has been on data storytelling, in-person courses, our highly listened to podcast, and Ashby One conferences. By nature, a lot of this content is well suited for scaling organizations. Now, I want to take a step back and breathe life back into our blog, which we have somewhat neglected, by thinking critically about one of our most important audiences at Ashby: Our startup talent leaders and hiring-focused founders. It's important to note these are distinct personas, though with plenty of audience overlap. It'll be important to partner with our Startup Partnerships team in understanding the definitions and nuances of these groups.

This audience is in need of clear hiring playbooks, recruiting resources, and a lot of the foundational content that is ripe for traditional SEO. Though I'm sure it'll come as no surprise that the big bet we need to make here is more on AEO.

To be clear, this role isn't about churning out empty listicle content, though it does require output velocity that matches the pace at which the startup audience is moving. We'll be thinking critically about how to create high-quality pieces that don't sacrifice the Ashby voice, tone, or approach in order to meet an algorithmic change. We'll also think critically about where our audience lives and breathes. This means owning X.com, which may sound a bit non-traditional to a content role, but the way we think about social media is very intentional. Different members of the team own different aspects of social to ensure our content meets the right audience in the right place and format.

You'll also collaborate with our partnerships team, who run strategic activation for our VC talent community, to ensure that we have the right resources for their suite of programming. There'll be more that we need to carve out and deliver over time. For now, I'm looking for someone who cares deeply about the startup community, has a deep passion for writing regularly, and who is eager to explore how to create quality content that meets AEO without sacrificing on brand reputation.

What You'll Be Responsible For in This Role

Develop a startup recruiting blog. You'll be the first true owner of a blog strategy at Ashby. We've historically leaned on data reports, courses, and events to carry our content, so this is a genuine 0 to 1 opportunity to define what our blog stands for and how it earns a place in the startup hiring conversation.

Publish that blog consistently. Your inputs will come from SEO and AEO research, customer intel pulled from customer calls, our partnerships team, and anyone across go-to-market who has built a strong understanding of the startup audience. You'll turn all of that into a steady drumbeat of writing that holds our quality bar.

Build a real publishing strategy for X.com. This isn't about promoting content that already exists elsewhere. It's about thinking critically on how we speak to startup talent leaders and founders on the channel they live on most, in a voice built for that channel (not just a repost of the blog).

Collaborate with our Partnerships team. They run strategic activation for our VC talent community, and you'll make sure the content and resources that show up in their in-person activations and engagement campaigns are sharp, clear, and genuinely useful to the founders and talent leaders in the room.

Own the audience, not just a content type. Whether it's a blog post or a post on X, you're thinking end to end about what a startup talent leader or hiring-focused founder needs next, and building the content ecosystem around them accordingly.

You Will Probably Love This Role If

• You care deeply about the startup community and want your work to genuinely help talent leaders and founders hire better.
• You have a real passion for writing daily. This role will keep you close to the page versus managing others' writing from a distance.
• You're excited by the challenge of AEO and want to earn visibility in LLM-powered search without writing to a checklist or sacrificing brand voice to chase an algorithm.
• You think in terms of owning an audience rather than owning a content type. You're just as comfortable figuring out what a startup founder needs to hear on X as you are shaping a blog post that ranks.
• You're energized by 0 to 1 work. Ashby hasn't had a true blog owner before, so you'll be defining what great looks like from first principles.
• You're comfortable being resourceful with inputs, pulling customer intel, SEO data, and partner context together into something that reads like Ashby, not a patchwork of everyone else's priorities.

This Role Is Not for You If

• You only write to what the SEO recommendations tell you. This role is about creative judgment first, with SEO and AEO as inputs, not the whole brief.
• You struggle with the idea of owning an audience versus owning a content type. If you'd rather just be "the blog writer" or "the social writer" without connecting the two around the same reader, this won't be the right fit.
• You want a fully built playbook to execute against. Much of this role is building the blog strategy and the X.com approach from scratch.
• You're not interested in the operational reality of regular publishing. This is a high-output role for someone who genuinely enjoys writing that often.
• You'd rather work at a distance from customers. You'll need to be close to customer calls, the partnerships team, and the broader startup community to know what's actually worth writing about.

Interview Plan

At Ashby, our team and interview process want to help you show your best self. We'll dive into past projects and simulate working together via project working sessions. Our interview process is:

1. 30-minute intro call (Recruiter Screen)
2. 45-minute interview with Anum Hussain (Hiring Manager)
3. 30-minute interview with Chris Frakes (Content Lead)
4. A take home assignment reviewed by the hiring panel
5. A virtual on-site of 1 hour with a panel of interviewers – this will be with Allison Schneider, Venture & Startup Ecosystem Partnership, and Hannah Small, Partnerships Team and Former Startup Sales AE
6. A 30-minute final round with our VP of Marketing, Harriet Johnston

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity.
• Opportunity to work with a talented and passionate team.
• 10-year exercise window for stock options. You shouldn't feel pressure to purchase stock options if you leave Ashby — do it when you feel financially comfortable.
• Unlimited PTO with four weeks recommended per year.
• Twelve weeks of fully paid family leave in the US.
• Generous equipment, software, and office furniture budget.
• $100/month education budget with more expensive items (like conferences) covered with manager approval.
• If you're in the US, top-notch health insurance for you and your dependents with all premiums covered by us.

Ashby's success hinges on hiring great people and creating an environment where we can be happy, feel challenged, and do our best work.

How to Apply: [click apply]