The short version: Seven startups announced rounds from October 19 to 21, six at a reported $1 billion or more. In an 8:13 a.m. PT capture on October 21, the five public Ashby boards listed 123 postings. Of the 107 with pay, 47 had a base label, 3 an OTE label and 57 no label. Greptile is the only board with dollar-valued equity ranges. Eka's board showed no pay; Daytona links 12 Notion roles, none with a numeric range in our check.

A valuation tells you what investors paid. A job board should tell you what you'd be paid. This week's crop mostly publishes the number and skips the word that says what it is.

What happened

  • Town: an October 19 release announced a $108 million Series B co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures, valuing the company at $1 billion.
  • Greptile: an October 19 company post announced a $50 million Series B led by Menlo Ventures at a $750 million valuation.
  • Daytona: its October 20 post announced a $60 million Series B at $1 billion, led by FirstMark Growth.
  • Arda: an October 20 Business Wire release brought Bob McGrew's company out of stealth with $232 million raised, including a $160 million Series A at $1.5 billion.
  • Eka Robotics: its October 20 post announced a $150 million Series A led by a16z and F-Prime. TechCrunch reported a $1.45 billion valuation.
  • Reliable Robotics: an October 20 release added $115 million, including a $25 million term loan, taking its Series D to $275 million and its valuation over $1 billion. It says it will “rapidly scale the engineering team.”
  • Blacksmith: an October 21 release announced a $66 million Series C led by Sequoia at $1 billion.

Valuations and plans are company claims, except Eka's reported valuation.

Who they're hiring (observed October 21)

Raydar pulled the five public Ashby feeds at 8:13 a.m. PT on October 21.

  • Reliable Robotics, 59 postings: 46 in Mountain View, 7 in Seattle, the rest in New Mexico, San Diego, San Martin or remote.
  • Blacksmith, 20: New York, San Francisco or both, including a general application.
  • Greptile, 18: all San Francisco.
  • Town, 15: 13 San Francisco, 2 New York. Every description asks for five days a week in person.
  • Eka, 11: all on site near Boston.
  • Daytona: its careers page links 12 role pages on Notion. None showed a numeric pay range in our check; one described the package only as “Competitive Salary.” These pages are outside the five-Ashby-board count.
  • Arda: no public hiring board appeared in this one-day check. Its careers URL returned a 404, which is not proof the company has no openings.

Posting dates don't establish new seats or prove the funding caused a listing to appear. Ashby's publishedAt is a posting timestamp, not a hiring plan. Our recheck of eight funded startups' boards found the same limitation.

What they pay, and what the label says

Of 123 Ashby postings, 107 show pay. 47 say base, 3 say OTE and 57 say neither. The other 16 show no pay.

  • Greptile prices equity. 16 of its 17 paid postings list a dollar equity range beside the cash. Its public Ashby feed lists the Staff Generalist Engineer at $250,000 to $300,000 base and $750,000 to $1,125,000 in equity. A Forward Deployed Engineer range is $140,000 to $220,000 base and $150,000 to $225,000 in equity. The labels don't say whether that's a total grant or yearly, the instrument, vesting or the price behind it. An Enterprise Account Executive posting is OTE $280,000 to $400,000 plus commission.
  • Reliable Robotics posts pay on all 59. 33 tiers say “Estimated Base Salary” and 26 have no label. Ranges run from $75,000 to $100,000 for a Part 135 Line Pilot in Albuquerque to tops of $300,000 for senior flight software and guidance roles. Software Engineer, Mission Systems adds a lower remote tier, $140,000 to $190,000 against $160,000 to $200,000 in Mountain View. Thirteen descriptions also state a range, and two don't match the field. Simulation Software Engineer shows $160,000 to $215,000 in the field and $215,000 to $300,000 in the text. Sr. FPGA Verification Engineer shows $215,000 to $300,000, but its text reads “$215,000 to $300,00.” We report both as published.
  • Blacksmith labels two of 16. Startups Lead says On Target Earnings, $180,000 to $200,000; an executive assistant role says Estimated Base Salary. Solutions Engineer shows $200,000 to $275,000 with commission and no label. Descriptions promise “competitive base + equity,” which doesn't label the range. The top is Staff Systems Engineer, $280,000 to $380,000 in New York.
  • Town shows a range on all 15, with no label or equity line. Backend Engineer is $250,000 to $300,000 and Recruiting and Office Coordinator is $75,000 to $115,000.
  • Eka's board shows no pay: none of its 11 Ashby postings displays compensation. Daytona's pages likewise had no numeric range, but one said “Competitive Salary.”

What it means for candidates

  • Greptile's equity number is a starting point. Ask if it's the total grant, the vesting, options or RSUs, and the price behind it. Don't add it to salary until you know.
  • Unlabeled means ask. 57 of these 107 ranges don't say base. Our pay band guide explains why. Ramp showed the same mix this week in its 169-posting board.
  • Sales roles: get base, target variable, quota and payout timing in writing, especially where commission sits beside an unlabeled range.
  • Text versus field: at Reliable, ask which range governs your level before you anchor.
  • No range: at Eka, ask for the band before the final round. At Daytona, the careers page links 12 roles, but the pages we checked don't publish a numeric range.

The round is the headline. The posting is where the offer starts, so read its label first.

Sources and method

Funding facts come from each company's release or post, linked above. Eka's valuation is TechCrunch's reporting. Boards were captured October 21, 2026 at 8:13 a.m. PT through Ashby's public posting API for Town, Greptile, Blacksmith, Eka Robotics and Reliable Robotics; cited job pages returned by 8:16 a.m. PT. Daytona's 12 Notion role pages were checked in a browser the same morning; none showed a numeric pay range, and one used “Competitive Salary” without an amount. Counts are postings, not seats or hires. Labels come from each posting's compensation tier wording. Groups are mutually exclusive: 47 base, 3 OTE, 57 neither, 16 no pay. No medians or cross-company averages.