NYC Target List — Week of Aug 3

Anthony's in-person outreach targets for the NYC trip, Aug 3–7, 2026 (available ~6:30am–5pm daily). Selection logic: gettable + relevant beats famous. Core fit = T2 (mid-career change), T3 (career displacement), T4 (entrepreneurial pathway), or direct affiliation value. All 24 are loaded in Attio as People records (location, role tags, and a "pending Anthony review" note on each), so outreach can run straight from the synced inbox.

24vetted targets

18NYC confirmed

6verify before outreach

14warm contacts

20bench entries

Influencers / Creators · 5

1Hanna Goefft Confirmed NYC In Attio (existing)

Career content creator ("Hanna Gets Hired") — modern job-search and career-navigation content for early/mid-career professionals.

Audience: Featured Creator Economy NYC profile; established career-creator brand with a partnership inbox.

Why this person: T2/T3-native creator at a scale where a founder coffee is a real meeting, not a media buy.
Suggested ask: Coffee + product walkthrough; explore organic/affiliate partnership.
Contact: partner@hannagetshired.com (on file in Attio)

2Chelsea Fagan Confirmed NYC In Attio (existing)

Co-founder/CEO, The Financial Diet — money-and-career media brand run from Manhattan offices.

Audience: 7M monthly views, 90% women (Attio).

Why this person: Her audience is women making money-driven career decisions — T2 with a T3 overlay; she also built a media business from NYC, so it's affiliation + distribution in one.
Suggested ask: Coffee or TFD office visit; pitch VITALS as content/segment partner.
Contact: thefinancialdiet.com partnerships; LinkedIn

3Austin Belcak Verify before outreach In Attio (existing)

Founder, Cultivated Culture — job-search training with a hybrid B2B+B2C funnel.

Audience: Large LinkedIn following; Cultivated Culture email/course base. NYC signal: directory/LinkedIn mirrors list New York; no 2024+ dated source.

Why this person: T2/T3 job-search audience plus a funnel-builder's brain — useful on affiliate mechanics as much as reach.
Suggested ask: Coffee; affiliate/funnel-swap conversation.
Contact: LinkedIn DM; cultivatedculture.com

4Marc Cenedella Verify before outreach In Attio (existing)

Founder, Ladders — long-time NYC career-tech founder, now writing/advising ($100K+ job-market voice).

Audience: Ladders newsletter legacy (millions of career-seeker emails historically); active personal brand. NYC signal: about.me says "New York City," Ladders NY HQ; profile undated — high confidence.

Why this person: T2 at the affluent end, plus 20 years of career-marketplace operating scars — half influencer, half founder-mentor.
Suggested ask: Coffee; founder-to-founder on career-product monetization + newsletter feature.
Contact: marc@cenedella.com (on file in Attio)

5Ramit Sethi Confirmed NYC Long shot — needs warm intro In Attio (existing)

Author, I Will Teach You to Be Rich; Netflix show; money-psychology mega-creator.

Audience: 1M+ email list, major podcast/YouTube footprint. NYC signal: Mar 2026 AOL piece ("loyal New Yorker"); 2024 CNBC corroboration.

Why this person: T2/T4 adjacency (career and business decisions through a money lens); category-defining reach if it ever lands.
Suggested ask: Do NOT cold-pitch a coffee. Hunt a warm intro this trip (Griscom, Rubin's orbit, or podcast bookers); park as a slow-burn target.
Contact: Warm intro only; iwt.com media inbox as fallback

Podcast Hosts · 4

6Jessi Hempel Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Host, Hello Monday (LinkedIn News flagship on work, identity, meaning); LinkedIn senior editor-at-large; author The Family Outing.

Audience: LinkedIn-backed distribution; six-figure companion newsletter; live office-hours events. Lives in Brooklyn (own bio).

Why this person: Her show is the VITALS conversation — work identity and reinvention for exactly T2/T3 listeners.
Suggested ask: Coffee + podcast guest pitch: Anthony on career clarity at the moment of change.
Contact: LinkedIn; jessijhempel.com contact

7Jenny Blake Confirmed NYC In Attio (existing) + Added to Attio 7/10 (merged)

Host, Pivot podcast; author Pivot and Free Time; ex-Google career development lead.

Audience: 750+ episodes, 2M+ downloads; PivotList Substack (23K active per Attio). Domain is literally jennyblake.nyc.

Why this person: Owns the best-known indie career-pivot framework; indie scale means a very takeable meeting; methodology-partner potential for T2. Note: podcasts on sabbatical per Attio — lead with partnership, not a guest pitch.
Suggested ask: Coffee + methodology/affiliate conversation.
Contact: pivotmethod.com; Substack; LinkedIn

8Rufus Griscom Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Co-founder/CEO, Next Big Idea Club; host, The Next Big Idea (Wondery).

Audience: Major-network podcast; A-list author curation (Cain, Gladwell, Grant, Pink); club subscriber base.

Why this person: Single highest-leverage gatekeeper on this list — one relationship opens the idea-hungry self-improvement audience and half the authors on this page.
Suggested ask: Coffee; long-game relationship, not a pitch.
Contact: LinkedIn; nextbigideaclub.com

9Andrew Seaman Verify before outreach Added to Attio 7/10

LinkedIn Editor at Large, Jobs & Career Development; host, Get Hired podcast + newsletter.

Audience: One of LinkedIn's largest newsletters (multi-million subscribers) of job seekers and the laid-off. NYC signal: LinkedIn profile New York area; LinkedIn News editorial NYC-based — confirm metro on profile.

Why this person: The largest reachable audience of actively displaced workers — T3 at scale.
Suggested ask: Coffee + guest/feature pitch framed around layoff-to-clarity data.
Contact: LinkedIn (active, responsive to the career community)

Authors · 5

10Bruce Feiler Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Author, The Search and Life Is in the Transitions; coined "workquakes"; TED speaker; The Nonlinear Life newsletter.

Audience: 7x NYT bestseller; multi-million-view TED talks; large newsletter. Brooklyn (own bio + LinkedIn).

Why this person: His transitions research is the intellectual scaffolding for VITALS' "clarity at the moment of change" positioning — validation and language for T2/T3.
Suggested ask: Coffee + product walkthrough; explore research/content collaboration.
Contact: brucefeiler.com; LinkedIn

11Amina AlTai Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Executive/leadership coach; author, The Ambition Trap (Portfolio, 2025).

Audience: PRH title, Google Play Best-of, heavy 2025 podcast tour; exec coaching clients at Google/Snap/Roku. Brooklyn/NYC (own about page).

Why this person: Coaches the burned-out high achiever asking "is this even what I want?" — VITALS' T2 activation moment; her coach network is a distribution channel.
Suggested ask: Coffee + product walkthrough; coach-channel pilot conversation.
Contact: aminaaltai.com

12Adam Alter Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10 (merged)

NYU Stern professor; author, Anatomy of a Breakthrough (getting unstuck).

Audience: 2x NYT bestseller; TED ~10M+ views; Stern "get unstuck" alumni workshops. NYU Stern faculty bio.

Why this person: "Stuck" is the emotional state that precedes a VITALS assessment — scientific language for the activation trigger.
Suggested ask: Coffee near NYU; explore advisory/endorsement angle.
Contact: Stern email; adamalterauthor.com; LinkedIn

13Minda Harts Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Workplace author (The Memo, Talk to Me Nice); NYU Wagner adjunct; LinkedIn Top Voice.

Audience: 4 books, major speaker bureaus, strong LinkedIn following. NYU Wagner faculty page.

Why this person: Trusted voice for women of color navigating advancement and career moves — credible audience expansion for T2/T3; pairs with existing warm contact Cynthia Pong's community.
Suggested ask: Coffee; content/community collaboration.
Contact: mindaharts.com; LinkedIn

14Maggie Jackson Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Author, Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure (National Book Award longlist; Next Big Idea Club Top 25).

Audience: NYT/WSJ contributor; Brightsight speaker roster. New York and Rhode Island (own bio).

Why this person: The leading popular voice on decision-making under uncertainty — thought-leadership pairing for VITALS' decision-clarity positioning across all segments.
Suggested ask: Coffee; co-content or endorsement conversation.
Contact: maggie-jackson.com; LinkedIn

Professors / Academics · 5

15Suzy Welch Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10 (merged)

NYU Stern professor; Director, Stern Initiative on Purpose and Flourishing; creator of "Becoming You" — values/aptitudes/interests methodology, Stern's most oversubscribed elective, 2025 book, assessment toolkit, coach certification.

Audience: 3x NYT bestseller; heavy 2025 press cycle; large LinkedIn. NYU Stern faculty bio + Becoming You Lab pages.

Why this person: #1 priority of the trip. The single closest authority to VITALS' category — she monetizes a structured self-discovery methodology for career clarity. One meeting tests methodology positioning, academic validation, and audience access at once.
Suggested ask: Campus coffee; methodology conversation — partnership, validation, or rivalry-mapping are all high-value outcomes.
Contact: LinkedIn (very active); suzywelch.com; Stern email

16Tessa West Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10 (merged)

NYU psychology professor; author, Job Therapy: Finding Work That Works for You (2024) — diagnoses five career-frustration types and matches people to better-fit work.

Audience: CNBC contributor; PRH lead title; McKinsey Author Talks; Lavin keynote roster. NYU faculty; tessawestauthor.com.

Why this person: The most assessment-native scientist on the list — natural research-collaboration and media-credibility ally for T2.
Suggested ask: Coffee near NYU + product walkthrough; validation-study conversation.
Contact: tessawestauthor.com form; NYU email; X

17Scott Barry Kaufman Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Columbia psychology professor; scientist of self-actualization (Transcend, Rise Above); built consumer assessment instruments (selfactualizationtests.com); hosts The Psychology Podcast.

Audience: 30M+ podcast downloads; huge newsletter/social. Columbia professor per own site.

Why this person: Psychometrics + consumer self-discovery + one of the largest psychology podcasts — the highest audience-leverage academic meeting available; Anthony-as-guest is plausible.
Suggested ask: Podcast guest pitch + coffee.
Contact: scottbarrykaufman.com contact; LinkedIn/X

18Dorie Clark Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Columbia Business School exec-ed faculty; author, Reinventing You and The Long Game.

Audience: Thinkers50 #1 communication/leadership thinker; 100K+ newsletter; HBR contributor. Teaches at CBS, NYC-based (own bio).

Why this person: The canonical career-reinvention playbook author, famously responsive and network-generous — high gettability, T2-perfect, and a connector to everyone else on this list.
Suggested ask: Coffee; newsletter/feature + intro-mapping.
Contact: dorieclark.com contact (responsive); LinkedIn

19Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic Verify before outreach Added to Attio 7/10

Columbia professor of business psychology; ex-CEO, Hogan Assessments; leadership-assessment lead at Russell Reynolds (NYC HQ); author, I, Human.

Audience: TEDx ~10M views; constant HBR/Fast Company output. NYC signal: Columbia + Russell Reynolds NYC roles, but historically splits NYC/London — confirm he's stateside Aug 3–7.

Why this person: The single best "assessment credibility" ally findable — psychometric legitimacy is VITALS' hardest scientific hill.
Suggested ask: Coffee + product walkthrough; advisory conversation.
Contact: LinkedIn (very active); drtomas.com

Founders · 4

20David Fano Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Founder/CEO, Teal (tealhq.com) — NYC's flagship consumer career-growth platform; ex-WeWork Chief Growth Officer.

Audience: 100K+ LinkedIn followers, builds in public; freemium PLG model. Teal NYC-based (LinkedIn/Crunchbase).

Why this person: Nearest product-led founder in career tech. Teal = downstream execution, VITALS = upstream clarity — a clean complementary-affiliation case, matching Anthony's exact ask ("founders we can affiliate with — complementary pieces... product-led").
Suggested ask: Coffee + mutual product walkthrough; cross-promotion/integration exploration.
Contact: LinkedIn DM (engages actively)

21Frida Polli Verify before outreach Added to Attio 7/10

Co-founder/former CEO, pymetrics (behavioral assessment, acquired by Harver); now at the AI-assessment intersection.

Audience: WEF/MIT task forces, TED/media presence. NYC signal: pymetrics was NYC-HQ; current base shows mixed Boston/NYC/SF signals — confirm before booking.

Why this person: Already built and exited a venture-scale behavioral-assessment company from NYC — the highest-value pattern-matching available on VITALS' hardest problems: validation, defensibility, monetization.
Suggested ask: Coffee; mentor/advisor conversation, possible angel angle.
Contact: LinkedIn

22Kathryn Minshew Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Co-founder, The Muse; author, The New Rules of Work; now Executive-in-Residence/investor at Trilantic North America (NYC).

Audience: Widely known founder story; WSJ/HBR contributor. Trilantic team page confirms NYC.

Why this person: Built the defining values-based career platform and knows exactly where career-content monetization breaks — plus a live investor seat, so this doubles as a funder meeting.
Suggested ask: Coffee; pattern-matching + investor-intro conversation.
Contact: LinkedIn; kminshew.com

23Sherveen Mashayekhi Confirmed NYC Added to Attio 7/10

Co-founder/CEO, Free Agency — NYC "talent agency for tech careers"; monetizes career transitions directly.

Audience: Very visible on X/TikTok; TechCrunch-covered. NYC company (TechCrunch/Crunchbase).

Why this person: T2/T3 monetization insight from someone charging real money for career transitions; opinionated, responsive, gettable.
Suggested ask: Coffee; business-model sparring + possible referral partnership.
Contact: X DM (most responsive); LinkedIn

Funders · 1

Most funder relationships are already in Attio (Amy Nelson, Steve Joseph, Daniel Dudley, Cree Martinez — see warm contacts below). Kathryn Minshew (#22) also carries an investor seat. Net-new funder discovery was not this sweep's focus.

24Fran Hauser Verify before outreach Added to Attio 7/10

Former president of digital, Time Inc.; angel investor in 25+ female-founded/consumer companies; author, The Myth of the Nice Girl + Embrace the Work career workbook.

Audience: Audible best business book 2018; strong LinkedIn/Instagram. NYC signal: Westchester resident, NYC career base — confirm Manhattan availability.

Why this person: The one net-new name who is simultaneously a career-clarity author and an active check-writer in VITALS' consumer lane.
Suggested ask: Coffee; product walkthrough with an explicit investor framing.
Contact: franhauser.com; LinkedIn

Already in Your Network — Confirmed NYC · 14

Do not duplicate outreach — schedule directly.

Name	Who	NYC status	Relationship
Amy Nelson	Rethink Capital (funder)	Confirmed	Good — meeting already set 8/4
Elizabeth Brake	—	Brooklyn, confirmed	Good
Steve Joseph	Investor	Huntington Station LI, confirmed	Good
Dan Sommer	10X Impact	Confirmed	Weak
David Yakobovitch	DataPower VC; runs NYC AI events	Confirmed	Very weak — ask him directly about Aug 3–7 events
Eleanor Meegoda	—	Confirmed	Very weak
Mary Blanusa	Alliance for Decision Education	NJ, confirmed	Weak
Dov Fisher	Pearson	NJ, confirmed	Very weak
Martin Pollock	—	NJ, confirmed	Very weak
David Jordan	Flatiron School (talent)	NYC-likely	Very weak
Cree Martinez	10X Impact	NYC-likely	Weak
Daniel Dudley	Grand Rounds Capital	Brooklyn-likely	Weak
Bailey Hanley	Coach, Clarity	Brooklyn-likely	Weak
Cynthia Pong	Embrace Change NYC (career coach, women of color; community gatekeeper)	NYC, confirmed	In Attio — not in people export; see hygiene flag below

Bench — NYC-Plausible, Didn't Make the Cut · 20 entries

Strong but lower gettability or narrower fit

Gretchen Rubin (confirmed NYC) — built a business on VITALS' exact mechanic (frameworks + quizzes, 3M+ quiz takers); mega-scale, warm-intro-only; promote if an intro path appears.
Carly Zakin & Danielle Weisberg, theSkimm (confirmed NYC) — millions of millennial women; goes through a partnerships desk, not a founder coffee.
Debbie Millman, Design Matters (likely; splits NYC/LA) — self-discovery for creatives; confirm August coast before pursuing.
Farnoosh Torabi, So Money (likely; Montclair NJ) — money-lens career decisions; has a podcast pitch form, decent backup target.
Joanne Lipman, Next! (likely) — her "expert companion" reinvention research is nearly a written case for VITALS; verify residence.
Lindsey Pollak (likely) — multigenerational career authority; book cycle older (2021).
Jill Griffin, The Career Refresh (likely; Long Island) — strengths-native midlife-reinvention coach; small but takeable.
Gianna Prudente & Jamé Jackson, Let's Talk Offline (likely) — Gen Z work-identity; younger than core ICP.
Adam Galinsky, Modupe Akinola, Sheena Iyengar, Teresa Ghilarducci, Arun Sundararajan (all confirmed NYC academics) — real relevance, but five academics already made the list; promote Akinola if a podcast angle firms up, Ghilarducci for T3 depth.
Lisa Skeete Tatum (Landit), Raphael Ouzan (A.Team), Porter Braswell (2045 Studio), Pamela Skillings (Big Interview), Carolyn Childers (Chief) (all confirmed NYC founders) — instructive models; second-tranche founder meetings.
Katharine Zaleski (PowerToFly) (likely) — may have stepped back from operating role; verify status first.
Jerry Lee (Wonsulting) (likely) — founder-led content machine for underdog job seekers; verify NYC base.
Kimberly Murphy (Small Girls PR) (NYC-likely, Attio) — agency SVP, not an audience owner; useful for PR, not this list's purpose.

Unknown but promising — worth a manual LinkedIn pass before the trip

Sieva Kozinsky (Attio, T4) — Business Buying Academy 90K; Enduring Ventures has an NYC office, his base unstated.
Ami Angelowicz (Attio, T3) — Laid Off Life newsletter, ex-WBD; career history skews NYC media, no residence source.
Laura Kavanaugh (Attio, investor target, strong connection) — unsearchable gmail-only record; Anthony may simply know.
Christopher Hughes (Attio, investor tag, good connection) — possibly a relative of Anthony's; ask Anthony directly.
Grace Xu (Attio, T3) — TikTok ~300K post-layoff creator; no city found in any source.
Catherine Purvines / Tim Flynn (Alliance for Decision Education) — ADE HQ is Bala Cynwyd PA, but colleague Mary Blanusa is NJ; NYC-metro possible.
Max Heckel (Ariso, good connection) — no location on team page.

Events — Aug 3–7

Zero confirmed relevant events found as of 2026-07-10. NYC tech/startup calendars populate 1–3 weeks out and early August is a seasonal lull. Gary's Guide currently shows nothing Aug 2–5 (nearest listing: Google Gemma AI hackathon Aug 1, outside window). Recheck ~July 27:

Gary's Guide — garysguide.com
Luma "NYC Startup Events" — luma.com/nycstartupevents (recurring "Future of Work & AI Roundtable" series)
Luma "NYC Founders Dinner" — luma.com/nyfounder
Luma "Founders, Funders & Fractionals" — luma.com/FoundersFundersFractionals

Shortcut: David Yakobovitch (warm, in Attio) runs NYC AI community events — ask him directly what's happening that week. Doubles as a re-engagement touch.

Data caveats

~270 CRM contacts had no location data — the warm-contact and bench triage is only as complete as what was tagged.
The Attio people export missed ~83 records (Cynthia Pong is one known example — tracked as a warm community gatekeeper but absent from the export). Flagged for CRM hygiene.
LIKELY-status names carry a verify tag; confirm location within days of booking, not just before the trip.

Compiled 2026-07-10 from discovery, verification, and Attio export files. Dedupes merged across sources (4): Jenny Blake, Suzy Welch, Tessa West, Adam Alter. Vetted list: 24 names — 18 confirmed / 6 likely (25%, under the one-third cap).