More than half of the people in the world are active on the internet. So it makes sense that entrepreneurs would want to start a tech company. Not a lot of tech startups are involved in the manufacture and sale of technology. Most of them produce a service that relies on technology.
Professional networking site LinkedIn, for the third time, tracked tech startups for its annual Top Startups ranking. According to the site, it had data scientists analyze billions of LinkedIn activities from its over 645 million members in order to identify the top startups of the year. There were four criteria: employee growth, jobseeker interest, member engagement and how well the startups pulled talent from the LinkedIn Top Companies list.
Considered startups are those operating for seven years or less. LinkedIn identified the top 50 American startups for its list. Here are the top five startups:
- Snowflake Inc.
Founded in 2012, which means that this would be the last year that the company is eligible to be on the list, Snowflake Inc. is a cloud-based data-warehousing company based in San Mateo, California. For the first two years, Snowflake was on stealth mode. It was formally launched in 2014 by former Microsoft division president Bob Muglia.
The company’s valuation as of 2018 is $3.5 billion. It currently has 1,065 employees and grew its revenue by more than 250%.
- Dosist
Known as the first-ever cannabis boutique, Dosist calls itself a modern wellness company that encourages people to manage their happiness in a natural way through dose-controlled cannabis-based therapy. In other words, the company has successfully put the posh in cannabis intake.
The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Among its most popular products is the cannabis dose pen. It currently employs around 200 people. According to LinkedIn, the company successfully attracted some of the top employees of large companies like Apple and Tesla.
- Samsara
Headquartered in San Francisco, the world’s tech hub, Samsara calls itself a leader in industrial IoT. The company combines hardware, software and cloud in order to provide real-time visibility, analytics and artificial intelligence to operations.
Founded only in 2015, Samsara already serves over 10,000 customers worldwide. It employs over 1,300 companies and has since expanded by opening offices in San Jose, California; Atlanta, Georgia and London in the U.K.
- DoorDash
This food delivery service aims to connect people with the best in their locality. So Chicagoans can have deep dish pizza delivered right at their doorstep by DoorDash. The company does not only empower local businesses, it also helps people find jobs through them. The service allows merchants to sign up with the company, and allows people to become Dashers.
The company was founded in 2013. Its headquarters is in San Francisco, but the service is available in major cities in the U.S. It currently has over 1,780 people in its employ from different cities. According to LinkedIn, the company has doubled its number of employees every year since it started.
- Brex
The company is into financial services with a product that it claims to be the smartest corporate credit card. The product is its way of helping tech startups by rebuilding B2B financial products. Brex is fairly young, having only started in 2017. Its headquarters is in San Francisco but it has since opened offices in New York City, Salt Lake City and Vancouver, British Columbia. After all, finance is a global topic.
Brex currently has 230 employees but it is always in the lookout for new talents to join its exclusive team.
Best time for tech startups
Now is the best time for tech startups. The competition is stiff because of the hundreds of startups being launched every year. However, competition only makes startups want to do better. They want to make better products and improve their services in order to stay ahead of the competition. Such aggressiveness could only be great for the clients.
This is also the best time for innovative individuals to take out their thinking caps. Based on the top tech startups that impressed LinkedIn, companies that have unique products and services make it to the top.