Each Spring, I publish The Rocket Ship Startup List — a curated list of exciting, fast-growing, rapidly hiring private companies representing promising places to start or continue a career in Startupland. This year’s global list is comprised of over 570 companies in total — over 330 US companies and over 240 international companies.
Finding companies that are hiring isn’t easy, but after a few tough years, we are seeing some “green shoots”. The AI and climate sectors are white hot and once again, dozens and dozens of companies around the world are raising big rounds and growing rapidly.
The methodology for compiling this year’s list is similar to past years: I combine analytical sources like Pitchbook (financings) and LinkedIn (headcount, job growth, job listings) with insider knowledge and input from many VC and entrepreneur friends regarding who has real momentum. The mix of objective and subjective data from around the world helps assemble the list. Here are the objective criteria (not perfectly strict but roughly):
- Growth/momentum: typically growing revenue > 100% year over year or > 50% for larger companies
- Fundraising: typically has raised a total of > $50 million, including $30 million in the most recent round, which closed in the last 12 months.
- Scale: typically > 100 employees (some AI companies are extraordinary in what they’ve achieved with very few employees, and so I relaxed this criteria more frequently this year)
- Hiring: typically growing headcount > 30% year over year and have a robust number of job postings, including numerous entry-level positions that would be a fit for recent college or business school graduates.
- Young: founded in 2013 or later
Note that this list is not necessarily “the best companies to invest in”. They represent “the best companies to pursue a job opportunity early in your career”. Thus, they must be hiring and I don’t care about their most recent valuation!
Once again, I want to profusely thank my numerous VC friends situated in startup hubs around the world for their input — including those in Canada (11 companies), Europe (92 companies), India (42 companies), Israel (31 companies), LatAm (32 companies), MENA (featured for the first time! 18 companies), and Southeast Asia (18 companies). Pitchbook is an amazing source of insight but there tends to be less reliable data outside the US.
We again included data from Glassdoor to provide insight into the “diversity and inclusion” score of a company since survey after survey indicates young professionals are more attracted to such companies (Glassdoor explains the importance and source of this data here and if you want more insight into hiring diverse talent check out Hack.Diversity).
Before reviewing the company list, I suggest checking out two of my previous posts where I provide detailed advice on how to select the right company and position yourself to secure a job — a playbook I have seen executed successfully now across my decades as a VC and entrepreneurship professor at HBS working with thousands of young professionals:
As usual, I am sure I have made many mistakes and omissions and so thank you in advance for your feedback. A special thanks to Amrut Rajkarne of Harvard Business School who did so much heavy lifting to make this year’s list as comprehensive as it is.
Without further ado, here is the Airtable link for the 570 companies.
Disclosure: among the listed companies, the following are Flybridge portfolio companies — Amartha, FalconX, Finakargo, Habi, and Nasuni
SEEING BOTH SIDES 