The 50 startups that matter most to LinkedIn professionals

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky used to address new hires with a call to action: “Never assume you can’t do something. Push yourself to redefine the boundaries,” he’d tell him. It was a speech he codified in a 2015 email to his team, saying: “If you see a white wall, make your mark.”

This advice defines modern-day startup culture. Business is a volatile pursuit. The companies that appear to be most stalwart today will topple tomorrow. Nearly half of the companies on the Fortune 500 will not be there in a decade. Savvy entrepreneurs — and the intrepid group of early employees who join them — understand that every problem can be solved a different, better way.

This is the ethos at the heart of the LinkedIn Top Startups list, our annual ranking of the 50 most sought-after startups in the United States. At its 2017 inception, Chesky’s company was near the top. Just two years later, three of the top five startups on the original list have gone public, and the other two, Airbnb and WeWork, are expected to do so soon. Meanwhile, we’ve identified a new crop of companies that are edging into the spotlight as they raise funds, build fast-growing businesses and hire like mad. Topping the U.S. list this year is enterprise software giant Snowflake (No. 1), cannabis retailer Dosist (No. 2), industrial sensor developer Samsara (No. 3), food delivery service DoorDash (No. 4) and corporate credit card issuer Brex (No. 5). In sum, the 2019 Top Startups have filled 11,000 positions this year, and plan to be hiring thousands more in the year ahead.

The purpose of the Top Startups list is to provide professionals a window into the companies that are in the midst of hitting escape velocity. We start with the data — the billions of actions generated by LinkedIn’s 645 million members — and looked at four pillars in particular: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. In other words, which startups are commanding the attention and working hours of top talent? To be eligible for Top Startups, companies must be 7 years old or younger, have at least 50 employees, be privately held and headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. (Check out which startups made the lists in Canada, Australia, India, Japan, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K., Brazil and Mexico.) 

Looked at collectively, this list has a lot to tell us about the state of startups in 2019 — and the future of whole industries. The businesses vary from selling things like real estate (Compass, No. 9), makeup (Glossier, No. 11), and luggage (Allbirds, No. 40) to making it easier to buy things with payment plans (Affirm, No. 26), and an online wholesale platform (Faire, No. 31). There is a spate of companies willing to rent things like scooters (Lime, No. 12 and Bird, No. 19) and hotel-apartments (Domio, No. 27 and Sonder, No. 41). Several are tackling the gnarly technical challenges involved in self-driving technology (Aurora, No. 18 and Zoox, No. 15). One company (Cameo, No. 32) has launched an app that lets people buy personalized video shoutouts from celebrities: For $550, you could hire Charlie Sheen to say happy birthday to your brother via video.

To the people hiring for these companies, educational pedigrees matter less than ever. The founders of Away (No. 13) and Brex (No. 5) didn’t complete college, and these companies understand that a degree isn’t a requirement for great talent. In fact, 75% of companies on the list say they look for passion, talent and diversity of experience, not necessarily for a diploma. 

Will these startups realize the opportunities before them to remake industries and reach for a spot on a future Fortune 500 list? That’s in the hands of the talent flocking to them. Maybe you’ll want to put your own hat into the ring. Check out who made the cut and join the conversation using #LinkedInTopStartups.

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