LinkedIn Top Companies | Startups: The 50 industry disruptors you need to know now

Some of the most fascinating businesses today are startups. Sensing a chance to transform (or take over) a market, founders are channeling their seemingly endless flow of venture funds into new ideas — and top talent. We wanted to see which startups were winning the talent game. Who are the 50 most in-demand upstarts in the U.S. today?

The all-new LinkedIn “Top Companies | Startups” list is the answer. To surface the companies, we looked at the billions of actions of LinkedIn’s more than 500 million members to determine employee growth, job seeker interest via views and applications, member engagement with the company and its employees — and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. (You can learn more about our methodology here.)

To be eligible for Top Companies | Startups, companies must be 10 years old or younger, have at least 100 employees, remain independent and privately held and have at least one round of venture-backed funding. LinkedIn worked with CB Insights to pull a global list of nearly 25,000 eligible venture-backed companies.

Share the list and join the conversation using #LinkedInTopCompanies.

Here are this year’s top 50 startups in the U.S.

All valuation and funding data come from CB Insights. Tenure, employee growth and global headcount data are from LinkedIn Premium Insights unless provided directly by the company.

Driving forward: Uber has been in the public eye this year for all the wrong reasons: sexual harassment claims, regulatory issues, a new CEO and loads of boardroom drama. That hasn’t kept the ride-sharing giant from growing fast or attracting top talent. Of all the companies on our list, Uber has the most workers who have joined from other LinkedIn Top Companies; employees have left the likes of Google, JPMorgan and Facebook to work at the super-unicorn.

Global headcount: 16,000

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Catch a ride: Worldwide employees get free monthly Uber credits to use on personal rides or UberEATS, the company’s online meal ordering and delivery platform.

Valuation: $68 billion

Explore jobs at Uber

Yurt, treehouse, castle: Airbnb has had 200 million guest arrivals since the company launched. Taking on the $550 billion hotel industry is no small feat. To go head-to-head, the company has expanded its instant booking listings and even announced plans to open its first co-branded apartments (which residents will be able to share on Airbnb).

Global headcount: 3,000

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Royal lodgings: Employees receive an annual $2,000 (￡1,516) stipend to stay in Airbnb locales around the world, including one of nearly 3,000 listed castles.

Valuation: $29.25 billion

Explore jobs at Airbnb

Creating communities: WeWork has nearly doubled its membership this year to over 150,000 users, expanded to some 170 locations (including its first India location) and purchased private coding academy Flatiron School in a recent acquisition. While the startup has been growing rapidly, a highly competitive office-leasing market recently raised doubts around the company’s rich valuation.

Global headcount: 3,000

Global headquarters: New York City

TGIM: New hires join WeWork every Monday for orientation at the company’s headquarters. The day includes a citywide scavenger hunt where employees get a glimpse of the company’s nearly 40 buildings across New York and ends with the weekly “Thank God it’s Monday” dinner for the entire staff.

Valuation: $20 billion

Explore jobs at WeWork

Driving across America: Lyft has been rapidly expanding across the U.S. It now covers 95 percent of the population across all 50 states, more than any other rideshare platform, and provides over 1 million rides every day. In mid-October, it raised $1 billion in a new funding round led by the venture arm of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

Global headcount: 2,000

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Expanding accessibility: Lyft introduced new features to make the app more accessible to deaf or hard-of-hearing drivers, including visual notifications and a message telling passengers to contact the driver via text. Passengers can also get a quick tutorial on how to say “Hello” and “Thank You” in sign language.

Valuation: $11 billion

Explore jobs at Lyft

Revolutionizing productivity: Known as a dead-simple collaboration tool, Slack is going head-to-head with the likes of LinkedIn parent Microsoft and Atlassian to own workplace productivity. Its platform allows workers to message each other in real time, while connected apps add context or automate mundane tasks to help get the job done.

Global headcount: 890

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Corporate scale: Slack bills itself as the fastest-growing business application in history, serving some 9 million weekly active users and 43 companies from the Fortune 100 list. It’s been hiring rapidly to keep up with that scale: growing 32 percent over the past year.  

Valuation: $5.1 billion

Explore jobs at Slack

Speeding into the future: Shanghai-based NIO develops smart, electric and autonomous vehicles. The startup, which expanded to the U.S. two years ago, built the world’s fastest electric car, manned or unmanned, able to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.7 seconds. CEO Padmasree Warrior, formerly of Cisco, says NIO cars will be available in the U.S. as soon as 2020.

Global headcount: 3,000

Global headquarters: Shanghai (San Jose, Calif. in the U.S.)

Welcome to the team: NIO has more than quadrupled its staff since June 2016. Amid such rapid growth, NIO shepherds its culture through bimonthly “team time,” where all employees welcome new hires and get to know each other outside of work through activities like trivia and scavenger hunts.

Valuation: $2.89 billion

Explore jobs at NIO

Cloud’s the limit: Rubrik helps companies organize their data in the cloud, ensuring instant access for recovery, analytics and application development. It counts corporate giant JLL, non-profit World Vision and the Tampa Bay Rays among its customers, but CEO Bipul Sinha has even bigger ambitions. “In the future, data will be like money,” he said in a May interview. “Rubrik can be like the Visa for enterprise.”

Global headcount: 600

Global headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

Big-name investors: The company counts NBA MVP Kevin Durant as one of its investors and board advisors alongside iconic firms like IVP and Lightspeed Ventures. It’s also notably transparent: all 600 employees can attend board meetings and see the company’s financials.

Valuation: $1.3 billion

Explore jobs at Rubrik

Refreshing storage: Dropbox has a new look these days. The online storage company went through its biggest-ever rebrand this year, repositioning itself as the tool to enable and inspire creativity in the workplace. The new branding also comes with a major milestone: Dropbox reached a $1 billion revenue run rate in February, the company told LinkedIn.

Global headcount: 1,900

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Giving back: Every Dropbox employee is given 32 hours of annual volunteer time off to participate in a cause about which they are passionate. The company will also match up to $1,000 for all donations made by Dropboxers to charitable organizations.

Valuation: $9.38 billion

Explore jobs at Dropbox

Bringing tech home: Houzz, the online platform for remodeling and decorating, is transforming the way people design and shop for their homes. Beyond sketching ideas or hiring the right contractor, users can experience their designs through Houzz’s augmented reality tool. The company says that shoppers who engage with the tool are 11 times more likely to purchase.

Global headcount: 1,600

Global headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

More than an office: On their first day, every new employee gets a pair of Houzz slippers to wear around the office so they can feel at home. It’s not much of a stretch: Houzz’s meeting rooms are inspired by household spaces around the world, including the British Tea Room, German Backyard and Italian Closet.

Valuation: $3.84 billion

Explore jobs at Houzz

Trucking on demand: Convoy believes the world moves on reliable trucks, and it is in the business of building innovative services to match shipments with reliable carriers. The company works with a network of independent trucking companies and uses technology to match the right truck to the right load, helping optimize supply chain performance.

Global headcount: 170

Global headquarters: Seattle

Staffing up: The company has been scaling rapidly since its founding in 2015. In the past six months, Convoy’s headcount has grown 37 percent — and it’s hiring for another 28 jobs currently, according to LinkedIn data. Its recent $62 million funding round, led by Y Combinator, will help rev up that growth.

Total funding: $80 million

Explore jobs at Convoy

Closing the skills gap: General Assembly is creating a new way to educate today’s workforce. The company, which started as a single co-working space in 2011, now has campuses in 20 cities. GA has served over 40,000 students through its full- and part-time programs, and it says it works with a third of the Fortune 100 to develop proprietary, sustainable talent pipelines in fields like data science and web development.

Global headcount: 580

Global headquarters: New York City

Moving up: While GA has some great perks (like 16 weeks of parental leave for a primary caregiver), the biggest benefit may be the upward mobility within the company. In the first half of 2017, GA had 136 promotions, the company told LinkedIn. That’s a quarter of all employees.

Valuation: $452 million

Explore jobs at General Assembly

Moving the money: Bought something online at Target recently? Or Under Armour? Then you’ve likely used Stripe’s products without even realizing it. The company builds the tools businesses need to instantly accept and manage online payments, helping buyers pay seamlessly and providing sellers real-time analytics.

Global headcount: 810

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Worldwide access: Stripe powers businesses in 25 countries and accepts 135 different currencies (plus Bitcoin). It enables Apple Pay across the internet and in iOS apps, and Stripe even helped launch a new cryptocurrency: Stellar.

Valuation: $9.2 billion

Explore jobs at Stripe

The birth of an empire: Before starting her direct-to-consumer skincare and makeup company, Glossier CEO Emily Weiss ran the popular blog Into the Gloss. The industry expertise and cult following she gained was a recipe for Glossier success. Her social media-savvy brand became such a hit after launching in 2014 that its products quickly sold out and garnered waitlists 10,000 people long.

Global headcount: 130

Global headquarters: New York City

Growth in all directions: At an annual employee growth rate of 257 percent, Glossier was the fastest-growing company on this list over the past 12 months, according to our data. The company also made strides to meet growing demand abroad with plans to ship to Canada, the UK and France. 

Total funding: $34.4 million

Explore jobs at Glossier

Connecting the dots: Early in his career, Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen worked in logistics importing lawnmowers and jacuzzis from China. Now he’s on a mission to ensure any two businesses can trade regardless of distance or regulatory hurdles. His freight forwarding and customs brokerage company is growing at a rapid clip, with its base of clients up 315 percent over the past year, the company says.

Global headcount: 500

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Branch out: The company does a regular “lunch roulette” where you go out to lunch with coworkers you don’t see on a daily basis.

Valuation: $910 million

Explore jobs at Flexport

Making the connection: Organizations often spend a fortune investing in telecommunications infrastructure from the likes of AT&T and Verizon. Aryaka Networks, a SD-WAN provider, is disrupting those telecom giants by providing a networking option that eliminates hardware and helps control costs with a pay-as-you-use model. The end result is seamless connectivity that’s optimized for cloud-based applications and global access.

Global headcount: More than 300

Global headquarters: San Mateo, Calif.

Loyal employees: The average employee tenure at Aryaka Networks is 2.7 years, the longest of all the companies on the list, according to LinkedIn data.

Total funding: $120 million

Explore jobs at Aryaka Networks

The visual search engine: Seven years after the company’s debut, it’s still hard to nail down exactly what Pinterest is: it’s part social network, part scrapbook, part catalog of ideas. But, increasingly, it’s defining itself as a search company — one that hopes to offer marketers an alternative to ad behemoths like Google. The company is expected to generate $500 million in ad revenue this year, up from $300 million in 2016.

Global headcount: 1,200

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Just getting started: Pinterest believes most of its site “hasn’t been built yet,” so this year it launched Pinterest Labs, a collaboration with researchers, scientists, engineers and universities to take on the biggest problems in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Valuation: $12.3 billion

Explore jobs at Pinterest

Working to save lives: Since launching a year ago, GRAIL has attracted a whopping $1 billion in funding from Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and some of the biggest companies in healthcare. The company's goal is to detect cancer early, when it's possible to cure. To do that, it’s attracted world-class geneticists and biostatisticians, and launched one of the largest clinical research programs in genomic health, with studies enrolling more than 130,000 people.

Global headcount: 250

Global headquarters: Menlo Park, Calif.

Expert leader: CEO Bill Rastetter co-invented one of the world’s most valuable cancer therapies, and has won praise for his work in academia. He held multiple faculty positions at MIT and won the award for “Excellence in the Teaching of Chemistry” at Harvard.

Total funding: $1 billion

Explore jobs at GRAIL

Growth hackers: Duo Security, the first of five cybersecurity companies on the list, provides features like two-factor authentication and secure single sign-on to clients as diverse as Facebook, Toyota and Zillow. The 8-year-old company has been on a tear: In the last year, Duo quadrupled its user base, doubled its headcount and became cash-flow positive, it says.

Global headcount: 500

Global headquarters: Ann Arbor, Mich.

Local flavor: The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company embraces its Midwestern roots by enforcing a “no jerks” policy and gives each employee a personal candy pack from Zingerman’s, the famous local deli, on the first day.

Valuation: $1.17 billion

Explore jobs at Duo Security

The Silicon Valley university: On a mission to democratize education, Udacity offers courses designed by companies like Google and Salesforce that teach professionals the foundational skills needed to land jobs as web developers, mobile developers or data scientists — all at a fraction of the cost of normal universities.

Global headcount: 500

Global headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.

Driving diversity: If you thought you couldn’t get a degree in self-driving cars, think again. Udacity recently created a scholarship with Lyft for its new Intro to Self-Driving Cars program to help make the field more accessible.

Valuation: $1 billion

Explore jobs at Udacity

The Yelp for enterprise software: With nearly 250,000 verified user reviews for software and services, G2 Crowd is making it simple to find the best business technology based on people’s real experience, acting as a Yelp for enterprise software. There’s one big difference from the consumer-focused review site: G2 Crowd doesn’t sell any ads. Instead, it uses its data to provide for-purchase research reports.

Global headcount: 120

Global headquarters: Chicago

Personalized welcome: If you land one of G2 Crowd’s 130 forecasted job openings over the next year, expect to see your personal Bitmoji hanging at the entrance to the office on your first day.

Valuation: $300 million

Explore jobs at G2 Crowd

Modern mortgage making: Blend provides mortgage lenders the digital tools they need to make home loan applications faster, smarter and more secure. The company, which says its clients control about 25 percent of the $10 trillion mortgage lending industry, has helped process $57 billion in applications so far this year. 

Global headcount: 200

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Humble beginnings: Blend CEO and founder Nima Ghamsari attributes his foray into entrepreneurship to his first job at McDonald’s. “The one thing it teaches everyone is that most jobs are not glamorous, and you have to do whatever it takes to get by,” he told LinkedIn.

Valuation: $500 million

Explore jobs at Blend

Moving on: Opendoor wants to cure your real estate woes by making it possible to sell your home online quickly — no real estate listing necessary. The company, which also operates its own mortgage business, buys your home directly then resells it. Opendoor is active in Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas and Atlanta with plans to expand to two new markets before year end, it says.

Global headcount: 415

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Undercover employee: All new hires act as Opendoor secret shoppers in order to experience the service first-hand, using the app to enter a home and explore as if they were potential buyers.

Valuation: $1 billion

Explore jobs at Opendoor

Military grade security: Fighting hackers is no easy task, but Boston-based Cybereason is equipped for the challenge. Many of its employees served in the Israel Defense Forces’ cybersecurity unit and now use similar tactics to protect its clients. The company’s endpoint detection platform finds attackers’ vulnerabilities after they’ve infiltrated an organization, letting companies know if they are under attack and how to quickly stop the threat.

Global headcount: 325

Global headquarters: Boston

Perk alert: Cybereason offers employees unlimited vacation, reimbursement for commuting expenses, free lunch and an employee referral bonus of up to $5,000.

Valuation: $999 million

Explore jobs at Cybereason

Protection on all fronts: Cylance is one of the world’s first companies to provide an antivirus platform built on machine learning and artificial intelligence. It uses its next-generation technology to proactively protect companies like Panasonic and Gap Inc., as well as the U.S. government and even consumer home devices, from malware attacks.

Global headcount: 805

Global headquarters: Irvine, Calif.

The motive: On a flight to Australia in 1989, Founder & CEO Stuart McClure faced a near-death experience when the flight incurred devastating damage en route that cost eight other passengers their lives. Since that day, McClure told LinkedIn, his life’s passion has been “to find and fix the problems introduced by technology to prevent bad stuff from happening to innocent people.”

Valuation: $1 billion

Explore jobs at Cylance

Making headlines: Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike was the first to point a finger at Russia after its investigation of the Democratic National Committee email hack prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Since then, it’s capitalized on the surging interest in online security to raise new funding (another $100 million in May) and to sign on ever-more clients. CrowdStrike tells LinkedIn that more than 10 percent of the Fortune 1000 now leverage its tech and services.

Global headcount: 760

Global headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.

In-person intro: The company flies all new hires in from around the world to meet with execs and learn about company's strategic direction in person.

Valuation: $1.01 billion

Explore jobs at CrowdStrike

Increasing efficiency: Chicago-based predictive analytics firm Uptake added more than 300 jobs this year. The company’s software analyzes sensor data to improve productivity and decrease failures across a host of industries, from aviation to energy. One example: wind farms. Uptake’s software can predict when parts on a turbine may soon need to be replaced, preventing costly outages.

Global headcount: 800

Global headquarters: Chicago

Your name here: Employees who submit patentable ideas for company review can be awarded up to $2,000 and named inventors if the patent is granted.

Valuation: $2 billion

Explore jobs at Uptake

Cash, credit, or a loan: Third-party lender Affirm aims to offer shoppers an alternative at the register by providing quick and easy personal loans with fixed monthly payments. The company recently announced it’s available at checkout with more than 1,000 merchants, up from 100 a year ago, often for higher-priced merchandise like furniture and electronics.

Global headcount: 280

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Origin story: Despite just having sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2012, Max Levchin couldn’t get approved for a car loan. He was haunted by minor credit issues racked up in college. The experience proved to him that FICO scores weren’t useful for determining credit worthiness and helped birth the idea for Affirm, where he’s co-founder and CEO.

Valuation: $781 million

Explore jobs at Affirm

New foundation: Construction projects rarely finish early or under budget. Katerra wants to streamline the process — by owning all of it. With its model, developers don’t parcel out work to contractors who in turn subcontract again, which inflates costs. Katerra oversees everything, from design to materials sourcing and assembly. Its Phoenix, Ariz., manufacturing facility can build a 24-unit apartment building every two weeks.

Global headcount: 850

Global headquarters: Menlo Park, Calif.

Who it’s hiring: The company writes that it looks for employees who can “think big, and lead from any seat.” Another core corporate value: frugality. As the company looks to trim costs from the construction process, one cultural principle is working “in the most cost-efficient manner possible.”

Valuation: $1 billion

Explore jobs at Katerra

Ding-dong: Video doorbell company Ring turns your smartphone into a surveillance hub, sending you a live feed of your front door. The company, rejected by judges on “Shark Tank” in 2013, went on to generate an estimated $160 million in sales last year. It recently expanded into other user-friendly home security products like floodlight cameras.

Global headcount: 1,500

Global headquarters: Santa Monica, Calif.

Doing battle: In his quest to stay ahead of competitors, CEO Jamie Siminoff treats employees as “confidants in war,” the LA Times reported, “bestowing them with dog-tag-style security badges inscribed with name, start date and title.” Another corporate rarity: Ring’s dozens of team leaders have nearly full autonomy — no mandatory management meetings or even budgets — to encourage speed and innovation.

Valuation: $431 million

Explore jobs at Ring

Rethinking real estate: Convene designs and operates corporate meeting spaces, and sees its business model as much more, calling it “workplace as a service.” The company amps up the cool factor of average office buildings by adding high-end touches more common in luxury hotels like microbrew coffee shops and farm-to-table meals. It brought in $40.7 million in revenue in 2016, up from $28.9 million the prior year.

Global headcount: 320

Global headquarters: New York City

Coffee talk: Within a month of starting at Convene, every new hire meets with one or both of the company’s co-founders to chat over coffee. They also receive a giant chocolate business card with their name on it.

Total funding: $113.5 million

Explore jobs at Convene

Open classroom: Online education giant Coursera offers a multitude of digital courses on topics from cryptocurrency to game theory. It has grown to over 28 million users globally and is adding nearly a half million new users every month, the company told LinkedIn. Coursera is committed to amping up the technical skills of underemployed people worldwide, often partnering directly with governments to close the skills gap.

Global headcount: 300

Global headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.

Hit the books: Employees enjoy free Coursera courses as well as time during working hours to meet with colleagues in study groups.

Valuation: $800 million

Explore jobs at Coursera

Customized: Online styling service Stitch Fix pairs customers with its more than 3,000 personal stylists to gauge wardrobe needs and dispatch regular boxes stuffed with clothes, shoes, and accessories. There is a strict separation between the company’s merchandising and data teams to ensure its recommendation algorithms get just the right products into customers’ hands.

Global headcount: 5,800

Global headquarters: San Francisco

On the market: The company recently filed for its much-anticipated IPO; it reported $977 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year and lost $594,000, although it was profitable in previous years.

Valuation: $314 million

Explore jobs at Stitch Fix

Alibaba of the West: Wish, a mobile commerce app, connects shoppers directly with the suppliers of everything from down jackets to wireless chargers. This direct access to manufacturers, many of which are in China, means cheaper prices and a huge selection: the site has tens of millions of listed products.

Global headcount: 310

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Making money: The 7-year-old startup has raised over $1 billion in funding from the likes of Founders Fund and GGV Capital. That bet may pay off. Wish has an annual run rate in the “middle single billions” and is profitable, according to Joe Lonsdale, an investor in the company.

Valuation: $3 billion

Explore jobs at Wish

Wooing millennials: Online brokerage Robinhood lets members make trades without paying any fees, an appealing proposition for many first-time traders. "Free is pretty difficult,” says co-founder Baiju Bhatt, noting that most of the company’s employees are software engineers focused on building automation into the system to ensure customers can easily trade without human guidance or intervention.

Global headcount: 100

Global headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

On the rise: Robinhood doubled its base to 2 million users in the past year, and Bhatt estimates that 90 percent are under age 40. The company expects to double its headcount next year to keep up with the growth.

Valuation: $1.3 billion

Explore jobs at Robinhood

Threats thwarted: Cybersecurity company Darktrace uses AI and machine learning to defend enterprise networks. Rather than building perimeters to keep hackers out, it looks at what normal behavior is in a system and raises alarms when something deviates. The company was founded by mathematicians from the University of Cambridge.

Global headcount: 600

Global headquarters: Cambridge, UK

Unsolved problem: Darktrace has raised $180.5 million in total, including a new $75 million funding round earlier this year, putting its valuation near unicorn territory. Its more than 3,500 customers include even water-supply systems, eager for help. “The problem of cybersecurity is still unsolved,” CEO Nicole Eagan told Bloomberg TV.

Valuation: $825 million

Get connected: Sprout Social is an enterprise social media management platform that helps companies with the often chaotic task of tending to their presence across multiple social networks. More than 19,000 brands currently use Sprout, and the company has been expanding both its workforce and its capabilities to meet demand. Sprout grew its headcount by 80 percent since September 2016 and added features like Instagram scheduling and a built-in image editor.

Global headcount: 400

Global headquarters: Chicago

Access to the top: All new employees meet with Sprout CEO Justyn Howard shortly after starting. They can ask questions and hear straight from the top boss about the company’s values and vision.

Valuation: $500 million, according to the company.

Explore jobs at Sprout Social

Powerhouse partnership: Hyperloop One recently announced an investment from and partnership with Virgin Group that gives Richard Branson a board seat and rebrands the startup: Meet Virgin Hyperloop One. The company, which remains independent, will be able to tap into Virgin’s expertise in operations, safety and passenger experience as it looks to commercialize its first hyperloop systems as early as 2021.

Global headcount: 300

Global headquarters: Los Angeles

Farther and faster: Virgin Hyperloop One’s autonomous system uses electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube, which could reach airplane-equivalent speeds once fully developed. In a second phase of testing in July, its XP-1 pod reached 190 mph and a maximum distance of 1,433 feet, going farther and faster than its initial runs in May.

Valuation: $700 million

Explore jobs at Virgin Hyperloop One

Data driven: Snowflake Computing is a pay-as-you-go data warehouse for the cloud. The 5-year-old company boasts clients like Adobe, Capital One and Sony Pictures and says its sales have increased 300 percent in the past year while its workforce roughly doubled. It raised $105 million earlier this year, bringing its total funding to $210 million, in part to open more sales offices worldwide. It tells LinkedIn it expects to add another 300 jobs next year, a move that would again double the size of the company. 

Global headcount: 280

Global headquarters: San Mateo, Calif.

Warm welcome: In a personal touch at the weekly all-hands meeting, CEO Bob Muglia introduces each new employee, asking them to stand as their colleagues provide thunderous applause and cheers.

Valuation: $500 million

Explore jobs at Snowflake Computing

AI to the rescue: ThoughtSpot is an analytics platform that aims to take the pain out of using business intelligence tools. Its AI-powered software lets users ask questions in everyday language, similar to a Google search. Customers include Chevron, Capital One and OpenTable, with the company aiming for 20 million users by 2020.

Global headcount: 220

Global headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

In it together: Co-founder and CEO Ajeet Singh describes himself as “Chief Coffee Maker” and sees his job as being there to help others, even if it's just brewing another pot. ThoughtSpot’s commitment to “selfless excellence” extends into a Slack channel where employees can applaud each other for good deeds.

Valuation: $417 million

Explore jobs at ThoughtSpot

Offline marketing magic: Zenreach has transformed free wifi from a service into a tool: brick-and-mortar businesses can collect the email, demographic information and visit behavior of customers just by inviting them to log onto in-store wifi. Companies can then use that information to better target marketing campaigns to the right consumers at the right time.

Global headcount: 220

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Star-studded cast: Zenreach has raised $80 million in funding and collected a star-studded list of investors, including Peter Thiel, Kevin Durant and Ashton Kutcher.

Valuation: $193 million

Explore jobs at Zenreach

Keeping data safe: Storing, protecting and analyzing data is big business, and multiple enterprise startups are competing to own the space. Cohesity has been rapidly gaining momentum with its proprietary technology that allows companies to streamline their backup and data protection while delivering real-time analytics. Its products have wooed the likes of Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which are both investors.

Global headcount: 210

Global headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.

Bonding on the beach: Last December, CEO and founder Mohit Aron paid for all employees and their families to vacation in Hawaii to celebrate the 4-year-old company’s rapid growth.

Valuation: $537 million

Explore jobs at Cohesity

Customer service meets business insight: Pendo is making that ubiquitous — and loathed — emailed customer feedback survey obsolete. Its software leverages in-app surveys, polls and analytics to give product developers more detailed user feedback. Revenue is up 400 percent compared to a year ago, Pendo told LinkedIn.

Global headcount: 150

Global headquarters: Raleigh, N.C.

Better than Bitmoji: The Raleigh, N.C.-based startup plans to double in size this year, with an estimated 150 job openings planned for the next year. New hires can look forward to their own hand-illustrated avatar that lives on Pendo’s website and their own personal coffee mug.

Total funding: $56 million, according to the company.

Explore jobs at Pendo

Know your customer: Moda Operandi is redefining what it means to be a luxury shopper in a digital age, allowing customers to pre-order clothing, accessories and jewelry straight from the runway online. New this year is Moda Operandi Madison, a private boutique off of New York’s Madison Avenue for exclusive events and appointments.

Global headcount: 200

Global headquarters: New York City

Happy (furry) employees: Dogs are welcome in the office anytime, including at Moda Operandi’s weekly Friday happy hours. Biped employees also get bonus and equity at every level.

Valuation: $330 million

Explore jobs at Moda Operandi

Open-source operation: Databricks is helping companies like Salesforce, Viacom and Shell accelerate innovation by unifying analytics across engineering teams, data scientists and business partners. The company was founded by the creators of the open-source processing engine Apache Spark and is committed to continuing that open tradition. Databricks believes “that no computing platform will win in the big data space unless it is fully open.”

Global headcount: 220

Global headquarters: San Francisco

This is the droid you’re looking for: Databricks employees enjoy free catered lunch every day, Boba tea twice a week and the chance to spot an R2D2 model around the office daily.

Valuation: $856 million

Explore jobs at Databricks

Easier apps: Skuid is a champion of the better user experience, believing that low adoption rates of business software traces back to bad UX. Based in Chattanooga, Tenn., Skuid’s platform lets businesses build analytics apps with a drag-and-drop interface instead of coding. It scored a $25 million investment this year from Iconiq, the family wealth manager of tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg.

Global headcount: 175

Global headquarters: Chattanooga, Tenn.

Health, ensured: Skuid covers 100 percent of insurance premiums for its employees and their dependents.

Total funding: $35.62 million

Explore jobs at Skuid

Taking the pulse: Glint attempts to go beyond the employee-happiness survey of old. One of its newest products, Narrative Intelligence, uses AI to analyze employee comments and provide a visual map of what employees care about. HR execs rejoice: No more reading through thousands of survey comments.

Global headcount: 130

Global headquarters: Redwood City, Calif.

Walk the talk: Based on its own employee feedback, Glint has added programs like No Meeting Wednesdays, volunteer opportunities and adjustable-height desks for all employees.

Total funding: $119.17 million

Explore jobs at Glint

Standardizing software: Docker is an open-source platform that allows developers and system administrators to build, ship and run distributed applications. Its container-as-a-service platform packages software into standardized units for easier access by teams and clients, which can speed up software shipments as much as 7x for companies, according to Docker.

Global headcount: 325

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Who needs groceries: Employees at Docker can help themselves to lunch, dinner, snacks, and bottomless cups of coffee at the office.

Valuation: $1.3 billion

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Making free services pay: Credit Karma built a profitable business providing free credit reports, credit monitoring services, and — in the wake of the Equifax breach — free ID monitoring. Its services have attracted 75 million users to date, including almost half of all American millennials, according to the company. This year the fintech startup topped $500 million in revenue and opened new offices in Charlotte and Los Angeles.

Global headcount: More than 700

Global headquarters: San Francisco

Recharge in the office: Perks include an on-site spa for manicures and pedicures, nap nooks and dedicated rooms for music jam sessions, art creation and retro arcade games.

Valuation: $3.5 billion

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Better sleep, wherever: Direct-to-consumer mattress maker Casper has gone beyond its flagship single product. It introduced products like a humidity fighting duvet, an adjustable bed frame and a dog bed. Casper has also gone offline in a big way this year, launching a roving “bedmobile,” retail pop-ups and a Target partnership that puts its products in stores across the U.S.

Global headcount: 350

Global headquarters: New York City

Sleeping on the job: New employees receive a full suite of Casper sleep products, from the mattress to pillows to sheets, to ensure they are well-rested. If mid-afternoon sleepiness hits, they also have access to office nap pods for a quick snooze.

Valuation: $920 million

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Making search flexible: Elastic believes that good things come from connecting the dots — lots and lots of them. The company builds open-source data software for easier search, logging, security and analytics in real-time. Elastic’s products have been downloaded more than 150 million times and its community has grown to more than 100,000 developers across 100 countries.

Global headcount: 600

Global headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.

Distributed talent: Elastic searches far and wide for the best tech talent regardless of location — and embraces a distributed workforce model. The company started with employees in places like Amsterdam, London, Prague and Barcelona.

Valuation: $700 million

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?Reported by: Chip Cutter, Susan Jackson, Laura Lorenzetti and Ashley Peterson

Corrections: Valuations and funding for Sprout Social, Udacity, Aryaka Networks, Convoy, Pinterest and Cylance have been updated with information directly from the company. Global headcounts for Ring, Darktrace, Pinterest and Airbnb have been updated. WeWork recently acquired Flatiron School; it was incorrectly stated as the company's first acquisition.