Best startups to work for in San Francisco
A couple years ago I read this quote in a blog post by Andy Rachleff (former Benchmark Capital partner and Wealthfront founder):
All our advice on Silicon Valley careers is based on a simple idea: that your choice of company trumps everything else. It’s more important than your job title, your pay or your responsibilities.
I was reminded of Andy Rachleff's quote when I saw this quote in an article from Hunter Walk (VC @Homebrew) a few weeks ago:
If you’re graduating this spring and starting a career in tech, I’ve got one piece of advice: go work at a midstage startup (I’ll define that as B/C rounds of financing – eg Twilio, Stripe, Airbnb, Warby).
They both advocate essentially the same strategy - find a growing, successful "mature" startup. The growth and success of the company will lift your career in the same manner that a rising tide lifts all boats. While the advice they offer is targeted at new grads, I think it holds true for people in other stages of their career as well.
I've been keeping a list of the most valuable mid-stage startups at TheStartup100 (TheStartup100 on Twitter), so I wondered which startups in this list would be the best places to work.
I took TheStartup100 (plus some companies on the watch list) and looked at valuation, funding, growth, and employee reviews. I then applied some fuzzy logic to come up with a short list.
The List
All valuation and funding amounts are from public sources.
_All review scores and employee quotes are from <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com"target="blank">Glassdoor.
1. Dropbox
Dropbox is the most valuable ($10B) and well-funded ($1.1B) company in TheStartup100. Employees also like working there: 4.6/5.0 stars (27 reviews). Most of the comments are like this:
Can't ask for a better work environment.
Dropbox has over 200MM users and plenty of room to grow. I've never met Drew Houston, but I get the sense that he might be the next member of the elite club of tech founder-CEOs who've built substantial standalone companies.
2. Pinterest
Pinterest has raised $563MM and is #8 on TheStartup100 with a valuation of $3.8B. Pinterest only has a couple 5 star ratings and I suspect that's because no Pinterest employees are looking for a job (typically only job seekers leave reviews on Glassdoor in return for access to company reviews). Here are the headlines for those reviews:
The best startup to work for in the valley
Amazing Place to Work
Pinterest is becoming one of the linchpin sites of the internet and is now second to only Facebook <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-advertising-big-deal-2014-4"target="_blank">in terms of the traffic it refers to other websites.
Among the perks offered by Pinterest are a dog-friendly office and flexible vacation.
3. Optimizely
Optimizely is the #1 website optimization platform in the world (over 6,000 customers), and has raised almost $40MM.
Optimizely cracks the list on the strength of its employee reviews: 4.9/5.0 stars (19 reviews). Here are a couple quotes:
I never thought I'd enjoy work this much
Fun and challenging environment loaded with exceptional people
The company has a big vision to "personalize the web" with it's A/B testing software, providing plenty of room to grow. Among the perks offered by Optimizely are free lunch and dinner, and flexible vacation.
4. Nextdoor
NextDoor seems to be cracking the code on a big idea - a social network for neighborhoods. The company now claims 32k neighborhoods, has raised $100MM from top tier venture capitalists and ranks #71 on TheStartup100 with a valuation of $500MM.
The company only has 5 reviews on Glassdoor but they are all 5 stars:
Feels like a "generational" company
Nextdoor is driven by an amazing mission and fiercely dedicated employees
With only 85 employees there's still plenty of time to get in relatively early and have a big impact. A huge local advertising market awaits Nextdoor.
5. Uber
Uber ranks #10 in TheStartup100 with a valuation of $3.5B and is reported to have gross revenue of over $1B. The company has raised over $300MM.
Uber does have some mixed employee reviews: 4.2/ 5.0 stars (14 reviews), but the employee reviews (vs. driver reviews) are generally good:
Uber is an amazing company to work for
Uber has plenty of room to grow in a very large market (even in the face of a potential price war with Lyft).
6. Okta
Okta has raised $80MM for its identity management software for enterprises - i.e., Okta helps businesses manage which users have access to cloud services like Salesforce, Dropbox, and Google Apps.
Okta is riding the wave of cloud services and appears to be in the right place at the right time, and appears to be a great place to work: 34 reviews with an average rating of 4.6 / 5.0:
Collaborative, transparent, wonderful place to work.
Fast Rising Startup Strong Leadership & Great Culture
Amongst Okta's perks are free lunch.
7. Eventbrite
Eventbrite - the leading online ticketing service - ranks #46 on TheStartup100 with a $1B valuation. The company has raised $200MM and has processed almost 200MM tickets.
The company garners consistently solid reviews - 4.4/5.0 stars (28 reviews):
Work hard, play hard - focus on team as well as bottom line
Great People - Great Product - Great Company
With a very sticky service and a huge market, Eventbrite should have plenty of room left to grow. Eventbrite's perks include free lunch.
8. Lookout
Lookout provides a mobile security app that helps "protect your device from security threats, loss and theft." Lookout ranks #32 on TheStartup100 with a valuation of $1B and has raised $132MM.
Lookout has consistently good reviews: 4.4/5.0 stars (14 reviews):
Very smart people, great work enviroment
Ambitious, Smart, and Warmhearted Culture
The multibillion dollar mobile security market provides plenty of room for growth, but founder John Hering has even bigger ideas for the company:
“What everyone knows about Lookout today,” says Hering, “is 5% of what we will be.”
9. Lending Club
Lending Club ranks #9 on TheStartup100 with a valuation of $3.8B. The company has raised $220MM and claims to have lent over $4B to consumers via its person to person lending platform.
Lending Club employees give it 4.3/5.0 stars (14 reviews) with many people citing the rapid growth and opportunities at the startup:
Chance to be a part of something special
Amazing opportunity to be a part of the next wave of startup successes
US Consumers owe almost $1 trillion in credit card debt, so Lending Club is only scratching the surface of its market opportunity.
10. OpenDNS
OpenDNS is "the world's largest internet security network" handling more than 2% of the world's internet requests every day.
OpenDNS gets outstanding reviews: 5.0/5.0 stars (16 reviews) with comments like this:
Come for the technology and experience, stay for the growth and people
Fast moving, brilliant startup filled with smart, dedicated people.
OpenDNS has been cash flow positive for years and has plenty of room to grow in the enormous global internet security market.
Other Notable Companies
A few notable companies missing the list deserve a mention:
Hotel Tonight would be #11. Great service, large market, and great employee reviews.
Airbnb, Square, and Spotify all have mixed employee reviews and CEO approval ratings. Obviously, online reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt, but it's the best data I have for now.
Employee reviews for Stripe and Medium were not available. As I noted above with Pinterest, the absence of employee reviews might mean these companies are great places to work. (I suspect both of these companies are in fact great places to work.)