Date: May 4th, 2023

Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes

Sponsorship Acknowledgment: This week's edition of Data-Driven Recruiting is brought to you by Meander, the data-driven talent marketplace for busy professionals.

Hi everyone,

May I be one of the first to wish you a happy Star Wars day!

Every year, I eagerly anticipate the release of Jeff Bussgang's Rocketship Startup list. Jeff and his dedicated team at Flybridge compile a list of the most promising startups for building a career. This week, we'll explore how you can use this list as a starting point for your job search.

Choosing a company to work for is a decision with far-reaching consequences. It influences not only your day-to-day life but also your long-term career trajectory. By selecting the right company, you set yourself up for opportunities to learn, grow, and contribute meaningfully to a mission you believe in. Conversely, choosing the wrong company can lead to frustration, stagnation, and disconnecting from your work. Just as a solid morning routine can boost your energy, focus, and productivity throughout the day, selecting the right company can set the tone for your professional journey, propelling you toward success. With this careful consideration, you can avoid feeling adrift, unfulfilled, and ultimately falling short of your potential.

However, finding the right companies requires effort. A simple filter for companies that received funding in the last 12 months reveals almost 20,000 potential options. Job boards like Wellfound, YC, and even our own at Meander can only represent part of the population size. That's why it's crucial to research and develop a strategy. We built our job dashboard to allow the addition of external job postings, and we'll be introducing more features in the coming weeks to aid in the management process.

I am particularly fond of Jeff's pre-search filtering method, as it helps to remove the noise with objective criteria while maintaining a large selection. Here's the methodology used to compile the rocketship list:

• Growth/Momentum: Typically growing revenue >100% year-over-year or >50% for larger companies.
• Fundraising: Typically has raised>$50 million, including $30 million in the most recent round, which closed in the last 12 months.
• Scale: Typically >100 employees.
• Hiring: Typically growing headcount >30% year-over-year with a robust number of job postings, including numerous entry-level positions suitable for recent college or business school graduates.
• Youth: Founded in 2013 or later.

Using this approach, you are left with 570 promising startups, split between the U.S. and international locations. When you layer in your own preferences for location, industry, and size, you should be able to create a shortlist of 15-30 promising startups, as we laid out in our 7-step job search process.

To help get you on the right path, we looked at the distribution of companies by size and industry. In the U.S., the top sectors are SaaS, FinTech, AI, HealthTech, and CleanTech, with medium-sized companies (typically 50-250 employees and $50M-$250M raised) representing more than half of the list:

The story is somewhat similar for international companies, although the average size skews slightly larger, with a stronger focus on FinTech and Consumer Internet sectors:

While the tech industry has faced headcount challenges over the last few years, the future looks bright for emerging areas. Finding the right role at a growing company is a solid way to build your career.

Let me know how you get on!

Chris Mannion

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