10 Awesome Up-and-Coming Companies to Work For

Awesome Up-and-Coming Companies to Work For

For me, one of the most important aspects of an awesome job is the potential for upward mobility -- both for myself and the company as a whole. I want to know that my employer is as passionate about their success as I am about mine.

Landing a job at a relatively small, up-and-coming company can lead to really exciting career prospects and allow for greater interaction with high-level management. The following companies are all exhibiting signs of rapid growth in the near future, making them excellent places to get in on the ground floor!

1. Brandless (brandless.com)

The vision for Brandless is to provide top-quality grocery, health and beauty products directly to customers without the additional cost of brand-name items. According to Brandless’ website, the average person pays at least 40% more to acquire comparable products from national brands, and up to 370% more for some brand-name beauty products.

Every single item (or bundle of items) on the Brandless website, from office supplies to pantry essentials, costs just $3. All of their food and beverage items are non-GMO, and over 50% are organic. Furthermore, they donate a meal to Feeding America with every purchase.

If you want to get in on the next grocery revolution, now is a good time to join Brandless’ growing team!

2. Duo (duo.com)

Duo provides powerful security tools with a “user-centered philosophy” to some major brands, including Facebook, Toyota and Zillow. They offer highly reliable two-factor authentication, secure single sign-on, endpoint security, and more.

Despite their connections with large companies, Duo is still a relatively small operation, with only about 600 employees. Their philosophy is based in empathy, integrity, and simplicity. In their own words,

We support each other’s well-being, promote compassionate leadership, and advocate for diversity. We value learning together, focusing on the customer, mentoring next-gen tech talent, and taking pride in doing the right thing.

With offices in nine American cities, there’s a ton of opportunity for folks across the nation to join Duo’s team.

3. G2 Crowd (g2crowd.com)

It can be difficult to find reliable customer reviews of enterprise software products -- a problem G2 Crowd is hard at work solving. With well over 300,000 verified user reviews available on their platform, G2 Crowd’s popularity is soaring.

Business software reviews in particular are often outdated, discussing entirely different editions of the program you’re looking into. Even worse, the reviews can be fraudulent! With G2 Crowd, you can avoid problems like these and read unfiltered, verified feedback from purchasers just like you.

G2 Crowd is helping consumers make smart purchases with greater confidence. They’ve seen incredible growth over the past few years, so if you’re excited about their cause, now is the perfect time to look into a position on their team!

4. Hudl (hudl.com)

Picture this scenario: you’re a high-school football coach. During recruiting season, college coaches are calling you to request game tapes of your players. Before Hudl, you’d have to edit together footage of each player, then mail out DVDs to a number of different universities. Hudl streamlines this process by allowing athletes and coaches to share game tapes digitally.

Not only does Hudl provide tools to edit and share videos, they also offer comprehensive statistical profiles. With 4 million unique users and 164,000 teams already leveraging their platform, it’s clear that they’re providing an incredibly valuable service for coaches and players alike.

Hudl employs folks all across the US, the UK, and Australia -- including remote positions. If you’re interested in the future of sports recruiting, they’re definitely worth your consideration!

5. Nomadic (blurtheline.com)

If you believe that virtual reality gaming is the future of interactive entertainment, you owe it to yourself to check out Nomadic VR. Nomadic is a virtual reality gaming company that designs and delivers tactile VR adventures in a wide variety of spaces.

Nomadic aims their efforts at developing the location-based retail segment of the virtual reality gaming market, including physical objects and landscapes mapped into the gaming experience. For the next big step in VR development, Nomadic is looking to offer adventures that use major Hollywood films as their virtual realities by partnering with movie theatres across the nation.

The Nomadic tech team includes folks who used to work for some of the industry’s top film and gaming companies, including Industrial Light and Magic, Disney, and Electronic Arts. If Nomadic sounds like a good fit for you, consider heading over to their website and applying for an open position!

6. Scoop (takescoop.com)

Pretty much everyone is familiar with rideshare services like Uber -- in fact, the name “Uber” has become an all-encompassing term that’s part of our everyday vernacular. Scoop builds on the basic concept of a rideshare service by helping users find people to carpool to work with. Instead of passengers paying an independent driver for their service, expenses are shared among all riders.

Whether you’re a driver or a passenger, the Scoop app can connect you with folks to share your morning and evening commutes with. Scoop matches you with other users based on several factors, including ideal driving routes, rider/driver locations, available HOV and/or express lanes, etc.

Many companies are now teaming up with Scoop to encourage their employees to carpool to work. Carpooling reduces the employer’s environmental footprint, while fostering an environment where employees can socialize on their way to and from the workplace. If you believe in Scoop’s cause, you might very well be a perfect addition to their growing team!

7. Starry (starry.com)

Starry is an alternative internet source with a streamlined approach to providing internet service without all the unnecessary frills. Their customers pay a flat $50 per month for fast (200 mbps) wireless internet. Currently available in Boston, Los Angeles and Washington DC, Starry hopes to spread to new markets as quickly as possible.

Starry’s innovative approach to delivering internet service involves a network of reflecting antennas that channel its line-of-sight signal over and around obstacles. They’re also on the cutting edge for hardware, with a state-of-the-art WiFi hub that displays every connected device and how much bandwidth they’re each using. This enables customers to maximize the power of their data stream.

Starry’s on the cusp of something huge, so if you want to launch your career with them, now’s a good time!

8. SuperAwesome (superawesome.tv)

SuperAwesome uses kid-safe advertising and social content tools to engage and collect data from over 500 million kids across the globe. Major children’s brands like Nintendo, Warner Bros. and Mattel are already leveraging their services.

SuperAwesome specifically deals with kids under 13 -- a highly active online demographic, but one that requires greater caution when engaging. The privacy of their young audience is SuperAwesome’s top priority, and their massive market reach allows companies to connect with kids in an effective and totally safe manner.

If you’re interested in contributing to SuperAwesome’s digital media innovations, we encourage you to head to their website and check out their job openings!

9. Thumbtack (thumbtack.com)

Thumbtack acts as a go-between for local professionals and prospective customers. When someone needs work done — anything from dog training to wedding photography — Thumbtack gathers custom quotes from area professionals in that field. Within hours, users can compare quotes and hire the pro that best suits their needs.

With over 260,000 active professionals already using their platform, and a $1 million property damage protection guarantee, Thumbtack has a broad reach and a trustworthy approach. They’ve also raised about $175 million in funding since 2010, including a $100 million investment from Google Capital. Needless to say, there’s not just big dollars behind Thumbtack, but big names as well.

If you want to join the Thumbtack team, head to the “Careers” section of their website today!

10. Zapier (zapier.com)

Zapier connects and integrates the popular apps we use every day for greater convenience. For example, you can set Zapier to automatically copy email attachments from Gmail to your Dropbox account. With over 1,100 apps in their network, it’s likely that they cover most of the ones you rely on every day.

The best part is that you can begin building connections between apps and automating basic tasks for free. You’ll only need to upgrade to a paid plan if you decide you require a more powerful or complex version of Zapier -- they offer independent plans as well as solutions for businesses.

If Zapier sounds like a good fit for your skills, consider applying to join their expanding team!

The bottom line is, there are tons of awesome up-and-coming companies out there -- far more than the ten we’ve just discussed. That said, if your career arc needs a change of trajectory, these ten companies are a great place to start your job hunt. Cheers!