There are many reasons to work for a startup: the small teams, opportunities to learn and grow, and, let's be real: the opportunity to get in on the financial ground floor of a company that may one day go public.
But going public is rare. Most startups either fail before they IPO, or they simply remain private. 2019 will be no different. But for eight companies, 2019 looks to be the year they will finally IPO. Those companies include Uber ($PRIVATE:UBER), Lyft ($PRIVATE:LYFT), Airbnb ($PRIVATE:AIRBNB), CrowdStrike ($PRIVATE:CROWDSTRIKE), Peloton ($PRIVATE:PELOTON), Slack ($PRIVATE:SLACK), Pinterest ($PRIVATE:PINTEREST), and Postmates ($PRIVATE:POSTMATES).
No one knows exactly how each company's IPO will perform. But we at Thinknum do know how they've been investing in human capital as they look to bring the public into their ownership fold.
With that, here is the Thinknum 2019 pre-IPO Startup Index. Part One: Jobs.
Overall hiring
Timing for these eight companys' IPOs is staggered throughout 2019, but one thing is clear: across the board, hiring is up. At the beginning of 2018, openings totaled about 1,870 across the eight companies. But by the end of that year, openings doubled to about 3,700.
As of February 24, 2019, Uber has, by far, the most job openings among the companies. In fact, it lists roughly 5x the number of openings as Lyft.
Who's in demand
Given Uber's rapid growth in new cities, the most common job category across all companies is for "City Operations, Operations & Launch" followed by "Community Operations, Global Community Operations".
|
Category |
Title (Count) |
|---|---|
|
City Operations, Operations & Launch |
338 |
|
Community Operations, Global Community Operations |
311 |
|
Sales, Business & Sales |
193 |
|
Engineering |
188 |
|
Sales |
123 |
|
Central Marketing, Marketing |
105 |
|
Software Engineering, Advanced Technologies Group |
70 |
|
Recruiting, People Operations |
60 |
|
Product Management, Product |
59 |
|
People, People Operations |
57 |
|
Legal |
56 |
|
Data Science, Engineering |
53 |
|
Engineering Security, Safety & Security |
48 |
|
Backend, Engineering |
45 |
|
Business Development, Business & Sales |
43 |
|
Accounting, Finance & Accounting |
28 |
|
Launch, Operations & Launch |
28 |
|
Local Marketing, Marketing |
26 |
|
Design |
24 |
|
Hardware Engineering & Vehicle Programs, Advanced Technologi ... |
22 |
Because of Uber's massive hiring, its "Sales, Business & Sales" category also takes spot three. However, in a close fourth place we see a clear demand for Engineering and Sales positions. After all, if a startup is to have a successful IPO, it must show that it has solid technology laced with strong demand and subsequent revenue.
Where the jobs are
It won't come as much of a surprise to anyone that the most in-demand city when it comes to openings at our startup index is San Francisco. In fact, it leads by far. We show 1,296 openings in San Francisco with New York in a distant second with 248 openings, followed by Amsterdam with 127.
|
City |
Title (Count) |
|---|---|
|
San Francisco |
1296 |
|
New York |
248 |
|
Amsterdam |
127 |
|
Seattle |
107 |
|
Palo Alto |
97 |
|
Chicago |
94 |
|
Pittsburgh |
79 |
|
Mexico City |
75 |
|
London |
73 |
|
Dublin |
69 |
|
Hyderabad |
63 |
|
Sao Paulo |
52 |
|
Remote |
49 |
|
Toronto |
42 |
|
Sydney |
42 |
|
Paris |
37 |
|
Nashville |
36 |
|
Bangalore |
31 |
|
Denver |
31 |
|
Taguig City |
24 |
