LinkedIn News’ Post

America is facing 3 “red alert” crises: Covid, Climate Change and Constutional Crisis/Civil War. Only the health care startups are making a positive contribution toward addressing these crises. Where is construction for weather resistant buildings? A ton of homes have to be rebuilt. Where is the prefab industry? Where is solar? Infrastructure projects will be challenged by inhuman heat. Can we design infrastructure solutions that can be built in cool indoors and placed outdoors when weather permits. We are modeling, building tons of products on 3-D printers. I know apparel companies specialize in training fabrics for athletes training in extreme heat. What about for outdoor workers and for kids in school? And these ideas are just the obvious ones off the top of my head. How many babies have to die in flooded NYC basement apartments before we admit this movie called LIFE includes more than just us. And, the first movers in these spaces can make a ton of money. Right now prefabs are for tiny houses and Dwell Magazine. There are beautiful prefabs. Has no one talked to FEMA anout a contract? You

I love how this list includes START-UPS from 2014 to 2017... a majority at least! It's a powerful reminder for those starting out to have PATIENCE!!! I advise for start-ups and one of the main concerns is a sense of urgency followed by an impatience for results. Keep it consistent and add value. The rest will fall into place! Solid list! Thank you for sharing!

I worry about the amount of start-ups that are like minded. We are in a technology bubble again much like the dot-coms were in the 90's. Technology cannot outpace and outstrip our ability to mentally catch up on it and to think that we will be able to handle it at this pace is a bit worrisome. WE were a new business 27 years ago and considered a start-up but our start-up idea morphed over the years and we had to learn to pivot or we would have been out of business in year 4. I look at this sampling of businesses and they are all the same, piggybacking on the tech idea, yet not really looking at what needs to be done and built rather than trending businesses. The sad part is that governments put money into tech and climate start-ups that will not be sustainable en-masse after the grants run out because typically their customers are the big corps and government - not the "en-mass" consumer. Canada and the USA typically forget to manufacture and adapt what they consume. One just has to just look at the "chip" issue for vehicles and we are all at the mercy of the issue of no new vehicles until 2022 which is quite frankly ridiculous. We forget that we still need to eat, work, drive, get dressed, buy homes, get things fixed and not all can be done by the tech movement. One last thing start ups take a load of work, time, dedication and positivity and that must last for at least 5 years and then a new type of energy must take start up's place. Not everything is a lunch and a sale either after that because it's more cost effective to keep you good producing clientele than generate new because of poor product or service.

How sad is it that of these 50 companies not even a handful manufacture anything. When will the US smarten up and bring back manufacturing to our shores to help strengthen our national security? Imagine a world where everything we physically consume is made outside the country. What if those foreign countries decide to cut us off even if we are a large consumer. Much like tactics used in previous world wars, hurting the enemy isn’t who can best destroy the others technology, it’s who can cut of your food and fuel supplies or even destroy your water supplies. The US really needs to take control of its own survival lest we become slaves to those who make stuff.

I think that a company moves out of the "start-up" category when it exceeds a certain headcount; 250+ in my experience. I agree that the time-frame is much less relevant. A lot of factors come into play (including the total available market/market segment), the economic and business environment, etc. I've been with many start-ups throughout my career. Pacing with realistic goals is important. Solid strategies, product, and teams are required to get the results for the stakeholders. I was with a start-up once that went public via a Reverse Take Over (RTO)/reverse merger to get publicly traded currency (and allow some cashing out by the founders). They did a number of stock-based acquisitions in a very short period of time that tanked the company in less than a year. The falling stock price (due to the dilution) ended up oversubscribing the shares (more committed than authorized), resulting a complete shut-down. Why did this happen? Wanting to grow too fast in a nascent market.

Remarkably you haven't included a single #Climatetech startup on this list. Overwhelmingly people are concerned about the impacts of climate change. Thousands of startups here in the US are creating technologies and getting massive amounts of funding to bring these technologies to the market at scale. People want to work for these firms and virtually all of them are hiring. They are looking for the best and the brightest talent across all job types. A major challenge they face is the human capital bottleneck. Not enough people know these companies are out there...they certainly can't find them on this platform. And you couldn't find a single one of them to get on your list? Do better LinkedIn.

To say we're excited is an UNDERSTATEMENT! Thank you LinkedIn LinkedIn News for including us this year 🤩

I'd personally want to see a list of sub 100 employee startups. Much love for these companies, but 7 y/o with 1,500 employees doesn't fit my definition of a startup.

Lots of FIntech on this list. Also interesting to see Aviation and Aerospace included in the list - we've all been waiting for the "future of flying" for a while now!