Launching a startup is a lot like launching a rocket. You need a skilled crew tending to every tiny detail so your project fires up into space and creates history.
Whether you have an unconventional idea or are making better versions of existing products, the basic process of getting your startup to hit the market effectively remains the same.
Like rocket launching, many businesses start with the idea of building top tech companies but fail. According to statistics, 90% of startups fail. There can be several reasons for failure, such as competition, less customer acquisition, no viable business idea, etc.
The best tech startups are successful because they offer something unique that the world hasn’t seen before. Your product, service, or business idea needs to be different.
We talk about the fastest growing startups in 2022 and what separates a successful startup from others.
Table of Contents
Successful Stories of Top Tech
Source: Beyond Exclamation
Startups learn from trial and error methods to build a business idea that stands out in the market. It is easier said than done to make your startup grow and acquire a customer base.
Here are top startups 2022 that have taken their companies to the next level:
| Company Name | Headquarters | Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Fandom | San Francisco | $260 Million |
| StackBlitz | San Francisco Bay Area | $5 Million |
| Tailwind | Southern US | $15 Million |
| StreamYard | Tualatin | $5 Million |
| Figma | San Francisco Bay Area | $227 Million |
Get Your Customized Top Startups Email List Today!
1. Fandom (Headquarters: San Francisco, California)
Fandom is a wiki hosting service and fan platform with over 300 million monthly active users. With over 250,000 wiki communities makes it one of the fastest growing startups in 2022.
It was founded in 2004 by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesly Starling. Fandom is said to be a “nerd’s paradise” and is the world’s most extensive wiki for gaming, fantasy, and entertainment culture on one site.
The company creates pages that discuss even the most trivial video game characters at length. It also allows articles to have a point of view.
These policies create for small but fun reads for gamer communities. Hence, Fandom has become increasingly popular in the industry. It uses a heavily modified version of the MediaWiki software to bring this enormous treasure for gamers to life.
2. StackBlitz (Headquarters: San Francisco Bay Area, West Coast, Western US)
StackBlitz is an online browser-based IDE (integrated development environment) founded by Eric Simons in 2018. It allows users to create Angular, React, and Vue projects quickly and easily in your browser.
This software consists of a source code editor, build automation tools, and a debugger for creating live projects that allow starting with the tasks without needing to install dependencies.
It lets the user edit offline and update the application in real-time without page refresh and saving the application state. With recent features like WebAssembly and WebContainers, the developer-focused browser is one of the exploding startups in 2022.
3. Tailwind (Headquarters: Southern US)
Tailwind is a leading business marketing platform that allows creators, sellers, entrepreneurs, and market planners to create and execute first-class marketing campaigns across platforms like Facebook (now Meta), Instagram and others.
It was founded by Alex Topiler and Daniel Maloney in 2012 with a mission to make world-class marketing easy and accessible for everyone.
The ever-increasing popularity of Pinterest and Instagram allows scheduling posts for both platforms, which is one of the reasons for the rise of Tailwind among users. Over 500,000 global brands and 400+ marketing agencies with big brand names like Shopify use the tool.
4. StreamYard (Headquarters: Tualatin, Oregon)
StreamYard is a tech startup founded by George and Dan in 2018. The explosion of popular streaming services like Twitch and YouTube has created a new genre of gamers, entertainers, and influencers.
StreamYard is a live stream platform that allows broadcasters and creators to automatically distribute videos to numerous outlets like Facebook (now Meta), YouTube, Twitch, and even LinkedIn.
It enables content creators to have a professional-quality video streaming experience. Its ease of use, stability, and professional quality has made it popular among users. With the rapidly growing live streaming gaming community, it has scaled itself to 30 million in annual revenue and had zero external capital.
5. Figma (Headquarters: San Francisco Bay Area, West Coast, and West US):
Figma is a browser-based designing platform for teams who build together. It allows the entire team to create, test and design faster.
Dylan Field and Evan Wallace built it in 2012. Its interface is easy and reliable, making it perfect for junior designers and professionals.
Its flexibility, ease of use, and responsiveness makes it an all-in-one software for designers. It has a fantastic, teamwork-friendly design process, which is hard to find in any other software.
The platform’s notable clients are Apple, Amazon, BMW, Airbnb, and many more. Due to its easy-to-use interface, it is one of the rising tech startups in the market.
How Many Types of Startups Are There?
Start-up is a buzz-word in the world of business. If you talk about startups, many people tend to associate with the big techs working in Silicon Valley.
Source: Carlos Barraza
However, the term isn’t just for them in real life. A startup, in simple words, constitutes the following:
- Less than 30 employees
- Financing via loans, investors, etc.
- They are not called corporations in the age of growth
Here are the different types of startups you will find in the modern world:
- Lifestyle Startup
- Small Business Startup
- Scalable Startup
- Buyable Startup
- Social Startup
- Big Business Startup
1. Lifestyle Startup
This startup truly goes by saying if you have a hobby or passion, convert it into a job and live your life the way you want. The owners do what they are passionate about and make it their work; thus, success follows.
Source: Dinker Charak
Now imagine you love free diving and spearfishing, and you want to make money from your hobby. After winning championships and a few viral videos, you turn into an influencer. You make money by writing blogs and maybe selling a few products relating to spearfishing.
Vocal coaches selling their online courses, authors writing books for a living, tarot readers, visual artists, YouTube professionals earning from YouTube, etc., constitute lifestyle entrepreneurs.
2. Small Business Startup
Often the words small businesses or startup are used interchangeably. However, a startup refers to a more prominent company that will receive money for growth or may sell out to another company.
The small business startup is different. They own solo businesses and partnerships, run on small teams, and make money by selling their products and services.
They grow at their own pace, are self-funded, work to feed their family, and have no interest in working for someone else.
More than 69% of the companies are home-based startups and later become big.
3. Scalable Startup
Every startup needs to scale for better growth and global reach. Few startups feature the potential to reach a large scale than other startups. They have the potential to have increasing incurring revenues with minimum costs.
They grow by seeking to raise funds from outside sources such as angel investors, capitalists, and people in business, etc. The plan is to have a global reach with innovations and business ideas to generate a hefty amount of business.
Best tech startups such as Uber, Airbnb, and Basecamp come under this type.
4. Buyable Startup
This type goes by the concept of building a business from scratch and then selling it off to a big business. Many times we hear big companies buying startups. Such kinds of mergers and acquisitions take place all the time.
However, building something worth a billion dollars is not easy. The startups need not be big or profitable to sell to big companies.
Many businesses run this way because they feel the value of their product may decrease rapidly, and they won’t get a reasonable price.
5. Social Startup
There is a general belief that startups exist to earn money, but a few exist to do good for people. They operate similarly to other startups and seek money for growth from donors and grants.
These include charities or non-profits, or hybrid organizations working for the betterment of people and scale under the name of philanthropy.
6. Big Business Startup
Not all startups start from scratch, and many tend to separate from their parent company to become a self-entity. It mainly happens when a company wants to expand in a product or service line, and its present company structure is unsuitable.
Many large companies are under pressure to satisfy their customers through continuous innovation.
These startup companies have the freedom to act independently from parent companies. So they have an edge to conduct businesses without much scrutiny, which often big companies go through.
Reasons to Work in Startups
Top tech companies do not become the best tech startups overnight. They have been built over the years and are not a typical 9-5 hour job with a to-do list. Building a startup opens new challenges, innovation possibilities, and business ideas.
Here are a few reasons why one should work in a startup:
- Creative environment: People with various innovative ideas and creativity often take risks while building a startup. They often choose the road not taken to make their product or service original with new approaches.
- Growth: Working in a startup builds a foundation of skills and knowledge over different functional areas. You tend to take responsibility for multiple tasks, which further helps you get new career opportunities.
- Friendly team: Most startups begin with a group of small people working extensively. It enables you to connect with your colleagues in person and share your ideas with ease.
- Variety of tasks: The challenges and obstacles of working in a startup change constantly. It gives you a chance to master new skills for task completion. Furthermore, as situations change, you learn to adapt to the dynamic environment.
- Flexible schedule: There is plenty of work to do in the initial startup stage, but the good thing is you can work in your comfort. There are no office hours, and you must negotiate with your boss. Moreover, you can also work remotely if you have a good internet connection.
How to Build a Successful Startup?
Source: Teo Communications
One significant difference between a startup and a traditional company is that a startup features a learning curve for growth. Uncountable startups work daily, but what separates the best tech startups?
Top tech companies share a few common characteristics. Here are a few factors that separate them from the list of startup companies:
- Product-Market fit: Customers will not buy things they don’t need. Selling a product or service which adds value to customers is essential. Many markets fail because they don’t understand what customers need. Your initial product roll may receive applause, but what if it has no support to be successful in later years. Top tech companies understand that their initial product or service will need changes as customer requirement changes.
- Company culture: Above half of the employees quit in the first two years of joining a startup. It is because many startups do not work on building an employee culture. It is essential to clarify the company values and imbibe the same in the policies and work environment. Poor management, constant pressure to perform, and customer acquisition result in many employees leaving.
- Feedback: A quality of the best tech startups is their ability to adapt to change and take feedback seriously. These can come from anyone, including employees, investors, customers, advisors, etc. It is a matter of holding your ground and understanding when to pivot. Many founders build connections with their mentors and learn from their mistakes.
Summing Up
As the world is changing rapidly, startups bring new ideas through their products to make people’s lives simpler and add value.
A startup helps achieve your entrepreneurship objectives. You just need to understand under which niche your idea lies. Following success stories and mentors can lay a blueprint for a successful startup.
