Six months ago, I made a bold, if ill-advised, attempt to rank Silicon Valley’s hottest startups. Some have lived up to the hype, others haven’t, and plenty of newcomers have emerged onto the scene — so I believe we’re due for a refresh!
There’s one transparent benefit to this list: if you’re looking for a job in Silicon Valley, you should start by considering these companies. But there’s another benefit that will even help startup-curious folks: by looking at these companies over time, you can see the risks and rewards of startup life playing out in real life.
The world tends to focus on startups that fail (i.e., go bankrupt in spectacular fashion) and succeed (e.g., go public), and mostly ignore those that are somewhere between failure and success. Granted, covering only the hottest startups isn’t a random sample — but it’s a start.
Here are a few of the most-hyped startups in Silicon Valley (according to me).
🆕
Newly hyped startups in 2021
Maven (tools to build cohort-based courses): a company known for a while as “Wes and Gagan’s startup” has some serious early traction.
Mighty (super fast web browser): their launch last month brought out some anonymous trolls and some high-profile supporters — see my take here!
Varda Space (low-gravity manufacturer of precision materials): sexy space company founded by the (in)famous Delian Asparouhov of Founders Fund.
Kyte (rental car delivery service): a company ostensibly in the travel segment that not only survived, but accelerated, through the pandemic.
Handshake (on-campus recruiting app): not a new company by any means (Series E), but I had never heard of them and they’re massive… 🤯
Dapper Labs (blockchain for digital collectibles): launched NBA TopShot, a service that burned hot and bright during the “NFT” craze and helped them raise at a $2.6 billion valuation
Neuralink (brain-computer interface): hot before, hotter now, particularly after releasing the coolest product demo of all time
📉
Startups with a rough 2021 so far
Clubhouse (audio-first social network): In February, Clubhouse skyrocketed from two to ten million users, largely on the back of an appearance from Elon Musk. But the app hasn’t sustained its momentum, with downloads falling off a cliff in March and beyond. They’ve recently released an Android version of the app, which could help, but their team is hoping to re-ignite growth before “Clubhouse is dead” becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Zoom (video chat) and Peloton (at-home spin classes) have both taken a big hit in the wake of accelerated vaccine rollout, with both about 40% down from their peaks in Q4 2020.
Lambda School (coding school where you pay after you get a job): After raising a $74 million Series C last August, Lambda announced a layoff of 65 employees about two weeks ago. The pandemic has made their model of offering “income share agreements” in lieu of normal tuition challenging, but they’re sticking to their guns. I’m rooting for them!
🔥
Startups that are living up to the hype
🦓 The Stripe Ecosystem:
Stripe (internet payment infrastructure) is still the world’s hottest startup by a long shot. They raised $600 million at a $95 billion (!!) valuation in March, and they’ve accelerated their investing through the first half of 2021.
Fast (one-click checkout) raised another $102 million from Stripe in January. Their founder, Domm Holland, is still generating an avalance of press for the company. (The interview below was highlighted in a TechCrunch titled “How to Break Into Silicon Valley as an Outsider.” (I’m suing!!!!))
🟧 Basking in the Orange Glow:
Three companies funded by Y Combinator had huge Public Offerings since my last list: Coinbase (buy and sell crypto), Airbnb (rent a stranger’s home), and DoorDash (food delivery).
Their combined market cap is now $183 billion — not a bad outcome for their early investors.
🎮 Real Money for Virtual Worlds:
Roblox (a game where you build other games) IPO’d for $38 billion, and still holds the title of “hottest company that I understand least.” Luckily, one of my favorite newsletters, the Gen-Z focused “High Tea,” released a Roblox explainer yesterday.
Discord (voice chatrooms for gamers) turned down a $10 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft — talk about confidence! — and word on the street says that they’re likely to IPO soon.
📰 Newsworthy Startups:
Robinhood (easy stock market investing) was the most important company in global finance for about a month earlier this year, with the seemingly never-ending GameStop saga
SpaceX (cheap space launch) has continued to make progress with launching Starlink satellites (making them the owners of nearly half of all satellites in low-earth orbit) and sticking the landing of their new Starship vehicle that will someday head to Mars.
Other startups on the shortlist for future hypelists: Lyra (mental health tools for businesses), Relativity Space (3D-printed rockets), ABL (rockets that can launch anywhere), SendBird (in-app chat tool), ScaleAI (training data provider for AI), Astranis (small communications satellites 😉).
Thanks for reading!
My name is Christian, I’m the Chief of Staff at Astranis, and I’m a native Midwesterner. If you enjoyed this piece and want to join 320 folks in getting an email from me every Monday, I’ll help you understand Silicon Valley using normal-human words.
Also, I started an SVO Insta this week! Follow me now; I’m moving back to San Francisco next week, and will show you around the city.