Will Reed’s Top 100 Announces 2023 Class of Early-Stage Companies Shaping the Future of Workplace Culture
Composed of 36 Seed and 64 Series A B2B tech startups, Will Reed’s Top 100 showcases the latest in people & culture best practices
Will Reed, the only executive search firm built exclusively for early-stage founders, released its third annual Top 100 list today, which shines a spotlight on the top 100 venture capital-backed B2B tech startups who are shaping the future of workplace culture.
Will Reed’s Top 100 Class of 2023 is comprised of 53% software companies, followed by Information Technology (6%), Data & Analytics (6%), and Artificial Intelligence (5%). Of the spotlighted companies, 81% of them are revenue-generating, with an average team size of 42 full-time employees working predominantly in a fully-remote work environment.
“It’s tempting to relegate a company’s success to a series of numbers on a stat sheet," said Paige Robinson, Founder & CEO of Will Reed. “We believe a company’s success is fueled by the people and culture behind the numbers, so we created Will Reed’s Top 100 to spotlight early-stage companies who are building businesses rooted in purpose, belonging, and a commitment to employee growth.”
Will Reed is also releasing their 2023 Trend Report of the workplace culture trends seen across the Top 100 early-stage companies. Overall, these Seed and Series A companies employ innovative tactics fueled by care rather than deep financial investment.
To fend off burnout, they are implementing async days, camera-off days, and offering summer hours.
To increase diversity and inclusion, they are collectively focused on assembling leadership teams that are 50% women.
While 92% of them are actively hiring, they are transparent about offering “at market” compensation, paying employees the 50th percentile.
“We see early-stage companies as the incubator for tomorrow’s people & culture best practices,” said Robinson. “They’re lean and flexible enough to experiment with compensation, DEIB, perks & benefits, etc., to show the larger tech ecosystem what does and doesn’t work at scale.”
For the complete list, company profiles, trend report, and more, visit: www.willreedtop100.com.
Methodology
Will Reed asked venture capital firms and relevant peers in the startup space who were ineligible for the award, as well as previous Top 100 winners who were ineligible this year, to nominate companies they deemed top-tier culture cultivators. Will Reed then reached out directly to 2,500 companies that were presumed to fit the eligibility requirements as a call for applications.
Will Reed’s Top 100 combined qualitative and quantitative data. The applicants were anonymized, and the submissions were used to form a comprehensive set of data points. Companies submitted data to generate a culture score. The culture score was then factored in alongside a business score, whether the company is nominated, among other criteria.
About Will Reed
Will Reed is the only go-to-market (GTM) executive search firm built exclusively for early-stage founders. The firm equips Seed, Series A, and Series B founders to build exceptional GTM leadership teams through search, enablement, community, and heart. With an operator-centric approach, the team is led by GTM operators who are supported by a curated team of tenured search professionals. The firm has worked with incredible founders backed by a16z, Bessemer, Craft, Insight Partners, Redpoint, Sequoia, etc.More information can be found at www.willreed.com and www.linkedin.com/company/willreed.
