What is a startup

Not every employer belongs here. A startup, as we define it, meets all three of the following.

Our definition of a startup

  • It is growing by 25% or more a year on its key metrics: revenue, users, or whatever matters most.
  • or it is still looking for product-market fit: an early-stage company validating its idea and business model.
  • It brings a genuinely new solution to market, with ambition beyond its own country.
  • It is younger than ten years.

A startup is not

  • A newly opened bakery on the square

    We have nothing against cakes, but being newly opened does not make a bakery a startup. The bakery in the next district sells cakes too.

  • An insurer with several thousand employees

    Nor a corporate subsidiary, a staffing agency, an estate agent, a headhunter or a consultancy. They all have their place in the labour market, but they are not startups. They rarely bring innovation and that is not their goal.

  • A company with new offices where everyone is on first-name terms

    It really is not that simple. A pleasant workplace is typical of startups, but first names, standing desks and a relax zone do not make a company a startup.

What it is like to work at a startup

  • Informal environment

    Polished dress codes, endless meetings and polite formulas? You will not find those at a startup. Nobody cares what you wear, meetings are over in minutes and new ideas get discussed whenever.

  • Things actually ship

    At a startup, ideas turn into reality in front of you. You will not spend months on something that ends up in a drawer; you will see quickly that your work changed something.

  • Innovation

    You will be there when new things get introduced and in constant contact with what is new in the field. Often you will decide yourself which of it makes sense. No ossified processes holding you back.

  • People you want to be around

    A company is its people, and at a startup that goes double. You will find not only colleagues but friends, from the intern to the boss. Hierarchy is not much of a thing here.

This is why you will not find every job on the market here. Curation is the point, not a side effect.

All jobs