If you are wondering about the 21 Most Successful Startups of All Time, here is all the information you need.
When you talk about the most successful startups in the world, you don’t just gauge their success by the number of followers they have on Twitter or the kind of office they have. These things alone cannot tell you how successful a company is. So, the question is – how do we find out the best in the lot?
The amount of capital and the rate of growth are two important factors in the assessing the success, however, the industry, cultural and social impact are also important to consider. It is certainly difficult to make a judgment, considering the fact that there are so many successful startups out there, however, here is a list of 21 Most Successful Startups of All Time. Other than this post you might also be interested in – our list of “The 5 Most Profitable Online Businesses You Can Start Today.“
21. Rovio
Standing on number twenty-one is Rovio. A Video Game Developing company, founded in 2003 with its headquarters based in Finland. After the huge success of Angry Birds in 2009, the company was able to raise $42 million in VC funding.
20. YouTube
One of the most famous names on the internet, YouTube is a video streaming website founded on 14th of February 2005 in the state of California. The founders of the company are Steve Chen, Jawed Karim and Steve Chen. In 2006, just after one year of its inception Google bought the company for $1.65 billion – which shows the potential of this Internet giant.
19. Zynga
On Number 19, we have another Game Developer, Zynga. The company was founded in the month of July 2007 with its headquarters based in San Francisco, California. The company is father to all time popular Facebook game Farmville, which got around 20 million active users just after a few days of its launch.
18. Square
Yet another company from San Francisco, California, Square is a mobile payment, financial services and merchant services aggregator company, which was founded back in 2009 by Jack Dorsey. It began with a simple idea and soon became a multinational success. It stands at number 18 in our list of 21 Most Successful Startups of All Time.
17. Netflix
If you love watching TV, then Netflix is no alien to you. Standing at number 17, the company was founded back in 1997 by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings in Los Gatos, California. It has over 26 million users worldwide and makes more than billion annually.
16. Palantir Technologies
Firmly placed on number 16, Palantir is an American software house founded in 2004 by a group of five people (Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Alexander C. Karp, Nathan Gettings and Joe Lonsdale). The company is worth $9 billion and is one of the most valuable in Silicon Valley.
15. Craigslist
Craigslist is a famous advertising company based in San Francisco, California. It was founded back in 1995 by Craig Newmark and is still going strong.Its annual revenue is around $15 – $20 million.
14. Groupon
Groupon is one of the most famous websites, providing deals at retailers, service providers and restaurants. The company was founded by Brad Keywell, Eric Lefkofsky, and Andrew Mason in the month of January 2008. Its headquarters is based in Chicago, Illinois. It started from roughly around $1 million and is now worth more than $1.35 billion.
13. Dropbox
Released in the month of September 2008, Dropbox is service that hosts user’s data. In only 7 years the company is now worth more than $5 billion. It stands at number thirteen in our list.
12. Twitter
The name we are all familiar with, Twitter stands at number 12. The company was founded by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams and Biz Stone on 21st of March 2006 in San Francisco, CA. Currently, this cute giant has around 500 million users.
11. LinkedIn
A business-related social media platform, founded in Santa Monica, CA by a group of five people, Allen Blue, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Konstantin Guericke and Reid Hoffman in 2003. The company now has more than 300 million users spread all over 200 countries.
10. Hewlett-Packard
On number 10 of 21 most successful startups of all time stands the very famous Hewlett-Packard. Founded way back in 1939 by William Redington Hewlett and David Packard in California, the company is amongst the best. Would you believe the company that is worth billions of dollars today started from a garage?
9. EBay
A famous name in every household, EBay is founded by Pierre Omidyar in the state of California. The company started operating in the month of September 1995. The company was a mere idea but the right one and worth of $68.9 billion today.
8. Baidu
Baidu, providing services through the internet, was founded in the month of January 2000 in the capital of China, Beijing. The founders of the company are Eric Xu and Robin Li. The company today has a major share in China’s Internet search sector.
7. Yahoo
Yahoo, a very famous search engine, was founded by David Filo and Jerry Yang back in 1994 in Santa Clara, CA. The company today has more than 11,000 employees and is worth $61.9 billion.
6. Tencent
Standing at number 6 in our list, Tencent is a popular Chinese Internet Company that was founded by Ma Huateng in 1998. It is worth $206 billion and competes the likes of Facebook, Ebay,etc.
5. Facebook
The very famous, Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Andrew McCollum in the month of February 2004 in Massachusetts. It stands at number five in our list. Today this company has more than 1.4 billion active users.
4. Amazon
Amazon is no stranger to anyone. The company was founded on the 5th of July 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Its headquarters are based in Seattle Washington. Today Amazon has around 154,000 employees.
3. Microsoft
Based in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft is one of the most famous organizations in the world. The company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen back in 1975. With total equity of $89.78 billion, Microsoft is one of the world’s most valuable companies.
2. Google
Needing no introduction, Google was founded in the month of September 1998 in the state of California by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The company’s headquarters are based in Mountain View, CA. It has around 55,000 employees and is considered as the most global company in the world.
1. Apple
Founded in 1976, the mighty popular Apple was created by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in the state of California. The company tops the list of the 21 Most Successful Startups of All Time. Another company which started from a garage and now has the most loyal consumers from all around the world.
