Startup Search Year in Review 2022

In 2022, the Startup Search Jobs Board and Newsletter featured over 1,000 different startup roles across engineering, design, product, investing, and operations. These roles were distributed across 600 high-profile companies in the startup ecosystem, including both startups and venture firms.

This was a year of extremes, and no industry experienced more volatility than crypto from the height of web3 mania to the collapse of FTX.

Meanwhile, the tech economy as a whole has been adversely affected by the macro environment, with valuation multiples retreating from historic highs and widespread layoffs.

On the other hand, 2022 also saw growing momentum for some industries, most notably AI and climate Tech (our list of the Top Climate Startups of 2022 remains our highest-performing list by a long shot).

With all that said, here is an overview of the companies, roles and trends that the brightest people in tech were excited about in 2022.

Top 10 Roles

This year, we saw a lot excitement around Fintech and Productivity tools, with product and chief of staff roles at companies building such tools drawing the most interest from our audience.

1. Product Manager @ Ramp
2. Product Research Intern @ Figma
3. Chief of Staff @ ClickUp
4. Product Manager @ Settle
5. Software Engineer @ Retool
6. Product Manager @ Saturn
7. Product Manager @ Check
8. Software Engineer Intern @ Notion
9. Chief of Staff @ Stir
10. Chief of Staff @ Flow

Top 10 Startups

Across the 1,000+ roles and 600+ startups that were featured in our weekly newsletter, this year readers consistently showed the great amount of interest in these 10 startups.

1. Pave (featured in our Top Fintech Startups List 2022, read the founder spotlight on Matt Schulman, Pave’s Founder and CEO)
2. Notion (featured in our Top Startups For Engineering Interns (2023), Top Productivity Tools List 2022)
3. Ramp (featured in our Top Fintech Startups List 2022, Top Startups For Engineering Interns (2023))
4. Rippling (featured in our Top Startups For Engineering Interns (2023))
5. Anduril (featured in our Top Startups For Engineering Interns (2023))
6. Watershed (featured in our Top Climate Startups List 2022)
7. Settle (featured in our Top Fintech Startups List 2022)
8. Benchling (featured in our Top Startups For Engineering Interns (2023))
9. Retool (featured in our Top Startups For Engineering Interns (2023), Top Dev Tool Startups 2022)
10. Front (featured in our Top Startups For Engineering Interns (2023))

Top 10 venture funds backing the most popular startup roles

It’s not secret that being backed by prestigious investors can give startups a leg up in attracting ambitious talent early on. This year, we repeatedly saw readers excited about roles at early-stage companies backed by these top venture funds:

1. Sequoia
2. a16z
3. Greylock
4. Contrary
5. Bessemer
6. Coatue
7. General Catalyst
8. Founders Fund
9. Lightspeed
10. Kleiner Perkins

Top 5 Industries

This year saw a lot of turmoil in public and private markets, but cycles of innovation proceed at their own pace independent of market cycles. These five industries in particular seem to have had important inflection points this year that will continue to play out for the rest of the decade. As a result, they could define the startup landscape for years to come.

1. Climate (see our 2022 Top Climate Startups List)
2. AI / ML (see our 2022 Top AI / ML Startups List)
3. Fintech (see our 2022 Top Fintech Startups List)
4. Consumer
5. Crypto (see our 2022 Top Crypto Startups List)

Most Popular Event

Startup Search’s Fintech Fair was a virtual recruiting event featuring up and coming startups, like Pave, Esusu, AtoB and Slope, all four of which are featured in our Top Fintech Startups of 2022 List.

It was a resounding success and our most popular event of the year. If you missed it, don’t worry — stay tuned for Startup Fair 2023. We’re excited to see many of you there!

That’s a wrap on Startup Search 2022! Thank you to our readers and supporters. Cheers to another year of discovering, landing and excelling at high-growth startups.

Happy Holidays from the Startup Search team!
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