You hate having to step through layer after layer of bureaucracy. You love working with a tight-knit team. You want to know people across the whole organization.
You want to do big things—but working for a massive organization is just not for you.
If this sounds familiar, we've found 10 workplaces that are right up your alley. From startups changing the way we learn, work out, and look for apartments to products shaping the future of digital media, check out these small companies that are making a big impact on the business world (and hiring now!).
1. Basis
Where: San Francisco
In today’s busy world, many people struggle to find the time to keep up consistent health routines. But Basis, a wrist-based health tracker and online personal dashboard, is making it much, much easier. The technology helps users incorporate small, progressive health changes over time—that ultimately add up to major results.
Basis employees have a lot to be excited about—but they can’t tell you why just yet. The company has some really cool new features coming out that will push watch technology past what most would even think possible. For such a tiny band, Basis is making a large impact, and the team is thrilled to go to work knowing that it’s revolutionizing the industry.
2. Telogical
Where: McLean, VA, Charleston, SC, and Norman, OK
Telogical is a groundbreaking telecommunications company, specializing in information services and competitive research. In a nutshell, Telogical’s mission is to make the very complex U.S. telecommunications industry accessible and useful, providing customers with an unrivaled approach to competitive pricing intelligence and data modeling.
The small team is based in three different locations (with many staffers working from home), but stays close and connected through a weekly breakfast video conference known as All Hands Huddle. The meeting gives employees the opportunity to hear from the CEO, catch up on company news, and hear customer feedback.
3. Umbel
Where: Austin
This small team is powering the future of digital media. A smart data company that empowers businesses to build thriving, sustainable audiences, Umbel helps publishers and entertainment companies gain a deeper understanding of their target demographics by responsibly managing massive amounts of data through a beautiful and intuitive interface. As communications manager Samantha Meckler says, “Working at Umbel isn’t just an opportunity to be in the digital media industry, it’s an opportunity to be ahead of it.”
4. CommonBond
Where: Brooklyn
CommonBond’s mission? To lower the cost of higher education and shift America’s borrowing culture to focus on better student experiences and a commitment to community. Founded in 2011, CommonBond is a student lending platform that connects students and graduates to alumni investors and accomplished professionals. As a result, students are able to access lower, fixed-rate financing—and save thousands of dollars on their repayments.
5. Pinsight Media+
Where: Kansas City, MO
Pinsight Media+ is a mobile media company, powered by Sprint, that helps connect brands and mobile users with valuable information at key moments through a variety of mobile advertising, mobile commerce, analytics, offers, and other premium services.
The mobile media industry is vibrant and fast-growing, and that provides Pinsight Media+ with continuous opportunities to grow and work with some of the world’s most well-known brands. While the team gets to leverage the amazing assets and resources of Sprint, employees love that they have the flexibility to operate as a lean startup business.
6. Factual
Where: Los Angeles, Palo Alto, and Shanghai
From mobile apps to social media sites, modern businesses need a way to get good data to optimize their products. At Factual, the team collects, structures, and organizes facts and information from many different sources to create very clean, high value databases for all types of businesses. In other words? “We’re taking a very difficult problem—gathering good quality data in a structured format—and making it available to the world,” says software developer Aaron Crow. “More and more companies need our kind of solution and can do much better if someone else is helping them.”
7. Homer
Where: Brooklyn
Established education reformer Stephanie Dua was looking for tools to help her daughters learn to read and found that she was hard-pressed to find programs that were both fun and educational. So she began developing ideas at home, and, thus, Homer was born.
Handcrafted by top literacy experts, Homer includes a complete phonics program, a library of beautifully illustrated stories, hundreds of science field trips, and exciting art and recording tools—combining the best early learning techniques into an engaging app that connects learning to read with learning to understand the world. “We’re a groundbreaking company in a very, very important niche,” Dua shares.
8. Virool
Where: San Francisco
Virool is a powerful video service, allowing clients to target desired audiences on its global network of more than 100 million viewers. With affordable campaigns starting as low as $10 per day, Virool gives anyone the ability to distribute YouTube video content through a series of online publishers and offers clients full transparency with accurate and detailed analytics. As co-founder and CEO Alex Debelov explains, “The services in this industry are really premature, and we’re the pioneers that are changing that and creating products that solve problems.”
9. Qstream
Where: Boston, Dublin, and Hood River, OR
Qstream is a mobile platform that helps business leaders tackle the greatest drivers of change—competition, market dynamics, and customer expectations. Using any device, Qstream allows sales reps to engage in fun, scenario-based challenges—complete with leaderboards and scoring—and produces sophisticated, real-time analytics. With this information, companies gain important insights into their existing knowledge gaps and are given the tools to create dynamic sales forces.
10. RentHop
Where: New York
Anyone who's ever searched for an apartment in a major city knows what a pain it is. And that's exactly the problem RentHop is aiming to fix. The apartment search platform simplifies real estate decisions, allowing users to look at curated apartment listings from trustworthy sources and determine which apartments are worth investigating—then schedule appointments with reputable brokers and property managers.
Founded in New York City, RentHop is now in beta in Chicago and Boston with plans to expand to 10 cities—and then nationwide—by 2014. “RentHop has the potential to substantially change and improve the way people search for apartments in New York and elsewhere,” says Rob Weiss, director of business development. “I really think it’s an exciting time to be in the space.”