What company would I join if I was graduating in 2024?

When I speak with young talent, that are interested in tech and entrepreneurship, I often get asked: “What company should i join”?

To which I normally answer - you should join the “new Uber”.

What I mean is that you should identify whichever company, at this day and age, has a similar profile to what Uber had in the early years (2012 - 2015). Hyper growth, or just about to enter it, the smartest people flocking to work there and an entrepreneurial spirit.

If you join a company, my general advice is to join a company on a breakout trajectory.  There are a usually a handful of these at a time, and they are usually identifiable to a smart young person. Sam Altman

I myself had no clue what company to join when I was younger and was in many ways more lucky than wise when I joined Uber. However I do believe there are certain guidelines or principles you can follow to increase your chances of joining a generational company.

At the end of the article you can find the companies I would recommend someone who is graduating from college or have a few years of experience to target.

You should join the companies that will become iconic

Each decade there are a handful of tech companies that become iconic. You should aim to join a company that builds a lasting legacy as joining one of these early on will provide tremendous tailwinds for you career.

These companies are almost always riding on the back of technological breakthrough and are able to outcompete incumbents by moving faster and using technology to create a lasting competitive advantage.

Below are some examples of the iconic companies that have emerged in the past 20 - 30 years:

• Google, Facebook and Amazon were the driving forces behind the expansion of the internet (and social) in the 2000s.
• Uber, Airbnb were the poster child’s of the 2010s move to mobile followed more recently by Stripe, Coinbase and some of the other fintech companies.
• Now it is clearly the AI first companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, that are in the driving seat when it comes to momentum (TBC which ones become iconic)

How to identify a breakout company

You want to join the iconic companies before they become iconic. We define these as breakout companies. These companies have just hit product market fit and are about to enter hyper growth. They are not well known to the general population at that point in time but have raised money from well-known investors and are rapidly scaling.

They can normally be identified by keeping a close eye on funding announcements from the top tier VC firms or incubators like YC. Usually the product market fit gets clear around Series A-B and you will start to notice that the best people are trying to work for this company. Keep an eye out for these kind of companies.

Experiencing greatness

One of the most important aspects of joining a breakout company is that you get to experience what greatness looks like. Particularly early on this is crucial for your development.

You get to work with people that have more experience and are a lot smarter than you are. They will push you and ensure that you build healthy habits around how to work efficiently. And maybe most importantly they get you to raise your own bar of what great looks like.

Its a bit like playing in league one vs premier league (Europe Football). In order to raise the level of your own game you need to play with players that are better than you and will push you to your own greatness.

4 core benefits of joining a breakout company

If you manage to join one of these rocket ships you will get an invaluable head start that will be defining for the rest of your career.

• Brand: Having a household name on your CV will open doors for you. Its a stamp of approval that future employers, co-founders and others will respect. Particularly if the company is know for having a high-bar for talent and strong cultural values.
• Network: You will build an invaluable network that you will be able to leverage for the rest of your career. We saw that with the PayPal mafia and today with the Uber Alumni network (ex-uber people have started more than 250 companies and raised billions in funding)
• Knowledge: You will get to work with, and learn from, some of the smartest and most driven individuals in the world
• Financial upside: As a bonus you will often receive equity in a company that will increase in valuation and ultimately go public. Although I don’t think this is what you should optimize for early on its a nice benefit.

AI, AI, AI (and never remote)

Did I say AI? Whatever you are going to do it must have something to do with AI. Either being a company that is AI native or is heavily using the technology. This technology will be defining for the next many decades and getting a deep understanding of how it works and where it is going is crucial.

Even as a non-technical person you should get involved in AI. There are many interesting roles focused on GTM, Operations and Marketing where new distribution channels, sales motions, pricing and ways to run a company is being developed right now. The experience you gain here will put you in a very strong position for your next role.

And while I think the world is slowly moving towards in-office being the norm again its important to highlight that remote work when you are just starting your career is a big no go. For me it would be at any point in your career but particularly when you are just getting started being physically close to the people you work with is crucial.

What companies would I join if I was graduating today?

Even if you aspire to become a founder one day I always recommend spending at least 2-4 years learning how to work efficiently, build a network and learn about an industry. This is also why I normally recommend going to a place that has hit product market fit and is now ready to hyper scale.

Regardless of the company you decide to join they should all have the following criteria: Really smart people, fast growth, emerging tech and steep learning curve

In prioritized order (although 1 and 2 are very close):

1. Join the leading AI companies: OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Scale AI, Deepmind, Hugging Face, Cohere etc.
2. Fast growth startups within AI (Series A - Series C): Synthesia, Eleven Labs, Jasper, Character AI, Perplexity, Ada, Harvey etc.
3. Fast growth startups outside AI (Series A - Series C): A range of companies that are leveraging AI but was not built AI first
4. Fast growth startups within AI funded by tier 1 VCs only (Pre-seed - Seed)
5. Tier 1 Consulting/Investment Banking (only to build toolbox/work ethic)

My “Anti-list”

Below are the companies which might appear interesting and pay well but which I will not result in an exponential career:

• All FAANG companies (unless very specific divisions which are focused on AI): Apple, Google, Meta, Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft etc.
• Tier 2/3 consulting or investment banking

Disclaimer: the above advice is for ambitious graduates and young professionals seeking a career in technology and entrepreneurship. There are many other very fulfilling career paths that will look very different.