Let's make a shortlist step by step. There's a good chance that we find the next big company in the Unicorn List. There are around 500 startups in such a list:
Which startups in this list have the potential to grow rapidly in the next few years? Not all of them for sure! But there are a lot of them: SpaceX, Stripe, 23andMe, Discord, Grammarly, Duolingo, Calm, Intercom, Brex, Airtable, Figma, Canva and Udemy to name just a few.
The final factor? How many of them are in a market big enough to make big companies like Microsoft? This factor gonna make our list way too shorter! But it's hard to be sure. If I want to guess? I easily remove names like Udemy, Canva, Calm, Grammarly and Duolingo from our list...
Actually, I think Udemy might be in a very big market. It competes in the market for continuing learners who could not get an education they wanted during their 18-25 year ages. I would love to work at Stripe and perhaps Discord. SpaceX too, but I am not a resident American.
Although I have my serious doubts about educational startups, seeing them more successful will make me happy for sure. They make a real difference in the world...
I'm not sure which Unicorns are outside US or which one hire remotely... But there are a lot of them. InVision is the only one that comes to mind right now.
My main problem is that I got into a big company straight out of school and there were not any opportunities for me. I have been working on systems like FileNet and Neoxam. This greatly limited my opportunity to do something else. Now that I'm married and have a kid, I can't afford to change companies. When I joined the company I could recite pertainate parts of meetings verbatim, but not anymore. I feel potential I had was squandered.
The team I am currently on is finally using some AWS, but i feel the project level leadership is short sighted and the subject matter is extremely boring.
I totally understand you and I know changing the situation can sometimes be way harder than what people would assume...
I heard a heartwarming story recently from Brandon Sanderson. He was saying in his writing class that a full-time writer has an advantage, but don't worry if you can't afford being a full-time writer! If you only write for 4 hours a week, after a year you would have a novel. You have even less time? It would take 2 years but you gonna have your novel eventually. The important thing is consistency...
As an outsider it's not my place to give you any advice. And I know it's not gonna be easy. But I want to encourage you to pursuit what you like to do! It maybe take more time but eventually it's achievable...
https://www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies
Which startups in this list have the potential to grow rapidly in the next few years? Not all of them for sure! But there are a lot of them: SpaceX, Stripe, 23andMe, Discord, Grammarly, Duolingo, Calm, Intercom, Brex, Airtable, Figma, Canva and Udemy to name just a few.
The final factor? How many of them are in a market big enough to make big companies like Microsoft? This factor gonna make our list way too shorter! But it's hard to be sure. If I want to guess? I easily remove names like Udemy, Canva, Calm, Grammarly and Duolingo from our list...