Twenty thousand.

That’s how many privately held U.S. companies Forbes and Statista evaluated this year to produce the seventh annual list of America’s Best Startup Employers. Assessed across roughly 7 million data points spanning employer reputation, employee satisfaction, and growth trajectory, we are proud to be named alongside names such as Anthropic, Rippling, and Ramp.

The bar was set deliberately high. For a talent intelligence company like us to appear on a list dominated by fintech, AI model builders, and infrastructure startups says something about where enterprise technology is heading and what kinds of problems the market is starting to take seriously.

“This recognition reflects the product-first, growth-oriented team we’ve built over time. We’ve always put a strong emphasis on hiring people who want to move the work forward and are invested in the problems we’re solving for our customers. When you get that right and pair it with an environment where they’re empowered to do meaningful work, the results follow.” - Vijay Swaminathan, CEO of Draup.

A Year of Growing Visibility in the Workforce Conversation

The Forbes listing builds on a year of sustained momentum for our research and data across major business and technology publications. Our CEO, Vijay Swaminathan, was recently featured in Forbes, discussing the hidden costs undermining enterprise AI ROI and why many organizations are struggling to translate investment into measurable outcomes. Our executives have also appeared in CIO Dive with insights from our Economics of Skills report, in HR Dive with findings from our Fortune 500 Hiring Trends analysis, and in TechTarget, where coverage explored how generational shifts are shaping workforce readiness and the skills organizations will need moving forward.

As AI reshapes hiring, skills development, and organizational design across the U.S. and globally, the demand for trustworthy, data-driven workforce intelligence has intensified considerably. Our research and labor market data have become reference points in that conversation, and we are committed to deepening that role.

What this Signals for the Road Ahead

The challenges facing HR leaders at large enterprises today are fundamentally strategic. Workforce planning is no longer a back-office function that reacts to headcount requests. It is the mechanism through which organizations prepare for AI-driven transformation, navigate global skill shortages, and retain the institutional knowledge that new hires cannot replicate. The tools supporting those decisions need to reflect that level of importance, and we believe the market is beginning to recognize that.

We are grateful for this recognition from Forbes. The workforce is being reshaped in real time, and helping the world’s largest enterprises navigate that transformation with precision and confidence is the work we signed up for. We intend to keep building for the future.

More about Draup

Draup is a multi-dimensional labor and market data platform that powers use cases across talent and sales intelligence. Analyzing 25M+ data points daily from 70,000+ sources, Draup’s data is updated continuously, historically available, and regionally relevant.

HR leaders use Draup for use cases across talent intelligence, skills architecture, and work redesign. GTM and sales teams leverage Draup for 360° industry, account, buyer, and competitor intelligence.

Trusted by more than 300 global enterprises—including 5 of the Fortune 10 and organizations such as Microsoft, PepsiCo, Citizens Bank, and Moderna—Draup is tailored to empower leaders to make faster and smarter decisions. 

Available through API integrations, custom data feeds, platform, and MCP, access Draup’s impactful insights delivered in real-time.

View the full Forbes’ 2026 America’s Best Startup Employers list.

Learn more about how Draup can help your organization turn data into workforce strategy at draup.com/talent.

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