Bay Area Startups Rank High on LinkedIn's Top 50 List

LinkedIn on Wednesday revealed its first-ever list of the "most in-demand" startups in the United States and the Bay Area is home to seven of the top 10.

Surprised, anyone?

Uber landed in first place despite being in recent headlines for "sexual harassment claims, regulatory issues, a new CEO and loads of boardroom drama," according to LinkedIn. The untoward attention didn't stop the San Francisco-based ride-sharing giant from expanding and luring valuable employees away from behemoths like Google, JPMorgan and Facebook.

The "super-unicorn" employs 16,000 people globally, is valued at $68 billion and gives employees credit to use on personal rides or UberEATS. 

Airbnb, also headquartered in San Francisco, made second place. The company, which has a team of 6,500 people, is the David to the $550 billion hotel industry's Goliath. Valued at $29.25 billion, Airbnb is expected to exceed 100 million stays in 2017 — a 25 percent jump from just last year. 

The hospitality company has also teamed up with Newgard Development Group to launch co-branded apartments, which will be "optimized for home sharing and flexible sharing."

In third place is coworking startup WeWork, which is based in New York City, employs 3,000 people around the world and is valued at $20 billion.

Lyft, San Francisco's other quickly expanding ridesharing platform, is in fourth place, with a global headcount of 2,000 and an $11 billion valuation.

Slack, a popular workplace messaging service located in San Francisco, took fifth place. Forty-three companies from the Fortune 100 list use Slack, which has 890 workers and a $5.1 billion valuation. 

Companies had to meet certain criteria to make LinkedIn's inaugural list of the country's hottest upstarts: They had to be 10 years old or younger, employ at least 100 people, be independent and privately held, and have received at least one round of venture-backed funding.

LinkedIn also examined their "employee growth, job seeker interest via views and applications, member engagement with the company and its employees."

The ranking also takes into account "how well these startups pulled talent" from 50 businesses — including Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Salesforce, Tesla, Apple and Netflix — that made LinkedIn's top companies list. 

Automotive startup Nio, whose global headquarters are in Shanghai, China, but North American headquarters are in San Jose, came in sixth place. It is followed by Rubrik, of Palo Alto; Dropbox, of San Francisco; Houzz, of Palo Alto; and Convoy, of Seattle.

Here are LinkedIn's top 20 startups in the United States:

1. Uber — San Francisco, Calif.
2. Airbnb — San Francisco, Calif.
3. WeWork — New York City, NY
4. Lyft — San Francisco, Calif.
5. Slack — San Francisco, Calif.
6. Nio — Shanghai, China and San Jose, Calif.
7. Rubrik — Palo Alto, Calif.
8. Dropbox — San Francisco, Calif.
9. Houzz — Palo Alto, Calif.
10. Convoy — Seattle, Wash.
11. General Assembly — New York City
12. Stripe — San Francisco, Calif.
13. Glossier — New York City, NY
14. Flexport — San Francisco, Calif.
15. Aryaka Networks — San Mateo, Calif.
16. Pinterest — San Francisco, Calif.
17. Grail — Menlo Park, Calif.
18. Duo Security — Ann Arbor, Mich. 
19. Udacity — Mountain View, Calif.
20. G2 Crowd — Chicago, Ill.