Fifty Tech Startups You Should Know – A Better Scoring System
I read with interest the list of the top 50 startups to watch by BusinessWeek after a post by Martin Varsavsky on Facebook. I think there are considerations not taken in the list, such as how much money every point earned cost, which would measure how good the brand image, PR and relationship with its users are, among other things.
I tried to weigh the ratio of funding to points ($M/point), the funding versus how long the company is running ($M/year), and the number of points gained for every year the company is running. After scoring each company on these three factors plus the original score, this is the result:
| Startup | $M/point | Funding/time | Points/year | |
| Etsy | 0.347 | 7.90 | 22.8 | |
| OpenDNS | 0.027 | 0.63 | 23.3 | |
| Justin.tv | 0.049 | 1.33 | 27.0 | |
| Komli Media ** | 0.084 | 2.33 | 27.7 | |
| QueBarato | 0.092 | 3.00 | 32.5 | |
| Sonico | 0.047 | 2.15 | 45.5 | |
| Daylife | 0.124 | 4.15 | 33.5 | |
| Kosmix | 0.917 | 13.75 | 15.0 | |
| Loopt | 0.277 | 3.33 | 12.0 | |
| PBworks | 0.044 | 0.63 | 14.3 | |
| Boxee | 0.111 | 4.00 | 36.0 | |
| Zynga | 0.402 | 19.50 | 48.5 | |
| Cloudera | 0.500 | 11.00 | 22.0 | |
| Scribd | 0.141 | 6.40 | 45.5 | |
| Spotify | 0.392 | 6.67 | 17.0 | |
| Huddle.net | 0.105 | 1.33 | 12.7 | |
| Jajah | 0.412 | 7.00 | 17.0 | |
| Xobni | 0.304 | 4.87 | 16.0 | |
| TheFind | 0.394 | 8.67 | 22.0 | |
| TokBox | 0.275 | 7.00 | 25.5 | |
| Tudou | 0.880 | 21.13 | 24.0 | |
| Slide | 0.637 | 14.50 | 22.8 | |
| AdMob | 0.621 | 15.73 | 25.3 | |
| RockYou | 0.770 | 22.83 | 29.7 | |
| Mochi Media | 0.378 | 3.50 | 9.3 | |
| Evernote | 0.225 | 3.38 | 15.0 | |
| Ning | 1.083 | 20.80 | 19.2 | |
| KupiVIP | 0.229 | 11.00 | 48.0 | |
| SynapSense | 0.423 | 3.67 | 8.7 | |
| Proclivity Systems | 0.388 | 2.07 | 5.3 | |
| Yola | 0.417 | 12.50 | 30.0 | |
| Livescribe | 0.620 | 9.30 | 15.0 | |
| Adconion Media Group | 1.250 | 20.00 | 16.0 | |
| Inrix | 1.072 | 6.22 | 5.8 | |
| Positive Energy | 0.705 | 7.75 | 11.0 | |
| Cotendo | 0.583 | 7.00 | 12.0 | |
| Fon | 1.091 | 12.00 | 11.0 | |
| Raydiance | 0.833 | 5.00 | 6.0 | |
| Pelago | 0.896 | 7.47 | 8.3 | |
| Palantir Technologies | 1.184 | 7.34 | 6.2 | |
| Monitise | 0.905 | 3.80 | 4.2 | |
| Metaweb Technologies | 1.357 | 14.25 | 10.5 | |
| Better Place | 6.061 | 100.00 | 16.5 | |
| Nila | 0.027 | 0.12 | 4.4 | |
| Sermo | 1.293 | 12.50 | 9.7 | |
| Modu | 3.148 | 42.50 | 13.5 | |
| Fusion-io | 2.891 | 22.17 | 7.7 |
Some curious results show up, such as Ning and Tudou dropping many places (due to their huge amount of funding).
Nice to see you back and writing, and interesting method for score rating.
regards
Tom