Three Arizona companies are among the best startup employers in the nation, according to a new list by Forbes — and one of them is among the top five.
Tucson-based NOIRLab, a research services firm founded in 2019 that based on the University of Arizona’s main campus, ranked No. 4 out of 500 companies on the list. The company says it operates ground-based observatories and provides data products and services with the aim of enabling breakthrough discoveries.
That was the only Arizona company in the rankings’ top tier. Next for the Grand Canyon State was Scottsdale-based transportation and logistics company Emerge, which ranked No. 171. It was founded in 2017 and offers a freight procurement platform to help logistics clients.
Next on the list for Arizona was No. 264 Trainual, a Scottsdale-based company founded in 2018 that provides software that helps companies onboard and train new employees. The company is one of the Valley’s largest software firms and is one of the Phoenix Business Journal's Best Places to Work.
Arizona’s total on the list was down from four last year. Emerge was up 24 spots from the previous list, while Trainual was down from No. 126 a year ago. NOIRLab is a newcomer this year.
Forbes has been doing this list for five years. This time, it considered 2,600 qualified companies for the list before narrowing it down to 500. The ranking was developed in partnership with market research company Statista. They evaluated businesses with at least 50 employees using employer reputation, employee satisfaction and growth as criteria.
Statista considered any company founded between 2012 and 2019 that has at least 50 employees to be a startup. Spin-offs of large corporations without a significant amount of external funding were excluded.The analysis considered more than 7 million data points measuring employer reputation, employee satisfaction, and growth.
You can view the full list here.
