Around the same time in 2011, I wrote a posting about the LeWeb 2010 finalists and startup success in general. I placed a reminder into my calendar to revisit the list in 2012 and went to check whether the companies were still alive and well. Unfortunately, I never released the post. Now, another year later, I saw the unreleased draft and decided to update it once again.
- Votizen – acquired by causes.com (open positions 11/2012: 2)
- Simple (former BankSimple) – online and hiring (2012: 7, 2013: 7)
- Blekko – online, no jobs offers found (open positions 11/2012: 3)
- Hipmunk – online and hiring (2012: 1, 2013: 5)
- Optimizely – online and hiring (2012: 9, 2013: 21)
- 1000 Memories – aquired by ancestry.com
- Elation EMR – online and hiring (2012: 3, 2013: 5)
- CueUp (former Greplin) – acquired by Apple, now defunct (2012: 4.5)
- SavingStar (SaveWave) – online and hiring (2012: 1, 2013: 3)
- Topguest – acquired by Switchfly
- Beautylish – online and hiring (2012: 1, 2013: 3)
- GroupMe – online and hiring (2012: 3, 2013: 2)
Out of the ten finalists, four companies were acquired and the other six are still in business. I think that’s pretty impressive.