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Forbes
28-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Clarity Is King: How Today's Top Startups Are Winning
The Forbes 2025 list of top startups reveals a shared truth about organizational excellence: clarity has emerged as the essential centerpiece around which all other elements of success revolve. Today's most successful organizations have recognized that without fundamental clarity—in values, management, hiring, and technology adoption—the other virtues of connection, innovation, resilience feel out of reach. My conversations with both founders and people leaders who made it on the Forbes 2025 list showed me what clarity looks like when it's applied to values, management, hiring, and AI strategy. Clarity is the foundational virtue of most successful organizations in today's time. It all begins with your core values. When an organization knows how it wants to operate, the what begins to emerge. Being clear on what they are, how they were derived, and how they might be applied on a regular basis is crucial. "Culture to me is just clarity," explains Alli Trussell, SVP of People at Bilt. 'We have a responsibility as a company to be radically clear about who we are.' Bridgewater is famous for this – listing out its principles in an employee handbook for all employees to digest. Jenny He, CEO of Ergeon, articulates that a company's values can't just live in a handbook. "While we do not have our core values plastered on walls and on pieces of paper, I do think we embed them in all of our decision making and use them as our constant conversation hierarchy around principle-based decision making." And while many start-ups claim to have values, the rigor with which these organizations apply and revisit their values distinguishes them from their peers. As Erica Lied, Head of Human Resources at Ridgeline, emphasizes: "If you're not revisiting the tenants of what make you and your competitive advantages at least on a weekly basis and doing more than lip service, you are not going to have a sustained culture." Knowing one's values makes hiring easier. Many of the startups I spoke with have written down, with clarity, what excellence looks like in each role. This clarity serves as the foundation for every aspect of recruitment, from job descriptions and interview questions to final decisions. David Britton, founder of DoorLoop, explains how his company transformed its hiring approach: 'At our last company, we used to rely on what we called 'the lunch test'—could we see ourselves grabbing lunch with this person? It was a strictly personality assessment. At DoorLoop, we've completely reimagined our process with quantitative assessments tied to specific scorecards.' Anshu Sharma, CEO of Skyflow, positions this clarity as the defining element of culture: '90% of culture is who you offboard and onboard into the company. You don't really change people... their character doesn't change.' This is especially relevant for category-creating companies. Max Azarov, CEO of NovaKid, explains: 'When we hire people we look at, they should have done something exemplary in their life, but not necessarily in the same field. They should have the motivation, the passion, and they should have done something really well. But there is no experience fit because we are doing something new.' The most successful startups have doubled down on developing exceptional managers—recognizing that no LLM can replace the human needs for motivation, feedback, and growth. What sets these organizations apart is their insistence on clarity in communication as the cornerstone of management excellence. Melissa Kaganovsky from Navan reinforces this perspective: 'At Navan, managers and HR teams have a huge opportunity to positively impact employee mental health and overall well-being. Leadership grounded in clear communication is core to our philosophy, and we're committed to providing the training, resources, and support needed to empower managers to lead effectively and compassionately.' Jessica Bartlett, Head of People at Spotnana, articulates how crucial it is to build cultures of clarity in feedback: 'I think delivering difficult feedback is a challenge. Because as a manager, you're invested in this person and you don't want to hurt their feelings. And it's that realization of actually if you don't give them the tough feedback, you're letting them down because now they don't know, hey, there's an area that I need to develop and it's going to make me better.' Sasha Robinson, VP of People at Trainual, reinforces how clarity transforms the feedback process: 'If you truly align your feedback to your values, people will rise to the occasion 99% of the time. When you give very direct, corrective feedback and you see (immediate) improvement, it's clear, they just weren't trained properly or they just didn't fully understand what was asked of them, which is a communication failure on the organization and leadership.' While many organizations implement AI haphazardly, today's leading startups have understood the problems that AI might solve for them and deployed their teams to go use AI. Rather than adopting AI for its own sake, they've established precise objectives, integration approaches, and success metrics that align with their core mission. "We are obviously leaning all the way in," explains Alli Trussell from Bilt. 'One of the things I'm going to be focusing on is how to make it even more ingrained into every mode of operation that we have. And that is something that we hold managers to. You need to be AI first. You need to understand this so well so that you can teach your team to start there, not finish there.' Maya Marcus, Chief People Officer at Abnormal Security, emphasizes how this clarity must permeate the entire organization: 'AI is a very big part of our platform. We encourage every employee to use it – and we use it everywhere. Our view is that it's important for us to disrupt ourselves before somebody else disrupts us.' This concept of disrupting oneself – be it an individual or an organization – is one that coaching can help with. Heather Conklin, CEO of Torch, shares how coaching – structured around clarity – transformed her approach to leadership: "Nothing has impacted my leadership more than coaching. At its core, coaching helped me get clearer on who I am and become more intentional with how I show up. That shift changed everything: my relationships, my results, and how I think about growth.' What emerges from these conversations is a compelling insight: clarity isn't merely one quality among many that successful startups possess—it's the essential foundation upon which all other elements of excellence depend. Without clarity in values, management practices, talent strategy, and technology implementation, organizations cannot achieve sustainable success regardless of their funding, market opportunity, or technological innovation. Austin Allison, CEO of Pacaso, captures this perspective: 'Companies are people, meaning the caliber of a company is directly correlated with the caliber of the people and their ability to do great work... the most important job of the CEO is to attract the right people and then empower those people to do their best work.' In an era defined by uncertainty, complexity, and accelerating change, clarity has emerged as the ultimate competitive advantage—not as a temporary response to current conditions but as an enduring principle of organizational excellence that will continue to define success for years to come.
Associated Press
05-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Ergeon Named One of America's Best Startup Employers 2025 by Forbes for the Second Year in a Row
Of 20,000 companies, Ergeon made the top 25 SAN FRANCISCO, March 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ergeon, a leader in residential construction tech, has been named one of America's Best Startup Employers for 2025 by Forbes, marking the second consecutive year the company has received this prestigious recognition. This ranking highlights Ergeon's ongoing commitment to creating a thriving workplace culture and its sustained growth in the industry. The Forbes list is compiled through an in-depth analysis of over 7 million data points from more than 20,000 eligible companies across the U.S, with 500 employers making the final list. The ranking evaluates companies on three critical criteria: Employer Reputation, Employee Satisfaction, and Company Growth. Ergeon's inclusion for two years in a row underscores its success in these areas and its dedication to fostering a dynamic, innovative, and supportive environment. 'Being named to the Forbes list for a second year is an incredible honor- and a testament to the strength of our team and the culture we've built,' said Jenny He, co-founder and CEO of Ergeon. 'We believe in being kind, being lean, and investing in people. This recognition is a testament to the hardworking staff who have embraced these values and helped create a place where innovation and growth thrive.' Ergeon's mission remains to make the home improvement process simple and fair. They are redefining the customer experience with a commitment to radical transparency and honest pricing. The company's technology-driven solutions empower customers to take control of their projects, offering the ability to generate their own estimates and track progress through the company's app. Ergeon's pricing is based on actual costs of materials and labor in each area, providing full visibility into project costs. Additionally, Ergeon's personalized recommendations simplify the decision-making process by offering packages tailored to specific regions and needs. Customers can have peace of mind knowing that all project details are expertly managed, while always having access to a human representative when needed. Ergeon has experienced impressive growth, expanding its reach to over 15 states and developing a suite of innovative tools that remove friction and pain points historically associated with construction projects to deliver a great experience for customers. About Ergeon Ergeon is disrupting the multi-trillion-dollar construction industry, specializing in fences, decks, artificial grass/landscaping and concrete. Their aim is to empower customers, contractors, and staff to become their own superheroes. Over 30k happy customers are enjoying their outdoor spaces thanks to Ergeon. Ergeon has been named Best of HomeAdvisor, Best of Houzz, and received the Angi Super Service Award. Now with over 15k public reviews at an average rating of 4.7, they have expanded to cover more than 40% of US households. Living out the company's values, Ergeon has also committed to reforestation efforts, contributing to the replanting of more than 18k trees to date. The company was founded and is run by two CS Ph.D. serial entrepreneurs.
