Week 12 is the final week of the Big50 lineup unveiling. . . and then. . . well, we’ll get to that later in the week. The challenges for 2018 will kick off soon, but we’ll also be featuring more stories from the current Big50 startups.
As for our final week. . . week 12 is a fractured one. What do containers and experience/employee management and engagement have in common? In this case, mainly the fact that they fit together to fill out a complete week.
We had only two container startups make the Big50 this year, but we expect more in coming years. The container movement is still in its infancy, but it’s already making a big impact on the enterprise.
451 Research predicts that the application container market will grow from $762 million in 2016 to $2.7 billion by 2020. According to 451, the entire cloud-enabling tech market – which includes virtualization, containers, Private PaaS, and other automation and management software – was worth approximately $23.1bn in 2017, and will expand at a 15% CAGR to reach $39.6 billion by the end of 2020.
We start week 12 with a security container startup, followed by a storage one.
On Wednesday, we shift our focus from application infrastructure to three startups that are tackling customer and/or employee experiences, engagement, collaboration, and retention. This market sector is also projected to see double-digit growth in the near term.
Market and Markets forecasts that the Customer Experience Management Market will grow at a CAGR of 23% to expand from 5.98 billion in 2017 to reach 16.91 billion in 2022.
Market and Markets also predicts that the Enterprise Collaboration space will grow from $26.68 Billion in 2016 to $49.51 billion by 2021, expanding at a CAGR of 13.2%.
The startups featured this week are all positioned in high-growth markets that aren’t (overly) dominated by incumbents. For them, 2018 will be a year where they hope to get a head start on the inevitable competition that always floods into fast-growing markets.
And then, it’s a wrap for the Big50-2017.
Thanks for following the Big50-2017 into the first weeks of 2018. These startups worked hard this past year, achieved big goals, and are primed for even better things in 2018.
Congratulations to the Big50-2017 startups!
How these startups made it into the Big50-2017
To recap, the Big50-2017 competition started with more than 160 startups.
Through three rounds of challenges, the Startup50 team whittled that down to the 55 startups we are featuring in the Big50-2017. (Yep, there are 55 startups in the Big50. You know, like giving a 110%.)
The first obstacle Big50 startups had to pass was the fundamentals test. Have they raised sufficient funding, attracted a solid team, developed a viable business idea that tackles a real-world problem? Do they have on-the-record customers, are they targeting a viable market niche, and have they launched an MVP that’s moved the needle?
Next, if the fundamentals were in order, startups had to fight their way through the Online Voting and Social Media challenge.
Those still standing, then had to face the Content Challenge. Startups pitched the Startup50 team their best story ideas for a forthcoming podcast.
The 55 startups featured in the Big50-2017 startups excelled in each of those three challenges.
Come back in fifteen minutes, and you’ll see the first of our container startups. Stay tuned. . .
