Meet America’s Best Startup Employers 2026 | Pacaso

ByRachel Rabkin Peachman,Senior Editor.The first few days at a new job are typically filled with administrative onboarding tasks like IT trainings and requests for office equipment. But at Hippocratic AI—a Silicon Valley-based startup that’s developed a voice AI agent that can call patients and receive calls to help with healthcare needs such as medicine reminders, chronic care management and nutrition support—one of the first things new employees do when they join is recite this oath:"I solemnly swear that throughout my employment at Hippocratic AI, I will uphold the unwavering commitment to put patients first. I believe that by keeping the patient as our highest priority, we can and will achieve the best possible health outcomes and make a meaningful impact in the lives of those we serve."Unlike some company mission statements that new-hire orientations breeze through before focusing on HR benefits, the Hippocratic AI oath is spoken aloud when the team is gathered so that the 2-year-old startup’s values (which also include “do no harm” and “equal access for all”) are front and center in everything employees do. “Values on a wall do not really change behavior the way that making a commitment to something does,” saysMunjal Shah, cofounder and CEO of Hippocratic AI. And as with the Hippocratic Oath itself, employees take their commitment to heart.“We have world-class team members who can go anywhere they want,” says Shah. “What motivates people to come here, and to stay, is working alongside colleagues who believe in the same mission and are driving toward it together every single day.”That shared drive is no doubt one of the reasons Hippocratic AI landed at No. 44 overall (and No. 2 in the healthcare sector) on our list of America’s Best Startup Employers 2026.To create this seventh annual ranking, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to identify and assess 2,700 privately-held companies headquartered in the United States (winnowed down from an initial list of more than 20,000 startups). Startups that were eligible for consideration were those that had more than 50 employees, were founded between 2016 and 2023, and were an independent company as opposed to a spinoff of a larger corporation.Each company was evaluated in three primary areas: company reputation, employee satisfaction and growth. To assess employer reputation, Statista culled articles, blogs and social media posts about each employer and identified such phrases as “corporate culture,” “employee engagement” and “company strategy.” Then text analysis was used to categorize each finding as positive, negative or neutral. To evaluate employee satisfaction, Statista likewise researched online reviews, blog comments and company policies on such issues as compensation packages, healthcare and leave benefits, flexible working hours and career advancement opportunities. Growth was assessed by examining each organization’s head count, job openings and website traffic growth rate over a two-year period. Then, all these factors were put through a scoring system, and the 500 startups with the highest scores made our final ranking.This year, the list’s top 10 startups represent a wide range of industries—from retail, finance and tech to software services, real estate and agriculture—and one in four startups on the full list are unicorns. Retail marketplace Whatnot earned the No. 1 spot (up from No. 6 last year), followed by Billd (No. 2), a financial solutions company for subcontractors, and Cribl (No. 3; previously No. 1), a data management company serving the IT and security sector. Rounding out the top five were Deel (No. 4), a human resources and payroll platform for global teams, and Pacaso (No. 5), a tech-enabled real estate company that facilitates co-ownership of luxury vacation homes.According to Nicole Luchau, head of people and talent at Pacaso, the startup is in a league of its own. “We really are creating a new category in the way that people can purchase second homes, which is really exciting,” she explains. The company’s co-ownership model is also a win for sustainability. “We operate by better making use of what’s already there,” says Luchau. With multiple owners enjoying one property, “we save land from overdevelopment and keep it available to the communities.”The fully remote company also manages to create a tight-knit vibe among employees, who are known collectively as “the crew” because they are encouraged to “row together” in the spirit of teamwork. There are biweekly all-company meetings hosted by the CEO and co-founder Austin Allison, weekly team meetings, individual meetups, and an annual week-long company retreat filled with team-building activities, fireside chats, breakout sessions and evening fun. This year, the retreat will be in Park City, Utah, where the crew will participate in an Olympic-themed Amazing Race-style scavenger hunt that will end with a celebratory dinner.This playful atmosphere is balanced by a dedication to hard work, innovation and career development within the company. “There’s so much opportunity to grow, whether or not it’s in your current department or if you have an interest in something else,” says Luchau. “We’re totally supportive and actually encourage that type of internal mobility, which is another way to invest in people and help them grow personally and professionally.”Another remote-first startup that prioritizes the professional growth of its employees is Atrium (No. 7), an AI-native consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses leverage the Salesforce and Snowflake platforms. Case in point: Atrium’s Luminate program for recent college graduates provides new hires with focused training, real-world experience and the opportunity to earn certifications that will enhance their credentials and accelerate their career development. “We place them into various departments and roles within the organization that they express an interest in or are passionate about,” says Natasa Marinkovic, vice president of marketing and alliances. “And it’s where a lot of our great data science team members were born.”But the training doesn’t end there. Atrium creates opportunities for all employees to sharpen their skills and gain experience with AI, which helps quell people’s fear of being replaced by the technology. “We are thinking about what the next generation of consulting firm looks like, and we invest in our people and build those skillsets so that we can prepare for what the future is going to look like a few years down the road,” says Marinkovic.Looking toward the future is literally in the DNA of the work at Colossal Biosciences (No. 9). The nearly 5-year-old startup valued at more than $10 billion is focused on bringing back extinct species such as the dire wolf (which Colossal has done successfully using DNA extracted from fossils) and the woolly mammoth (which the company hopes to do by 2028) while advancing biodiversity and conservation efforts. With such groundbreaking and well-funded goals, it’s no wonder employees at the company are excited to be there.“Employees at Colossal are driven by a mission of almost unimaginable scale: the chance to change the future of life on Earth,” says Ben Lamm, Colossal’s cofounder and CEO. “From resurrecting lost species to protecting ecosystems and advancing climate resilience, every project has the potential to make history.”Colossal employees also have the chance to contribute to cutting-edge science while learning from leading thinkers—including George Church, a Harvard geneticist and the other cofounder of the startup. “Mentorship here is woven into the fabric of the company,” says Lamm, and the opportunities to grow seemingly have no bounds. “Colossal is essentially a rocket ship for career growth. Ambitious employees can accelerate into leadership roles, explore new scientific frontiers, and take on high-stakes projects that few others in the world could even imagine.”Given the opportunities at Colossal and at the hundreds of other ranked startups that are pioneering uncharted territory and offering employees engaging and challenging work, it appears that not even the sky is the limit.For the full list of America’s Best Startup Employers, click here.To create the annual ranking, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to identify and assess 2,700 privately-held companies headquartered in the United States (winnowed down from an initial list of more than 20,000 startups). To qualify for consideration, those startups were required to have more than 50 employees, to have been founded between 2016 and 2023, and to be an independent company as opposed to a spinoff of a larger corporation.Each company was evaluated in three primary areas: company reputation, employee satisfaction and growth. To assess employer reputation, Statista culled articles, blogs and social media posts about each employer and identified such phrases as “corporate culture,” “employee engagement” and “company strategy.” Then text analysis was used to categorize each finding as positive, negative or neutral. To evaluate employee satisfaction, Statista likewise researched online reviews, blog comments and company policies on such issues as compensation packages, healthcare and leave benefits, flexible working hours and career advancement opportunities. Growth was assessed by examining each organization’s head count, job openings and website traffic growth rate over a two-year period.All these factors—which amounted to approximately 7 million data points—were used to determine each company’s scores, and the 500 startups with the highest scores made our final ranking of America’s Best Startup Employers 2026.As with all Forbes lists, companies do not pay any fee to participate or be selected. To read more about how we make these lists, click here. For questions about this list, please email listdesk [at] forbes.com.ByRachel Rabkin PeachmanRachel Rabkin Peachman is a senior editor covering lists, hospitals and healthcare. She spearheaded the launch of the inaugural Forbes Top Hospitals list and ratings system and is the editor of Forbes best employer lists. She joined Forbes in 2023 and has since written about topics including pay equity in the workplace, veterans transitioning into civilian jobs, and startups that are advancing healthcare technology and clean energy. Throughout her career, she’s specialized in health, science, product safety and parenting—and written for outlets including The New York Times, JAMA, Prevention and The Washington Post. Peachman is also the coauthor of When Children Feel Pain: From Everyday Aches to Chronic Conditions, which won the 2023 Science in Society Journalism Book Award from the National Association of Science Writers. Previously, she was on staff at several publications including Consumer Reports where her investigations into dangerous infant sleepers and unstable dressers spurred the recall of millions of products and led to new laws. For this work, she won the Deadline Club Award for Magazine Investigative Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists and was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Public Service from the American Society of Magazine Editors. Peachman has a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.S. from Columbia Journalism School. Follow her on Twitter @RachelPeachman, email her at rpeachman [at] forbes.com or find her at: https://www.rachelrabkinpeachman.com/Forbes reporters follow company ethical guidelines that ensure the highest quality.One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.