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What We Got Right—and Wrong—About Last Year’s The Information 50 List

Photo: Art by Mike Sullivan

A year ago, our second annual list of the most promising startups in tech highlighted 50 companies to watch based on their financial and other metrics. Since then, the downturn in startup funding and valuations amid higher interest rates and slowing economic activity has humbled many of the founders—but not all.

Turing, the top-ranked business-to-business software startup on our list, appears to be a smash. The company, which helps businesses find and manage freelance software engineers remotely, grew annualized revenue by more than 2.5 times to $50 million since its appearance on the list, CEO Jonathan Siddharth said. That’s why the company is currently able to raise funding at a valuation of up to $4 billion, in the form of an agreement that lets the investors buy shares in a future funding round, up from $1.1 billion in a funding round in December last year, he said. Its valuation was $142 million at the time our list was published. Among its newer customers are OpenAI, Reddit, ESPN, and Volvo, he said.

Below is our autopsy report on the second edition of The Information 50, focused on companies valued at less than $1 billion on paper as of a year ago. Here were our takeaways from that list at the time, and don’t forget to check out this year’s list as well as an article on what we learned from our reporters’ informed picks in the 2022 version of the list.

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