The Breakout List

“Apply this rule when selecting which company to go to. Go to the company where all the action is happening.”

Marc Andreessen

This quarter's list is being released as a PDF (size: 285KB) and as a Quip document.

Breakout list (PDF)

View on mobile

Printable offer checklists/company evaluation checklists

Offer checklists

A few notable inclusions

Open the full list as a PDF (size: 285KB) or a Quip document.

Name	Notes	Product	Stage	Location
	Strong mentorship; entrepreneurial team; strong network	Data platform for insurance companies	Super early	SF
	Strong growth; high activity market	Get an application built	Super early	SF
	Exceptional team; central to customers' lives	Hire engineers	Super early	SF
	YC's Hiring Post; lots of action going on; strong brand; strong growth; exceptional team	Startup funding and advice	Early	SF/MTV
	Working at Opendoor; exceptional team; strong growth	Buy/sell your home online	Early	SF
	Working at Docker; strong growth; central to customers' lives; high activity	Application containers	Mid-size	SF
	Working at Slack; repeat founders; central to customers' lives; momentum/growth	Team chat	Mid-size	SF
	High activity market; exceptional team; momentum/growth	AI	Mid-size	London
Uber ATC	Working at Uber; high action; revenue growth; central to customers' lives; high activity market	Self driving cars	Late	Pittsburgh
Tesla Autopilot Team	High action; revenue growth; central to customers' lives; high activity market	Self driving cars	Late	Palo Alto

Who is the list for?

The list is not for venture capitalists, or salespeople. While they use the list, the priority is for the list to be useful to ambitious engineers/other people working in tech. Salespeople and venture capitalists — I would suggest Mattermark or Datafox or similar.

The goal of this list is to help you choose a company where you will be exposed to the best people and best opportunities.

Why these companies?

Disclaimer (stolen from Marc Andreessen)

“These posts are aimed at high-potential people who want to excel throughout their careers and make a significant impact on their fields and the world. These posts are not appropriate for people for whom work/life balance is a high priority or for whom lifestyle is particularly important -- if that's you, there are plenty of existing career planning resources for you already!”

“Optimize at all times for being in the most dynamic and exciting pond you can find. That is where the great opportunities can be found.”

“Apply this rule when selecting which company to go to. Go to the company where all the action is happening.”

Let’s combine this with some advice from Charlie Munger. Charlie would tell us to look for a ‘lollapalooza’ — where we have multiple factors at once.

Relevant factors that cause a company to have a lot of ‘action happening’

breakout revenue growth (i.e. what the breakout list currently shows)
exceptional team (e.g. experts at front of field)
exceptional team (“famous”/repeat successful founders)
high energy market
really strong recruiting brand / engineering bar perception
something that is somehow at the centre of customers lives

side note — this is applying the small fig big pond to startup idea selection. better to go and sit at the very center, to do the hardest schlep, because then you are just in the middle of everything and it’s great