Giddy anticipation for the holidays, renewed optimism for the new year and the invigorating bite of cold weather — there’s a certain magic in the San Francisco winter air.
As Golden Gate Park is adorned with twinkling lights and Brazen Head fills with gathering friends, San Francisco’s tech scene creates its own winter wonderland. Built In San Francisco has curated a list of five noteworthy companies gearing up for a flurry of growth.
These San Francisco companies bring good to the world in their own ways, but all five have put time and effort into their people-first benefits — and each one has its eyes on a stellar 2024. Grab a toasty cup of your Philz of choice and learn more about what San Francisco’s tech winter wonderland has to offer.
What Imbue does: Founded in 2020 and headquartered in San Francisco, Imbue is an AI research company on a mission to build human-like general machine intelligence and make it safely accessible in order to foster a more abundant, equitable and creative human society.
NOTEWORTHY PERKS
- Continuing education stipend
- Job conferences and trainings
- Company equity
In the news: Imbue’s Series B funding round brought the company’s valuation to more than $1 billion and its total venture funding to $220 million, Built In reported in September.
What 2K does: 2K is a development studio that develops and publishes interactive entertainment for video game consoles, personal computers and mobile devices. Founded in 2005, 2K is headquartered in Novato and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
TECH STACK
- Ruby on Rails
- MongoDB
- Snowflake
- Golang
- Java
- SQL
- C++
Supported to succeed: “At 2K, we have focused our culture on allowing everyone to ‘come as you are,’” Senior Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Veronica Dining told Built In San Francisco last year. “For us, this means our employees have the right to be their true selves and feel supported to do their best. 2K strives to empower employees to support one another in building community and their sense of belonging through social events, guest speakers, and listening sessions."
What Astra does: Astra was founded in October 2016 with the mission of launching a new generation of space services to improve life on Earth by creating a healthier and more connected planet. Astra’s first flight to space was within four years of its inception, making it the fastest company to reach space.
TECH STACK
- C#
- C++
- CSS
- JavaScript
- Matlab
- Python
- SQL
- Who Astra is hiring: Astra is currently seeking talented engineers focused on space products, radiation testing, fluids and its Odoo software, as well as operations experts including global supply managers, quality managers and production coordinators.
What Simpplr does: Simpplr is a social intranet that helps companies improve employee communication and engagement by connecting employees across departments, locations and time zones. From company news to project updates, Simpplr streamlines the information employees need to stay in the know and get their work done.
NOTEWORTHY PERKS
- Commuter benefits and onsite parking for in-office employees
- Home-office stipend for remote workers
- 401(k) matching
Empowered team: “I stay motivated by building an amazing team of leaders and individual contributors,” SVP of Customer Experience Dawn Farhi told Built In San Francisco in March. “Hiring other leaders and surrounding myself with leaders that share the same values as me is really important and probably the single most influential way I stay and get motivated. I like being with leaders that have a sense of humor, and don’t take themselves too seriously but also want to improve things, empower their teams and build something new.”
What Publica does: Publica is a connected TV ad platform that works with many of the world’s biggest broadcasters, TV manufacturers and over-the-top apps. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Publica provides solutions for publishers to maximize their revenue across their CTV inventory by creating more advanced CTV ad breaks, running a unified auction and providing the data needed to grow streaming advertising revenues in a controlled and transparent way.
NOTEWORTHY PERKS
- Company equity and stock purchase plan
- Performance bonus
- Company-sponsored outings and happy hours
Cross-functional collaboration: “Joining the team at Publica allowed me to explore different facets of marketing like project management, social media, event planning, PR, communication and more. This ability to work cross-functionally with all departments is helping me fulfill my goals to develop new skill sets, strengthen my management skills and refine my storytelling,” Fadwa EZ-ZGHARI told Built In San Francisco last year. “It’s also letting me step up and succeed, or fail, and this not only builds my resilience but gives me the energy to move forward and take on new professional challenges.”
