It may be every entrepreneur’s dream, but rapid, exponential growth is just not something that happens to many startups. In fact it’s not something that happens to any startups at all. No, in the hyper-competitive startup universe, it’s up to organisations to make their own luck. So, in the DIY spirit, here’s a list of our top three startups.   

1. Kaltura

Kaltura is a New York-based open source video platform. Founded in 2006, the company specialises in managing, publishing and distributing video content. After winning the People’s Choice award at San Francisco’s TechCrunch 40 conference, Kaltura went from strength to strength – winning ever more awards, establishing valuable partnerships (not least with the New York Public Library) and securing a catalogue of high-end clients (WordPress, Bank of America, Harvard and HBO). And, due to its phenomenal performance in 2013, the company has recently secured $47 million of additional funding. The startup to end all startups.  

2. Pandora

Pandora is a US based music streaming and music recommendation service which tailors stations to suit its listeners’ preferences. Although currently available only in the US, Australia and New Zealand, its popularity has soared since being founded in 2000 – with the service being used by over 200 million people as of April 2013. Focusing on end-user experience, Pandora gives its users the ability to listen to their very own radio station – each playing exclusively what the listener considers to be the “good stuff”, none of the junk.

3. Taboola

Taboola, the company with only 120 employees, makes $100 million revenue, making it one of the highest revenue generating companies per employee in the world. By offering users a way to discover content that’s interesting to them, Taboola cleverly siphons out some of the internet’s “white noise” based each user’s feedback. The more you use it, the better the service you receive. What could be more inviting than that? Well, with 1.9 million views every day, it seems like as large portion of the public can’t think of much.