These 3 Triangle-based startup companies are among the best in the US, Forbes says
The Triangle is home to three of the best startups in the country, according to Forbes.
The businesses, all based in Raleigh or Durham, were included in the publication’s 2025 list of the 500 best startup employers in the U.S.
To earn a spot in the ranking, a startup had to have been an independent company founded between 2015 and 2022, with at least 50 employees.
Forbes — which is known for its rankings of businesses, restaurants, hotels and billionaires — partnered with market research firm Statista to find and assess about 3,000 privately held companies headquartered in the U.S.
The organizations evaluated each startup in its company reputation, employee satisfaction and growth. Information about each company was gathered from a variety of sources, including job openings, website traffic growth, online reviews, blog comments, articles and social media posts.
Triangle companies on Forbes’ list
These are the startups that are among the 500 best in the country:
- No. 282: Pryon, based in Raleigh
- No. 286: JupiterOne, based in Durham
- No. 319: Levitate, based in Raleigh
No other North Carolina-based businesses made the Forbes top 500 list. With two exceptions, all companies in the top 10 spots were founded in California.
View the full list at forbes.com/lists/americas-best-startup-employers.
What is Pryon?
Pryon is an artificial intelligence startup founded in 2017. Its virtual platform collects information from internal and external sources to a business network and provides attributed answers to corporate inquiries, The News & Observer previously reported.
Its clients have included dozens of Fortune 500 companies. As of September 2023, it was valued at more than $500 million.
The founder, Igor Jablokov, previously founded Yap, a startup that he sold to Amazon in 2011. Amazon used Yap’s technology to create its Amazon Alexa.
He moved from Charlotte to the Triangle after he sold Yap and became an entrepreneur-in-residence at UNC-Chapel Hill.
What is JupiterOne?
The cybersecurity startup JupiterOne was founded by Erkang Zheng in 2018 and is now under the leadership of CEO Paul Forte, the firm’s former chief operating officer. Zheng is an N.C. State University alumnus who previously served as the chief security officer at LifeOmic, a health care data firm, The N&O previously reported.
JupiterOne helps companies monitor their exposure across cloud platforms and identify potential weak spots. Companies that have used JupiterOne’s software include Cisco, Indeed, Robinhood and Databricks, The N&O previously reported.
In 2022, the company became one of a few Triangle startups valued at more than $1 billion. Other firms in that category include Pendo, Insightsoftware and Epic Games.
“It was just less than two years ago, actually, when we had our first round of fundraising, and we were tiny — we were nothing and our valuation was nothing,” Zheng previously told The N&O. “I’m extremely proud of our entire team for accomplishing this in less than two years, and I’m excited for what comes next.”
What is Levitate?
Founded by Jesse Lipson in 2017, Levitate competes with companies like Mailchimp and provides more intimate communication tools, according to previous N&O reporting. Think reminders to get in touch with customers, notes on past conversations and analytical breakdowns of outreach.
These services were especially valuable to companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of September 2021, Levitate had more than 2,000 customers including law firms, real estate brokerages and financial advisers.
Over time, Levitate expanded its services, offering texting, social media, AI content creation, surveys, websites, review management and handwritten cards.
Reporting by Zachery Eanes, formerly with The News & Observer, and Brian Gordon contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 11:48 AM.
