Three bootstrappers crash the party
Most of this week's movement came from two places: a scoring change that finally gives credit to companies that grew without venture money, and job boards we can now read. Here is what really changed, and what only looks like it did.
The climbers
Column#342 → #98
Score 3.0 → 4.5Steady → Race
Column is a bootstrapped, founder-owned bank. Under the new self-funded rule, a company that grows without a VC round now gets funding credit instead of a zero. That alone lifted Column two zones and into the 100.
PLAUD#272 → #55
Score 3.5 → 5.0Tempo → Sprint
PLAUD is profitable with no disclosed VC round, so it earns the same bootstrapped credit. Add 51 open roles and it lands in Sprint.
DeepInfra#288 → #70
Score 3.5 → 5.0Tempo → Sprint
Nothing changed at DeepInfra. What changed is that its job board became readable this week. Open roles went from unreadable (counted as 0) to 18, and that hiring signal moved it up to Sprint.
Loop#114 → #64
Score 4.5 → 5.0Race → Sprint
A real hiring push. Open roles more than doubled, from 23 to 51, which tipped Loop into Sprint.
Real slowdowns
Viktor#62 → #143
Score 5.0 → 4.5Sprint → Race
The score slipped half a point and Viktor dropped a zone. Hiring barely moved (31 → 29 open roles), so read this as a small cooling, not a stall. On a list this tight, half a point is worth about 80 places.
Simile#59 → #138
Score 5.0 → 4.5Sprint → Race
Same story: half a point lower, one zone down. Open roles went from 10 to 9.
Runpod#84 → #196
Score 4.5 → 4.0Race → Tempo
Runpod lost half a point and moved from Race to Tempo, with open roles down from 30 to 26.
Pushed out, not downgraded
Cresta, n8n, Owner, Scribe and Listen Labs all held their 4.5 Race score. They slipped below #100 only because new high-ranking additions took spots above them. Same pace, more company.
Cresta#89 → #101
n8n#90 → #102
Owner#91 → #103
Scribe#92 → #104
Listen Labs#96 → #110
The chart re-ranks every Sunday.