Purpose Jobs' Year In Review

What a year! 2023 was a tough year for many startups and tech companies, and so many people in our community (including us) have felt the impact. Even still, a lot of really great things happened in the startup and tech community, and we want to take this time to highlight some of them.

It's been a journey, and we're so grateful for everyone who's been a part of it. Cheers to 2024!

Purpose Jobs 3.0: Over 14,000 Purpose-Driven Jobs

While we didn't change our name or our logo, we did re-introduce ourselves back in September. Purpose Jobs 3.0 is a new era of Purpose Jobs, as we expanded our reach nationally, refreshed our entire website, unveiled an expanded mission, and launched a new and improved job board — over 14,247 jobs this year! Plus, we made these jobs and companies searchable by values and impact. All of this is our effort to continually double down on purpose.

Purpose Certification: 16 Companies Certified

In February 2023, we launched our new Purpose Certification, a simple and powerful way for companies to show prospective employees (and customers) at a glance that they care about purpose and culture. Despite a shift in the market, people are still searching for purpose, especially at work. We were thrilled to certify 16 amazing companies this year. 

New Partnerships

Michigan Founders Fund

We have been so excited to welcome new members into our Purpose community this year. Here are just a few of them:

• Revela — a property management platform that unlocks new revenue streams and boosts margins. It's all about helping property managers serve landlords and residents better and creating great places to live.
• Ann Arbor SPARK — an economic engine in Michigan helping entrepreneurs and businesses succeed. SPARK cultivates a network of business and manufacturing excellence in Southeast Michigan. They helped us share stories about up and coming startups like FreightMiner, A2 Creative Labs, and more.
• Michigan Founders Fund — statewide venture development network supporting high-growth entrepreneurs. In a commitment to fellowship, cultural intention and funding solutions that uplift communities across Michigan, MFF members are startup founders and investors who have pledged 1% of equity, carry or profit into a fund for Michigan-based grantmaking. This year, MFF reached a new milestone with more than 100 pledged members!
• Boon — the one-stop personal and professional growth tool for the modern day employee. They offer 1:1 personalized coaching, group coaching, company-wide seminars and workshops, and more.
• DIMO — a startup on the rise building a global data connectivity platform for mobility. The DIMO devices and DIMO Mobile app, which work with most major car brands, enhance your vehicle's connectivity, giving you data and insights about your car, right on your phone 

We're super pumped for another year of working together. And of course, we've loved continuing to work with our longstanding partners and friends.

Startup Detroit Happy Hour, July 2023

A full return of events!

After partially bringing back our in-person happy hour halfway through 2022, we brought back the Startup Detroit Happy Hour to its regular monthly cadence. We shared drinks, jokes, and LinkedIn profiles at The Brakeman, The Skip, and The Madison Rooftop. It was a blast. 

Plus, in Columbus, we officially teamed up with our good friends at OhioX to host the Startup Columbus Happy Hour on a quarterly basis. We are so pumped for 4 amazing happy hours with Chris Berry and his team in 2024. 

This year, we had 1,837 attendees at our happy hour events in Detroit and Columbus. And we had 752 registrations for our virtual events. 

Chening Duker, Terra Osman, and Deirdre Roberson after our panel at Michigan Tech Week 

We also partnered with Michigan Founders Fund and Midwest House for Michigan Tech Week. Over 1,200 folks across Michigan and beyond came together in Ann Arbor to celebrate and learn more about the rising startup and tech community in the state. It was an amazing event, and I'm super pumped for an even bigger and better one in 2024. 

Finding Balance and more

We know everyone loves videos, so we were pumped this year to launch or first video podcast series as well as two docuseries for our friends at Veeva and Aware. Our videos were viewed over 19,000 times this year! Huge thanks to everyone who chatted with me about finding balance, leadership, purpose, and all that good stuff.

Thank you to everyone who made this year meaningful. From the 26 winners of this year's Purpose Awards to the folks working at the 230 top companies to watch, to the people attending our events and sharing in our slack community, you all make this community what it is. Thank you! Happy new year, and cheers to more good to come in 2024!