How we chosen the checklist of firms

On May 25, 2021

The Disruptor 50 list’s mission has always been to identify fast-growing, innovative startups en route to the next generation of large publicly traded companies. But in 2020 it got ridiculous. Twelve of the 50 companies named the 2020 Disruptor 50 are now publicly traded companies. Four more have announced that they will go public through mergers with Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs).

All of these exits meant that the competition for the 2021 Disruptor 50 was more open than ever, and for the fifth time in a row, a record number of startups (1,565 to be precise) took the chance to create our annual list.

Choosing the CNBC Disruptor 2021 50

All private, independent start-ups that were founded after January 1, 2006 were nominated for the Disruptor 50 list. The nominated companies had to submit a detailed analysis that contained important quantitative and qualitative information.

The quantitative metrics included data submitted by the company on workforce size and diversity, scalability, and revenue and user growth. Some of this information has been kept confidential and has only been used for evaluation purposes. CNBC also brought in data from two outside partners – PitchBook, which provided data on fundraising, implicit ratings and investor quality; and IBISWorld, whose database of industry reports we used to compare companies based on the industries they are trying to disrupt.

This year, for the first time, we added a separate category for board diversity, which should be considered in addition to the existing category for workforce diversity. We added this category as one of several steps to add more variety to the list as a whole. In addition to the “Board Diversity” category, we expanded our reach during our call for nominations to include other companies with color founders and their investors.

CNBC’s Disruptor 50 Advisory Board – a group of 47 leading thinkers in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship from around the world (see list of members below) – ranked the quantitative criteria based on importance and ability to rank established industries and public companies to disturb. That year, the council found that scalability and user growth were key criteria alongside the use of breakthrough technologies (most commonly artificial intelligence and machine learning) and the size of the industry being disrupted. These categories received the highest weighting, but the ranking model is designed to ensure that companies need to score high on a variety of criteria to make the final list.

Companies were also asked to provide key qualitative information, including descriptions of their core business model, ideal customers, and current company milestones. A team of more than 70 CNBC editors, along with members of the Advisory Board, read the posts and provided holistic qualitative reviews for each company.

The qualitative ratings were combined with a weighted quantitative rating to determine which 50 companies came on the list in which order.

More coverage of the 2021 CNBC Disruptor 50

The 2021 Disruptor 50 includes 24 companies that are on the list for the first time. They represent innovation in a variety of industries, including cybersecurity, fintech, healthcare, and electric vehicles. Many are driven by social or environmental missions, from democratizing access to financial services to strengthening global food supplies and combating climate change.

We anticipate that all 50 will continue to grow, innovate, and encourage change in their larger, established competitors as we follow them through the rest of this year through to next year. We expect many to become Disruptor 50 companies for several years.

This year six disruptors made the list for the fourth time. Disruptor # 1, Robinhood, made the list for the fifth and final time. The public debut is expected in a few weeks. At # 2, Stripe is a seven-time Disruptor 50 company, only the third company in history to receive this award.

Special thanks go to the CNBC Disruptor 50 Advisory Council 2021 for once again providing us with time and insight. As always, we appreciate your contributions.

Rob Adams, Director Emeritus of the University of Texas Venture Labs

Ron Adner, Professor in the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College

Anita Anantharam, professor at the University of Florida

Edward Blair, Entrepreneurship Chair, University of Houston

Gregory Brown, Professor and Executive Director at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise

Robert J. Brunner, Chief Disruption Officer, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois

Candida S. Brush, professor at Babson College

John Sibley Butler, Chair of Constructive Capitalism, University of Texas

Gary Chan, Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Jim Chung, Vice President Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, George Washington University

Chris Coleridge, Senior Faculty of Management Practice, Cambridge University

Jeff Cornwall, Chairman and Professor of Entrepreneurship, Belmont University

Jason D’Mello, Assistant Professor at Loyola Marymount University

Donna De Carolis, Dean of Drexel University Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship

Monica Dean, Executive Director, Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

Waverly Deutsch, Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago

Judi Eyles, director of the Iowa State University Center for Entrepreneurship

Clare Gately, Professor of Entrepreneurship, EDHEC Business School (France) and Waterford Institute of Technology (Ireland)

Ari Ginsberg, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management at the Stern School of Business at New York University

Michael Goldberg, executive director of the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve University

Michael Goldsby, Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship, Ball State University

Henrich R. Greve, Professor of Entrepreneurship, INSEAD

Anil Gupta, Chair and Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

J. Michael Haynie, Syracuse University Vice Chancellor

Lisa Hehenberger, Associate Professor and Director at the ESADE Business School Entrepreneurship Institute at Ramon Llull University

Keith Hmieleski, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Texas Christian University

Kevin Hoch, General Manager, Education, Duke University

Jim Jindrick, New Business Development Advisor at the University of Arizona

Neil Kane, faculty member, Michigan State University

Jerome Katz, Chair of Entrepreneurship, Saint Louis University

Marie Josee Lamothe, Professor and Director of the Dobson Center for Entrepreneurship at McGill University

Vincent C. Lewis, director of the University of Dayton’s Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership

Rita McGrath, professor at Columbia Business School

Alex McKelvie, Associate Dean and Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University

Scott Newbert, Academic Director of Baruch College Lawrence N. Field Program in Entrepreneurship

Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at the Wisconsin School of Business

Banu Ozkazanc-Pan, Associate Professor of Practice and Director of the Brown University Venture Capital Inclusion Lab

Gerhard Plaschka, professor at DePaul University

Jeff Reid, professor of entrepreneurship practice and founding director of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Institute

Lyneir Richardson, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at Rutgers University

Matthew W. Rutherford, professor and chairman of the Spears School of Business School of Entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University

Albert Segars, distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

John H. Shannon, Professor at Seton Hall University

David Touve, Senior Director at the Batten Institute, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Ari Wallach, Founder and CEO of Longpath Labs

Helena Yli-Renko, professor at the University of Southern California

David Zvilichovsky, Senior Academic Faculty, Tel Aviv University and Professor of Global Modular Courses (GMC), Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

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