Award-winning Irish cosmetics brand Sculpted by Aimee founded by makeup artist Aimee Connolly named as the top Irish start up on LinkedIn’s 2023 Top Start-ups List for Ireland.
LinkedIn’s 2023 Top Start-ups List for Ireland recognises the top 10 most sought-after start-ups to work for in the country.
The rankings are based on analysis of LinkedIn data examining millions of actions generated by LinkedIn’s two million members in Ireland across four pillars: employee growth; job interest; engagement with the company and its employees; and the attraction of top talent.
“Our start-up’s journey wouldn’t even be conceivable without our incredible team, who are the driving force behind Sculpted by Aimee”
Founded in 2016 when Aimee Connolly was 23, Sculpted by Aimee’s 100-strong product range is now sold in-store in more than 400 stores in Ireland, and ships to 68 countries through its website.
The brand has also achieved a number of business milestones in the past year, opening its flagship store on Grafton Street in Dublin and recently opening the doors of its Belfast store last weekend.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be recognised among the many outstanding companies dedicated to relentless growth,” Connolly said.
“Our start-up’s journey wouldn’t even be conceivable without our incredible team, who are the driving force behind Sculpted by Aimee. Our team embodies an unwavering passion and dedication for scaling our business, and it’s truly heart-warming to receive this recognition from LinkedIn for their unwavering efforts that go in every day to make the magic happen.”
Other firms that feature in the list reflect the widespread innovation across the Irish start up scene and burgeoning sectors like the green economy, with cybersecurity firm Tines and offshore wind energy specialist Green Rebel ranking in the top ten.
LinkedIn’s full 2023 Irish Top Startups list is made up of the following companies:
- Sculpted by Aimee – the Irish makeup brand founded by makeup artist Aimee Connolly.
- Tines – the Irish cybersecurity firm that offers security workflow automation software for enterprise customers
- Outmin – the real-time accounting platform for SMEs
- &Open – the gifting platform that makes it easier for brands to send carefully-selected gifts to customers to boost loyalty
- Manna Drone Delivery – the business-to-customer drone delivery company
- Deciphex – a leading provider of digital pathology and AI-powered services for clinical and non-clinical pathology
- Gym+Coffee – the athleisure clothing company
- ICS Medical Devices – an industry leading catheter technology engineering firm
- ID-Pal – the identity verification specialist
- Green Rebel – the offshore wind energy site investigation company
Shining a light on innovation
LinkedIn measures start-ups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase over methodology time frame, which must be a minimum of 10%.
“By attracting the best talent, these firms can drive continued momentum behind their businesses”
Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page, as well as how many non-employees are viewing employees at that startup. Job interest counts rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings.
Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away from any global LinkedIn Top Company, as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce. Data is normalised across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is 1 July, 2022 through 30 June, 2023.
“The ultimate goal of the LinkedIn Top Startups list is to shine a light on innovative emerging Irish firms, and to provide professionals with insights on the roles, skills and functions in demand in these companies,” said Polly Dennison, news editor at LinkedIn News.
“By attracting the best talent, these firms can drive continued momentum behind their businesses.
“Sculpted by Aimee’s performance is reflective of a broader international trend of consumer retail products appearing on this year’s lists.
“The emergence of artificial intelligence is also reshaping the world of work, and we’re seeing a huge uptick in Irish companies that leverage AI to power their business forward. Outmin and Deciphex are just two examples of firms on the list whose innovation is powered by AI, with our data showing that potential staff are clearly attracted to these companies on the rise. Companies in the sustainability space are also ranking highly internationally, and Ireland is no different, with Green Rebel’s presence at number 10 on the list,” Dennison said.
