BizFeed: Fortune’s No.1 Workplace for Millennials is a Chester Company You Probably Never Heard Of

Downtown Chester, Pa. on the Avenue of the States. (Wikimedia Commons)

The No. 1 Workplace for Millennials is based in Chester

The News: After surveying nearly 90,000 employees under 35 years old, Fortune and Great Place to Work have released its list of the Top Workplaces for Millennials. The No. 1 company (drumroll please) … Power Home Remodeling Group, an exterior home remodeling company based in Chester, Pa.

From Fortune:

The No. 1 company on our list is known for a culture that puts people first and kick-starts the careers of young workers by helping them try different roles and advance quickly. What started in 1992 as a single regional home remodeling installer in Pennsylvania has become a sprawling organization with offices across the U.S. And the two millennials who launched the expansion, in 2008, are now the co-CEOs.

Why It Matters: It’s nice to see a local company get the top spot but isn’t it more fun (and profitable) for a millennial to land a gig at coveted tech titans like Google, Apple or Yelp? No says Fortune. In an extended profile of Power Home Remodeling, Fortune says that millennials love working for the company, especially since both co-CEOs are millennials and that 84 percent of its staff fall into the age bracket as well.

Comments gathered by Great Place to Work indicate that 99% of Power employees have “great pride” in the company and feel they have “great bosses,” while 100% say that Power offers “great challenges” — an important motivator for the millennial generation. “We challenge our people, that’s a big part of our culture,” says [co-CEO Asher] Raphael. “We don’t want to just find great people, we want to challenge them to get better.” One employee told Great Place to Work, “The culture in this company is unreal.”

Other local companies that made the list:

48. Annie Mac Home Mortgage (Mount Laurel, N.J.)

63. Automotive Resources International (Mount Laurel, N.J.)

95. Toll Brothers (Horsham, Pa.)

2. Nearly 30 Percent of Americans Have No Savings

The News: Nearly three in 10 Americans (29 percent) have no emergency savings, according to a new study by Bankrate.com. That’s the highest percentage since Bankrate began keeping the stat five years ago.

Why It Matters: Americans had better start feeding their piggy banks or face a slippery slope of poor personal finances.

From NBC News:

The culprit is a lag in income growth, which has failed to increase even as stocks and home prices have recovered. “The missing link in the economic recovery over the last few years has been the lack of growth in household income,” said Bankrate chief financial analyst Greg McBride. “That makes it very difficult for people to ramp up their savings.”

And every time the car dies, an appliance breaks down or an unexpected medical expense crops up, families’ funds dwindle without being replaced. “When you combine tight household budgets with the inevitability of unexpected expenses… they’ve wiped it out completely, or they have less than what they had a few years ago,” McBride said.

3. MC Hammer is One of the Top Celebrity Venture Capitalists

The News: Inc. published its list of the top celebrity startup investors and it featured some obvious names like Ashton Kutcher (Skype, Flipboard) and Magic Johnson (Detroit Venture Partners). But MC Hammer made the list at No. 10. Didn’t he go broke back in the 1990s? Apparently, he’s doing just fine.

From Inc.:

Stanley Kirk Burrell, known professionally as MC Hammer, has quietly had a presence in Silicon Valley as an adviser and investor for more than a dozen years. Back in the early 2000s, when Pandora was still called Savage Beast, Hammer coached founder Tim Westergren for meetings with music executives, according to Billboard. Among the musician’s investments are in contact-sharing app Bump Technologies, mobile payment company Square, and magazine app Flipboard.

Why It Matters: Sure, a singer or actor might not know much about the venture capital world but when they get involved, people notice. It’s just the kind of thing that can give a funding round a serious push.