The Story
Luke Skurman founded what would become Niche.com in 2002 while a student at Carnegie Mellon University. The original concept was a college ranking and review site, but it evolved into a comprehensive platform for evaluating schools, colleges, and neighborhoods across the entire United States.
Niche combines statistical data with millions of user reviews to produce rankings and profiles that help families make one of life's most important decisions: where to live and where to send their kids to school. The platform now reaches tens of millions of users annually.
The company has remained headquartered in Downtown Pittsburgh since its founding, growing from a dorm room project to a company with over 200 employees and a significant impact on how Americans research education and housing.
What Makes It Pittsburgh
Niche is one of Pittsburgh's quiet tech success stories. While flashier companies get more attention, Niche has been steadily growing for over two decades, building a product that millions of people rely on. Skurman's decision to keep the company in Pittsburgh, where he started it at CMU, has made Niche a reliable anchor of the city's tech community.
The Downtown headquarters helps maintain Pittsburgh's center-city tech presence and provides career opportunities for the steady stream of CMU and Pitt graduates who want to stay in the city.