First Round State of Startups 2017

STATE OF
STARTUPS
2 0 1 7

About
the
Survey
Every year, we survey as many venture-backed
startup founders as possible to ﬁgure out what it's
like to ...

HIGHLIGHTS

1Half of founders have had personal
experience with sexual harassment.
Over 50% of the 869 founders who took the
survey ha...

2 Women and men disagree on what will help
solve tech's sexual harassment problem.
Female founders' top solutions:
More wo...

3 1 in 3 founders think ICOs can compete
with venture capital.
With Bitcoin and Ethereum hitting record
highs, and ICO ﬁna...

4Politics impact who founders want in
their corner.
25% of founders said someone's perceived
or known political aﬃliation ...

5 Founders remain unfazed
by competition.
Despite giants like Amazon and
Google making bold moves this year,
only 5% of fo...

6 For the ﬁrst time, sales leaders take the
title of hardest to hire.
In 2015 and 2016, engineering leaders
were far and a...

7
Compared to their peers who think
fundraising's a piece of cake,
founders who struggle made the
same mistakes more often...

8 Investors now have the power
in negotiations.
For the last two years, the majority of
founders (64% in 2015 and 61% in
2...

9 2 out of 3 women founders say their
gender hurt their ability to fundraise.
66% of women respondents said
they think the...

10 Good character is the #1 reason
founders pick a lead VC.
By far, good character stood out as
the #1 criterion founders ...

COMPLETE
FINDINGS

On the
Market

1
Is now a good time to be starting a company?

2
Are we in a bubble for technology companies?

3
Rank these technology trends from underhyped
to overhyped:

4
Do you expect it to get harder or easier to raise
venture capital in the next 12 months?

5
Do you think ICOs pose a legitimate alternative
to venture capital funding?

On the
Market

6
If you have at least one co-founder, how would
you define your co-founder relationship?

7
Do you think you'll still be CEO in 10 years?

8
As a founder, how do you allocate your time
percentage-wise?

9
How concerned are you about the
following issues?

10
Which of the following mistakes have you made
in growing your business?

On
Fundraising

11
In your last round, did you raise more or less
than you targeted?

12
How long was your entire fundraising process
for your most recent round?

13
How many firms did you pitch when raising your
last round?

14
Has your company ever raised a bridge round?

15
Has your gender helped or hindered your ability
to fundraise?

16
How challenging do you think it will be to raise
your next round of capital?

On
Investors

17
Over the past few years, do you think power
has generally been in the hands of
entrepreneurs or investors?

18
Over the next few years, do you think power
will be more in the hands of entrepreneurs or
more in the hands of investor...

19
What was the most important factor in picking
your lead investor?

On Exits

20
Compared to today, over the next 18 months...

21
How do you think the number of M&A deals for
startups will change over the next year?

22
If you intend to go public, how long do you
think it will be until your IPO?

23
How confident are you that you're building a
billion dollar company?

24
If you're not successful, why do you think that
will be? (Choose one)

On the
Bottom Line

25
How many years until you think you'll
be profitable?

26
Are you optimizing for growth or profitability?

27
How is your burn rate different now than it was a
year ago?

28
Do you consider curbing burn rate to be a
critical priority?

29
What’s the price per square foot at your current
office this year?

On Hiring
and Firing

30
Is it easier or harder to recruit talent this year
than last year?

31
Are you ahead or behind your hiring plan?

32
How many people do you think you're going to
hire in the next 12 months?

33
What’s the hardest executive hire you've made
(choose one)?

34
What is the average tenure of a non-executive
employee at your company?

35
Have you done a RIF (layoff) in the last year?

36
A person's political affiliation would influence
how you think about:

On
Compensation

37
How much does a mid-level engineer at your
company make (salary + bonus)?

38
How much equity does a mid-level engineer at
your company receive?

39
What’s your policy on employees selling
secondary shares?

40
How much time do employees have to exercise
their options after leaving the company?

On Diversity
and Inclusion

41
What is the male to female ratio of your board?

42
What is the male to female ratio of your
entire team?

43
In the past year, has your company talked
about diversity and inclusion internally or
externally?

44
Does your organization have a strategy to
promote diversity and inclusion?

45
What is the primary cause of
underrepresentation of women and minorities
in tech? (choose one)

46
When do you think the tech industry will become
representative of the general population when it
comes to gender and ra...

On Sexual
Harassment

47
Have you or has someone you know
personally experienced sexual harassment in
the workplace?

48
How big in scope is the problem posed by
sexual harassment in tech?

49
What do you think will be the most effective
way to address sexual harassment in the
technology industry?

About the
Respondents

50
What was your last funding round?

51
Where is your company headquartered?

52
I identify as:

53
How old are you?

54
How long ago did you start your company?

55
How many founders does your company have?

56
How large is your team today?

57
Which sector best describes the type of
company you are running?

58
Which platform are you most focused on?

THANKS
A team of phenomenal people made this year's State of Startups possible.
Many thanks to Andreas Weiland, Jarom Voge...

stateofstartups.firstround.com/2017

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