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State of Startups 2017 Survey Results

118 points by redm 9y ago

sidcool 9y ago
Sexual harassment is a scorn that refuses to die. In any industry.
- ahkurtz 9y ago
  Because in human history it's unlikely that people who perpetrate it will ever realize and/or admit it. And so it goes.
  - awinder 9y ago
    The numbers kinda prove this point. 35% of these founders believing sexual harassment isn’t under-reported is a problem. That’s how you get here, people willfully living under a rock.
forkLding 9y ago
Had a question about number 7, do they mean that founders who struggle to fundraise also have tendency to make more mistakes or that the struggle to fundraise causes more mistakes? And I guess they meant based on people who fundraised easily or who thought fundraising was easy?
- duncanawoods 9y ago
  I read it as "of those who struggled to fundraise, these are the mistakes they believed they made expressed as a multiplier of those who did not struggle". Makes me suspicious about the presenters intentions because that type of convolution is often to facilitate cherry picking. More charitably, it might be an attempt to give advice to those experiencing difficulty fund-raising about where their problems may lie.
Silhouette 9y ago
I love this one: How confident are you that you're building a billion dollar company? 18.6% I'm certain we will 41.8% I'm confident we have a decent shot 23.2% It's possible, but I'm not so sure 10.1% I doubt it 6.4% Definitely not They interviewed 869 venture-backed founders to get the data. As of December 2017, WSJ lists 168 VC-backed private companies valued at over $1B in the entire world. Meanwhile, how many years until you think you'll be profitable? 14.4% Already profitable 18.3% <1 50.2% 1-2 13.7% 3-5 3.5% >5
- RandomInteger4 9y ago
  To be fair to their sense of confidence, there are a number of billion dollar companies that still aren't profitable, correct?
- mrleiter 9y ago
  #33 What’s the hardest executive hire you've made? (Choose one) 2.6% Finance Well, I see some sort of correlation here. *EDIT: Two options - either there are so many brilliant finance people looking for jobs or finance is not so important (although it obviously should be).
  - mattmanser 9y ago
    A finance employee isn't necessary until you're bigger. Like the two companies I know who have one part-time and mainly got them for Credit Control because they were actually making money and they were in an industry with lots of late payers. The need for a finance executive? Comes when you start getting silly money.
  - saosebastiao 9y ago
    Accounting always was and always will be more important at a startup. Finance is a distraction and doesn’t become important until you’re big enough to care about it.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
sillysaurus3 9y ago
Since 3 out of 9 are about sexual harassment and one is about politics, I was hoping to get your thoughts. These days, people feel increasingly under fire. We have to watch what we say, what we do, who we offend, what our political affiliations are, and whether we are crossing any lines. A little anecdote: I was hacking away on a couch in a mall, and a couple of techies came up to me doing a user study. They asked me whether their flyer might attract customers and what I thought would help. I complimented them that they were out trying to talk to users and thinking of ways to increase their growth rate. Their product looked genuinely interesting, so I asked if they'd be willing to shoot me a text message to keep in touch. This was something I'd done twice before. Both of the times led to getting contacts that turned into a friendship or a lucrative gig. I found myself unconsciously willing that the guy I was talking to would pull out his phone. But she offered first. I gave her my number, and she typed it in wrong. I corrected it, and she wrote a text message but didn't hit send. And I was surprised to feel relieved that she didn't actually text me. This goes the other way too: A female friend's company recently made it to the interview stage at YC, and right away the founder started treating her differently. We couldn't figure out why. Then she remembered he made some joke about having to room together like they were in college. She couldn't help but wonder if her being female had something to do with the awkwardness. But here's the thing. I know what's in my heart, and it's nothing but positive intentions. I'm rooting for equality, and I think everyone who's oppressed or experiencing discrimination needs to have a way of voicing those concerns. How can we relax knowing that our political beliefs determine whether someone will want to work with us? Whether an inappropriate joke might haunt us? Whether a comment like "I don't think gender reassignment surgery on minors is a good idea" will be seen as oppressive and intolerant, and we might lose our jobs for it? What do we do if we want to participate in BDSM but have to live in fear of being stripped of our titles and leadership roles? https://www.sonyaellenmann.com/2017/10/drupal-gor-ayelet.html https://www.sonyaellenmann.com/2017/10/drupal-gor-ayelet.htm... I'm asking openly and genuinely. We should be coming together and finding ways to work as a unit in spite of philosophical or political differences. It shouldn't be a rush to spot someone saying the wrong thing or trying to catch someone doing something inappropriate. None of this is to downplay or excuse any of the awful things that have recently come to light. It's a relief to see it being resolved. I'm merely trying to talk about the other side of the situation. An open source project was looking for a code of conduct to adopt. They were considering the contributor covenant, since babel and other large projects use it. I tried to point out that it was a little controversial and that it may foster a more productive working environment to adopt a different model. The comment was deleted and the PR was locked until it was merged. When ideas can't be discussed, pressure builds. I thought maybe it was just me, but a friend of mine was recently at a risque party, and they said they happened to run into a young male techie. They joked that the party was pretty rowdy, and that there was all this inappropriate behavior going on, even though it was the point of the party. "Honestly," he said, "My biggest concern is running into someone I know from the tech scene." How should we act in an era when one mistake will haunt us forever? Is there a point at which we're being too cautious? Or is it just the smart thing to do? I don't know. I guess I was just hoping we could talk about some of this. It's feeling like people aren't allowed to have flaws.
stuartaxelowen 9y ago
Wait, why are autonomous vehicles not AI anymore?
- d4nt 9y ago
  The general rule is: Nothing is called AI anymore once it works. Like with magic tricks, once we know how it works it seems a lot less impressive. So we stop calling it AI. When you think about it, everything computers do could be considered AI.
  - ganeshkrishnan 9y ago
    > everything computers do could be considered AI. That's like saying everything a human does is art. Ai involves actions by computers which are not specifically programmed
RandomInteger4 9y ago
It's good to see that they didn't go with headache inducing "morphing background color as you scroll" design this year: stateofstartups.firstround.com/2016/
sashok_bg 9y ago
Bullshit PC article about victimized society
PeterStuer 9y ago
Feels like more of a pamphlet illustrating the deranged state of US culture and politics more than anything else.
jansho 9y ago
#53 is interesting! I assumed that there would be more 20-something founders. But 31-35 year olds account for 23%, and 41-50 year olds account for 30%
- k__ 9y ago
  Same here, but on the other hand I never worked with <30 founders. A few friends of mine founded right after university, but that was it. Maybe this feeling comes up because they prefer to hire <30 people because they are cheaper?
  - cyberpunk0 9y ago
    Most start ups want you to have a lot of experience so they don't have to train you. That level of experience isn't found in most people in their 20s. The older age bracket I'd wager are finance and venture capital types. Startups are mostly toys for rich people
    - k__ 9y ago
      Sure, but this doesn't explain why most people working in startups are in their twenties.
      - nwenzel 9y ago
        Is that true? Or is that just what people want to see? Avg age at my company (Series A funded, 50-ish people) is >30. Founders started at 35 & 36. Now they’re not-quite-40 and 40. Your sample size may vary.
        tedmiston 9y ago
        It would be nice to see more data collection here around employees. Maybe AngelList would be a good co to collect it? At my startup, in my late 20s, I'm one of the older employees, excluding founders & management.
      - 9y ago
haaen 9y ago
#9 reveals the prejudice of the authors. It's about founders who experienced difficulty in fundraising because of their sex. Last sentence of that paragraph, in bold: To the 12 men who said it hurt their chances... really?
- Silhouette 9y ago
  I was irritated by that comment as well. Obviously some groups are subject to prejudice more often than others, but measures like reverse discrimination and quotas cause their share of problems for the opposite groups as well. Likewise, some groups may be more subject to unwanted advances at work than others, but again that doesn't mean no-one in the opposite groups is. It's hardly inconceivable that 1-2% of male respondents in a survey like this would have been affected by such issues in one form or another.
- JSONwebtoken 9y ago
  #15 under Complete Survey Results asks "Has your gender helped or hindered your ability to fundraise?" 58.2% said their gender directly hindered them. Unless the majority of respondents to this survey are female I don't see how the numbers can add up if only 12 men make up that 58.2%?
- venning 9y ago
  This quote demonstrates a VC firm (First Round) questioning and implicitly belittling founders who expressed feelings of being discriminated against by VC firms. Really shouldn't be surprising given the rest of the survey results, unfortunately.
anon11082016 9y ago
Are we still pushing the idea that superficial diversity is something to strive for? How about diversity of thought?
- mlevental 9y ago
  those two things go hand in hand.
  - anon11082016 9y ago
    Clearly not, because after all the effort, at least the valley has been making, it's still a cesspool of the same ideology. Even with VPs of dieversity and correct think
    - jaggederest 9y ago
      Part of the difficult of achieving diversity in the startup world is that the first filter everyone has to pass is drinking the ideological Kool-Aid. Tough to attract diversity of thought when you directly screen it out.
    - mlevental 9y ago
      You're begging the question (petitio prinicipii) of whether initiatives have been successful. As far as I can tell tech is still mostly white and male. When it's not and ideologies are still the same then you'll have a case.
Veelox 9y ago
#36 asked "A person's political affiliation would influence how you think about:" If it is possible I really want to see this broken down by political views of the respondent. I feel like that would be a really good data point about if the left wants diversity in thought or not. My hunch is if you broke it down on left/center/right you would see more poltical bias on the left. That said, since SV is so left leaning it might simply be because those on the left can do it and still find good people while those on the right cannot.
- tedmiston 9y ago
  ^ This, but from #51 the Bay Area only represents 38% of respondents (headquarters). Overall, still a huge bicoastal bias, but there's definitely representation outside SV too where the political climate is not as left leaning.

118 points by redm 9y ago

sidcool 9y ago

Sexual harassment is a scorn that refuses to die. In any industry.

ahkurtz 9y ago
Because in human history it's unlikely that people who perpetrate it will ever realize and/or admit it. And so it goes.
- awinder 9y ago
  The numbers kinda prove this point. 35% of these founders believing sexual harassment isn’t under-reported is a problem. That’s how you get here, people willfully living under a rock.

forkLding 9y ago

Had a question about number 7, do they mean that founders who struggle to fundraise also have tendency to make more mistakes or that the struggle to fundraise causes more mistakes? And I guess they meant based on people who fundraised easily or who thought fundraising was easy?

duncanawoods 9y ago
I read it as "of those who struggled to fundraise, these are the mistakes they believed they made expressed as a multiplier of those who did not struggle". Makes me suspicious about the presenters intentions because that type of convolution is often to facilitate cherry picking. More charitably, it might be an attempt to give advice to those experiencing difficulty fund-raising about where their problems may lie.

Silhouette 9y ago

I love this one: How confident are you that you're building a billion dollar company? 18.6% I'm certain we will 41.8% I'm confident we have a decent shot 23.2% It's possible, but I'm not so sure 10.1% I doubt it 6.4% Definitely not They interviewed 869 venture-backed founders to get the data. As of December 2017, WSJ lists 168 VC-backed private companies valued at over $1B in the entire world. Meanwhile, how many years until you think you'll be profitable? 14.4% Already profitable 18.3% <1 50.2% 1-2 13.7% 3-5 3.5% >5

RandomInteger4 9y ago
To be fair to their sense of confidence, there are a number of billion dollar companies that still aren't profitable, correct?
mrleiter 9y ago
#33 What’s the hardest executive hire you've made? (Choose one) 2.6% Finance Well, I see some sort of correlation here. *EDIT: Two options - either there are so many brilliant finance people looking for jobs or finance is not so important (although it obviously should be).
- mattmanser 9y ago
  A finance employee isn't necessary until you're bigger. Like the two companies I know who have one part-time and mainly got them for Credit Control because they were actually making money and they were in an industry with lots of late payers. The need for a finance executive? Comes when you start getting silly money.
- saosebastiao 9y ago
  Accounting always was and always will be more important at a startup. Finance is a distraction and doesn’t become important until you’re big enough to care about it.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

sillysaurus3 9y ago

Since 3 out of 9 are about sexual harassment and one is about politics, I was hoping to get your thoughts. These days, people feel increasingly under fire. We have to watch what we say, what we do, who we offend, what our political affiliations are, and whether we are crossing any lines. A little anecdote: I was hacking away on a couch in a mall, and a couple of techies came up to me doing a user study. They asked me whether their flyer might attract customers and what I thought would help. I complimented them that they were out trying to talk to users and thinking of ways to increase their growth rate. Their product looked genuinely interesting, so I asked if they'd be willing to shoot me a text message to keep in touch. This was something I'd done twice before. Both of the times led to getting contacts that turned into a friendship or a lucrative gig. I found myself unconsciously willing that the guy I was talking to would pull out his phone. But she offered first. I gave her my number, and she typed it in wrong. I corrected it, and she wrote a text message but didn't hit send. And I was surprised to feel relieved that she didn't actually text me. This goes the other way too: A female friend's company recently made it to the interview stage at YC, and right away the founder started treating her differently. We couldn't figure out why. Then she remembered he made some joke about having to room together like they were in college. She couldn't help but wonder if her being female had something to do with the awkwardness. But here's the thing. I know what's in my heart, and it's nothing but positive intentions. I'm rooting for equality, and I think everyone who's oppressed or experiencing discrimination needs to have a way of voicing those concerns. How can we relax knowing that our political beliefs determine whether someone will want to work with us? Whether an inappropriate joke might haunt us? Whether a comment like "I don't think gender reassignment surgery on minors is a good idea" will be seen as oppressive and intolerant, and we might lose our jobs for it? What do we do if we want to participate in BDSM but have to live in fear of being stripped of our titles and leadership roles? https://www.sonyaellenmann.com/2017/10/drupal-gor-ayelet.html https://www.sonyaellenmann.com/2017/10/drupal-gor-ayelet.htm... I'm asking openly and genuinely. We should be coming together and finding ways to work as a unit in spite of philosophical or political differences. It shouldn't be a rush to spot someone saying the wrong thing or trying to catch someone doing something inappropriate. None of this is to downplay or excuse any of the awful things that have recently come to light. It's a relief to see it being resolved. I'm merely trying to talk about the other side of the situation. An open source project was looking for a code of conduct to adopt. They were considering the contributor covenant, since babel and other large projects use it. I tried to point out that it was a little controversial and that it may foster a more productive working environment to adopt a different model. The comment was deleted and the PR was locked until it was merged. When ideas can't be discussed, pressure builds. I thought maybe it was just me, but a friend of mine was recently at a risque party, and they said they happened to run into a young male techie. They joked that the party was pretty rowdy, and that there was all this inappropriate behavior going on, even though it was the point of the party. "Honestly," he said, "My biggest concern is running into someone I know from the tech scene." How should we act in an era when one mistake will haunt us forever? Is there a point at which we're being too cautious? Or is it just the smart thing to do? I don't know. I guess I was just hoping we could talk about some of this. It's feeling like people aren't allowed to have flaws.

stuartaxelowen 9y ago

Wait, why are autonomous vehicles not AI anymore?

d4nt 9y ago
The general rule is: Nothing is called AI anymore once it works. Like with magic tricks, once we know how it works it seems a lot less impressive. So we stop calling it AI. When you think about it, everything computers do could be considered AI.
- ganeshkrishnan 9y ago
  > everything computers do could be considered AI. That's like saying everything a human does is art. Ai involves actions by computers which are not specifically programmed

RandomInteger4 9y ago

It's good to see that they didn't go with headache inducing "morphing background color as you scroll" design this year: stateofstartups.firstround.com/2016/

sashok_bg 9y ago

Bullshit PC article about victimized society

PeterStuer 9y ago

Feels like more of a pamphlet illustrating the deranged state of US culture and politics more than anything else.

jansho 9y ago

#53 is interesting! I assumed that there would be more 20-something founders. But 31-35 year olds account for 23%, and 41-50 year olds account for 30%

k__ 9y ago
Same here, but on the other hand I never worked with <30 founders. A few friends of mine founded right after university, but that was it. Maybe this feeling comes up because they prefer to hire <30 people because they are cheaper?
- cyberpunk0 9y ago
  Most start ups want you to have a lot of experience so they don't have to train you. That level of experience isn't found in most people in their 20s. The older age bracket I'd wager are finance and venture capital types. Startups are mostly toys for rich people
  - k__ 9y ago
    Sure, but this doesn't explain why most people working in startups are in their twenties.
    - nwenzel 9y ago
      Is that true? Or is that just what people want to see? Avg age at my company (Series A funded, 50-ish people) is >30. Founders started at 35 & 36. Now they’re not-quite-40 and 40. Your sample size may vary.
      - tedmiston 9y ago
        It would be nice to see more data collection here around employees. Maybe AngelList would be a good co to collect it? At my startup, in my late 20s, I'm one of the older employees, excluding founders & management.
    - 9y ago

haaen 9y ago

#9 reveals the prejudice of the authors. It's about founders who experienced difficulty in fundraising because of their sex. Last sentence of that paragraph, in bold: To the 12 men who said it hurt their chances... really?

Silhouette 9y ago
I was irritated by that comment as well. Obviously some groups are subject to prejudice more often than others, but measures like reverse discrimination and quotas cause their share of problems for the opposite groups as well. Likewise, some groups may be more subject to unwanted advances at work than others, but again that doesn't mean no-one in the opposite groups is. It's hardly inconceivable that 1-2% of male respondents in a survey like this would have been affected by such issues in one form or another.
JSONwebtoken 9y ago
#15 under Complete Survey Results asks "Has your gender helped or hindered your ability to fundraise?" 58.2% said their gender directly hindered them. Unless the majority of respondents to this survey are female I don't see how the numbers can add up if only 12 men make up that 58.2%?
venning 9y ago
This quote demonstrates a VC firm (First Round) questioning and implicitly belittling founders who expressed feelings of being discriminated against by VC firms. Really shouldn't be surprising given the rest of the survey results, unfortunately.

anon11082016 9y ago

Are we still pushing the idea that superficial diversity is something to strive for? How about diversity of thought?

mlevental 9y ago
those two things go hand in hand.
- anon11082016 9y ago
  Clearly not, because after all the effort, at least the valley has been making, it's still a cesspool of the same ideology. Even with VPs of dieversity and correct think
  - jaggederest 9y ago
    Part of the difficult of achieving diversity in the startup world is that the first filter everyone has to pass is drinking the ideological Kool-Aid. Tough to attract diversity of thought when you directly screen it out.
  - mlevental 9y ago
    You're begging the question (petitio prinicipii) of whether initiatives have been successful. As far as I can tell tech is still mostly white and male. When it's not and ideologies are still the same then you'll have a case.

Veelox 9y ago

#36 asked "A person's political affiliation would influence how you think about:" If it is possible I really want to see this broken down by political views of the respondent. I feel like that would be a really good data point about if the left wants diversity in thought or not. My hunch is if you broke it down on left/center/right you would see more poltical bias on the left. That said, since SV is so left leaning it might simply be because those on the left can do it and still find good people while those on the right cannot.

tedmiston 9y ago
^ This, but from #51 the Bay Area only represents 38% of respondents (headquarters). Overall, still a huge bicoastal bias, but there's definitely representation outside SV too where the political climate is not as left leaning.