Results are in
First Round Review’s data-grubbing annual State of Startups survey interviewed 700 startup founders this year. They asked about what it means to be an entrepreneur, if the tech bubble is about to pop, if there’s enough diversity in their field, and tons more. Their results are more than surprising.
Given how many of our readers are real estate tech startup founders and leaders, this data is more relevant now than ever.
This is the second year State of Startups has asked founders and CEOs of startup companies about the nature of tech, funding, and day-to-day operations. Responses showed not only that State of Startups has succeeded in taking a virtual snapshot of fledglings in tech, but that they’re essentially capturing the sentiment of the tech industry as a whole. The most surprising find was that responses changed since 2015.
Here’s what they found:
Startupping a startup
The tech bubble (according to startup founders) is no longer a pressing issue. While last year 73 percent of respondents said that we were in a bubble, this year only 57 percent agreed. In fact, of those 57 percent, 24 percent said yes we’re in a bubble, and it’s close to bursting. 33 percent agreed that they were in a bubble, but that it has a long way to go before it bursts.
91 percent of startup founders said that now is a good time to be starting a company. But 50 percent of those same founders said if they were starting another company today, they would choose a different industry.
Suffice it to say the grass is always greener, and with no additional information on the makeup of industries reflected in the survey, it’s hard to glean advice from that statistic.
Office politics
31 percent of startups will be hiring 1-5 people within the next 12 months.
Engineering leaders are the hardest to hire, probably because most startups agree that engineering drives the company’s culture.
They also make the biggest bucks. Mid Level engineers receive 100-150k in salary and bonuses in over half of startups surveyed, though they tap out at 0-.2 percent in equity at 38 percent of companies.
A quarter of companies spend between 0-$10 per square foot on their office space, and most employees leave between 5 and 7pm on any given day.
Diversity
Teams are mostly male (50 percent of companies surveyed) and 61 percent of boards are all male. When asked why there aren’t as many women and ethnic minorities represented in tech, answers varied widely across the sexes. 49 percent of men believe that not enough women and minorities are going into tech in the first place, while women base the lack of diversity on unconscious bias and a lack of industry role models.
That said, when asked who their tech leader archetype was, 23 percent overwhelmingly wrote in Elon Musk. Only 1 percent wrote in Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, and that comprised of only 5 percent of the female write-ins.
Most respondents believe the diversity gap will close by 2030, and that the demographics of startups will only then begin to reflect the gender and racial make-up of the U.S.
A quarter of these entrepreneurs believe it will take 20 years to balance the race and sex disparity.
View the full report here.
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