The 2019 State of Startups by First Round

Full story and originally posted at First Round Review

Welcome to the fifth edition of State of Startups. What started as an experiment in 2015 has since become a treasured tradition here at First Round. It's now the industry's largest dataset on what it’s like to run a startup with 3,600+submissions and 190,000+ data points.

The startup world has undergone seismic shifts since we first launched our survey — from the ebb and flow of market trends to important and evolving conversations around topics such as diversity and inclusion, sexual harassment, company culture and the role of tech in society.

To reflect these changes, this year we expanded the scope of our survey to cover not just founders but startup employees as well. Where do the founder and employee perspectives diverge and align? Where are leaders making progress — and where are founders falling short? With 950 total submissions, it’s our most detailed look yet into the challenges of operating a startup, plus new perspectives on the truth behind Glassdoor reviews, compensation packages, remote work and more. 

Our hope is that this mix of mainstay questions, fresh inquiries and added perspectives presents an even sharper understanding of what company builders think, feel, fear and value as we head into 2020. With that, here are the trends and insights that stood out as important or counterintuitive:

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