The United States boasts the largest and most dynamic startup ecosystem in the world, with major hubs like Silicon Valley, New York City, and Boston. This ecosystem is characterized by a strong venture capital presence and a supportive culture for innovation and entrepreneurship. The U.S. continues to lead globally in technological innovation and startup activity, contributing significantly to economic growth and job creation.
As of 2024, the U.S. is home to approximately 77,927 startups. The startup ecosystem is supported by substantial venture capital investments, which totaled around $162.6 billion in 2022. This robust financial backing highlights the confidence investors have in the U.S. startup market, ensuring ample funding for innovation and growth.
Key strengths of the U.S. market include a highly skilled workforce, advanced technological infrastructure, and a culture that encourages risk-taking and entrepreneurship. The presence of major tech companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook fosters a collaborative environment and provides ample opportunities for startups. Additionally, the U.S. government offers support through various grants and tax incentives, such as the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
Silicon Valley remains the epicenter of innovation, driving advancements in AI, biotechnology, fintech, and clean energy. New York City excels in finance and media, while Boston is strong in biotechnology and education-driven startups. These regions are crucial to the U.S. startup ecosystem, offering a wealth of resources, talent, and opportunities.
Cities like Austin, Denver, and Seattle are emerging as significant tech hubs. These cities provide a favorable business climate, quality of life, and are becoming attractive locations for startups and talent. The rise of remote work has further expanded opportunities for startups to access talent from various regions, contributing to the growth of these emerging hubs.
The U.S. startup market benefits from a comprehensive support system of accelerators, incubators, and co-working spaces. Programs like Techstars and Y Combinator have been instrumental in nurturing early-stage startups, providing mentorship, resources, and funding. These support systems help startups at various stages of their journey to scale and succeed.
Despite its strengths, the U.S. startup ecosystem faces challenges such as high costs of living, regulatory hurdles, and intense competition for talent. These challenges can create barriers for new startups and require strategic navigation to ensure long-term success.
The U.S. startup market features a diverse customer base and a culture that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship. The rise of remote work has expanded opportunities, allowing startups to access talent from various regions. The future outlook remains positive with continuous growth and innovation, driven by emerging technologies such as blockchain, quantum computing, and green energy.
The U.S. startup ecosystem is characterized by its resilience and adaptability. Despite challenges, the ecosystem continues to evolve, driven by a strong culture of entrepreneurship and technological advancements. This ensures the U.S. remains at the forefront of global innovation, contributing significantly to economic growth and job creation.
New York, U.S.A.
PropTech • Businesses Solutions • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Medical Devices (& Hospital Services) • Robotics • Real Estate (& Construction) • Healthcare (& Wellness) • Consumer
General Partner at RRE Ventures
Raju Rishi serves as General Partner at RRE Ventures. He serves as a venture partner at Sigma Prime Ventures. Previously, he co-founded Rave Mobile Safety and served as its Chief Strategy Officer. He is a Board Member and Investor at Knock. He also serves as Board Member at Bend Financial, Redox and READY Robotics. He brings to RRE's investment team over 20 years of experience as a distinguished technology entrepreneur, executive and investor specializing in mobility, SaaS, consumer & enterprise software and telecom. A hallmark of RRE is its success in working closely with extraordinary founders and entrepreneurs to help them grow their companies. Rishi brings special expertise in this respect, having founded and led two companies, held executive leadership positions at both early stages and Fortune 50 enterprises, and served as a strategic advisor to numerous startups, two of which he helped to successfully exit. Rishi comes to RRE from Sigma Prime Ventures, where he served as a Venture Partner based in New York. Prior to Sigma Prime Ventures, he co-founded and served as COO and CMO at Rave Mobile Safety, the leading provider of SaaS-based safety solutions employed by schools and state/local governments to keep their community members safe, secure and connected. Previously, he helped to start SwiftReach Networks, a leading provider of enhanced telecommunications solutions for businesses & government. Prior to SwiftReach, he was the EVP of Product Management at Vettro, a SaaS-based provider of enterprise mobile applications for sales, fleet, and service organizations. Earlier in his career, Rishi held executive roles at AT&T and Lucent, where he was responsible for R&D, architecture & product management, and was GM for the international emerging technologies division. He has been and continues to be, a strategic advisor to numerous early-stage companies. He is a graduate of M.I.T., where he earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering.
San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Media • Education • Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • Retail (& E-Commerce) • Gaming (& eSports) • Cloud Services (& Infrastructure) • Online Social • Consumer
Early-Stage Investor & Advisor in B2B Marketplaces
Palo Alto - California, U.S.A.
PropTech • Hospitality (& Events) • Businesses Solutions • Retail (& E-Commerce) • Entertainment (& Sports) • CleanTech • A.I. (& Big Data) • AR/VR • Cloud Services (& Infrastructure) • Impact • Medical Devices (& Hospital Services) • Real Estate (& Construction) • Healthcare (& Wellness)
Founder & Chief Firestarter, K9 Ventures
Chief Firestarter @k9-ventures
Cambridge Massachusetts - New York City, U.S.A.
Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • Cloud Services (& Infrastructure)
Vice President at Hanaco Ventures
David Frankel is an Angel Investor. Previously, he was a Co-Founder and the Chief Executive Officer with Internet Solutions. He sits on the board of many companies and has years of experience in early investing. He was a Board Member at Top10 Group.
Santa Monica - Los Angeles - California, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Media • Businesses Solutions • A.I. (& Big Data) • Advertising • Developer tools • Future Of Work • Online Social
General partner, @upfront-ventures & 2x entrepreneur. Sold Koral to @salesforce
2x entrepreneur. Sold both companies (last to salesforce.com). Turned VC looking to invest in passionate entrepreneurs.
Menlo Park - San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Media • BioTech • Businesses Solutions • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • A.I. (& Big Data) • Web Security (& Privacy) • Analytics • Developer tools
CEO at Gladly, Inc. and Partner at Greylock
Partner at Greylock. Former Entrepreneur.
Denver - Washington - Los Angeles / Southern California - San Francisco Bay Area - New York, U.S.A. - Canada
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Businesses Solutions • Retail (& E-Commerce) • CleanTech • A.I. (& Big Data) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Cloud Services (& Infrastructure) • Aerospace (& Defense) • Mobility • Nanotechnology
Founding Partner at Unshackled Ventures
Most Interested In
Immigrant entreprenuers. We provide 3 things: Your scalable friends and family capital, full immigration support, including sponsorship and stewardship to help you succeed faster. Our goal is to make investment decisions in 3 meetings over 2 hours.
Not Interested In
Non-immigrant founders.
Founder @unshackled - Investor. Entrepreneur. Love being at the intersection of do good, do well.
Los Angeles - Toronto (Ontario) - Berkeley - San Francisco Bay Area - Boise City - Atlanta - New York - Seattle - Austin - South San Francisco - California, U.S.A. - Canada
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Analytics • Robotics • Mobility
Investor & Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur and Investor
Most Interested In
Machine Intelligence Co-bots Market Networks in overlooked verticals AI to improve our healthcare system
Not Interested In
Consumer apps
Founder @direct-local-food, @gsquare-companies • Works at @bee-partners, @boise-angel-alliance • Studied at @stanford-university, @university-of-washington
Los Angeles - California, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • PropTech • Businesses Solutions • IoT (& Wearables) • A.I. (& Big Data) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Logistics (& Distribution) • Medical Devices (& Hospital Services) • Real Estate (& Construction) • Healthcare (& Wellness)
Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital
VC @Pritzker Group Venture Capital
San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Businesses Solutions • Retail (& E-Commerce) • Mobility • Online Social
Brian Pokorny serves as General Partner at SV Angel. Prior to this, he was at Airbnb, where he joined via an acquisition of DailyBooth/Batch. DailyBooth was a venture backed start-up that Brian led for 3 years as their CEO. Before this, Brian was a partner at SV Angel with David Lee and Ron Conway upon the launch of the firm. Prior to SV Angel he was a founding team member and partner at Baseline Ventures, a leading seed-stage investment firm. Before joining Baseline, Brian spent 3.5 years at Google within various positions in the Content Partnerships team and Direct Sales Organization. Before this, he had various roles within sales operations and finance at Juniper Networks, TIBCO Software, and Applied Materials. Brian graduated with a degree in Operations and Management Information Systems from Santa Clara University. Brian is an angel investor in Twitter, Square, OMGPOP (Acquired by Zynga), Tweetdeck (Acquired by Twitter), DailyBooth (Acquired by Airbnb), Milo (Acquired by eBay), Posterous (Acquired by Twitter), Chomp (Acquired by Apple), Milk (Acquired by Google), Bump, Couple, Elepath, MessageMe, and has advisory positions with Ooyala, Stitcher, and Rupture (Acquired by EA).
San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A. - Canada
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • IoT (& Wearables) • A.I. (& Big Data) • Robotics • Aerospace (& Defense) • Woman Focused
Most Interested In
We're the earliest investors you'll ever meet, and never pass because you're 'too early'. We embrace the pre-seed. We are hot on Voice, Market Networks, Industrial Tech, NewSpace, and anything Frontier -- wonky enough for us to spend the time to learn and ramp up with you. We seek founders with Deep Market Insights - you know the problem cold and the solution is bursting from you.
Not Interested In
No discovery apps. No FinTech. No consumer (except for marketplaces). No international, please. No Seed Prime, Post Seed, Series A rounds.