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.
Size of the Market
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
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.
Major Hubs
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.
Emerging Hubs
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.
Support Systems
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.
Challenges
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.
Opportunities and Future Outlook
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.
Resilience and Adaptability
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.
Case Studies: Successful Funding Rounds with Angel Investors on Angels Partners
We found 8,497 VC firms in the United states investing in Retail on Angels Partners
Ajay Chopra
Investing in Media • FinTech (& Financials s...
Menlo Park, U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• Auth0:
$120000000 (Later stage VC)
• Turo:
$92000000 (Later stage VC)
• Squire Technologies:
$59000000 (Later stage VC)
• Side (Real Estate):
$36800000 (Later stage VC)
• InfluxData:
$35000000 (Later stage VC)
• Markforged:
$30000000 (Later stage VC)
• Mayvenn:
$23000000 (Later stage VC)
• CrowdFlower Inc.:
$20000000 (Later stage VC)
• Simility:
$17500000 (Later stage VC)
• Bevi:
$16500000 (Later stage VC)
• Cyrus Biotechnology:
$8000000 (Early stage VC)
• Owler:
$4000000 (Early stage VC)
• Genies:
$1330000 (Early Stage VC)
• Thrive Causemetics Inc.:
(early stage)
• Deliv:
(early stage)
• Fitstar by Fitbit:
• Namo Media:
(early stage)
• UpLift Inc.:
(early stage)
• Arize AI:
$19000000 (Series A)
• Arize AI:
$4000000 (Seed)
• Harmonize:
$10000000 (Series A)
• Harmonize:
$4000000 (Seed)
• Bulletproof:
$13000000 (Series Unknown)
• Bulletproof:
$40000000 (Series C)
• Bulletproof:
$19000000 (Series B)
• Zero Longevity Science:
$8000000 (Series A)
• Zero Longevity Science:
$3000000 (Seed)
• Zero Longevity Science:
$1000000 (Seed)
• Grin Scooters:
$20000000 (Seed)
• Holberton School:
$8000000 (Series A)
• Dynamic Signal:
$37000000 (Series E)
• Dynamic Signal:
$25000000 (Series D)
• Dynamic Signal:
$22000000 (Series C)
• Dynamic Signal:
$13000000 (Series B)
• Dynamic Signal:
$8000000 (Series A)
• Gobble:
$15000000 (Series B)
• Gobble:
$11000000 (Series A)
• Thrive Causemetics:
$15000000 (Series A)
• Figure Eight:
$20000000 (Series Unknown)
• Figure Eight:
$10000000 (Series D)
• Figure Eight:
$13000000 (Series C)
• Figure Eight:
$9000000 (Series B)
• Figure Eight:
$5000000 (Series A)
• Birdeye:
$25000000 (Series B)
• Birdeye:
$8000000 (Series A)
• STRATIM Systems:
$30000000 (Series B)
• STRATIM Systems:
$6000000 (Series A)
• EarnIn:
$4000000 (Seed)
• FitStar (acq. by Fitbit):
$4000000 (Series A)
• TubeMogul:
$10000000 (Series C)
• TubeMogul:
$29000000 (Series C)
• TubeMogul:
$10000000 (Series B)
• TubeMogul:
$3000000 (Series B)
• Green Throttle Games:
$6000000 (Series A)
• White Sky:
$8000000 (Series Unknown)
• White Sky:
$11000000 (Series B)
• White Sky:
$5000000 (Series A)
• Bonfaire:
$2000000 (Series A)
• Sociogramics:
$2000000 (Seed)
• Taalee:
$2000000 (Series Unknown)
Ajay Chopra
Menlo Park, U.S.A.
Investing In
Media • FinTech (& Financials services) • Retail (& E-Commerce) • Web Security (& Privacy) • Advertising • Local commerce • Online Social • Consumer
Description
General Partner at Trinity Ventures
Ajay Chopra serves as General Partner at Trinity Ventures. He was a Board Member at Stratim. Since joining Trinity Ventures in 2006, he has developed a reputation as an entrepreneur's coach. His passion is helping entrepreneurs execute their Big Idea. He has over 20 years of operating experience at the senior management and board level with start-ups, private companies and public companies. Prior to joining Trinity Ventures, Chopra co-founded Pinnacle Systems, a seminal media technology company that pioneered consumer generated media creation. During his tenure at Pinnacle, the company grew from start-up stage to a global $350M public company, won several Emmy awards and completed over a dozen M&A transactions before being acquired by Avid Technology. Previously, he was with Mindset Corporation, a computer graphics start-up. Before Mindset, he held various technical and management positions at Atari Corporation, a video games company, and Unisys Corporation, an IT services company. He is a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs, an active group providing support for entrepreneurs and is on the Board of Trustees of the Harker School in San Jose. He serves as Board Member at Green Throttle Games, CrowdFlower, White Sky, Fitstar, BirdEye and Dynamic Signal.
Omar El-Ayat
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
• Faire (formerly Indigo Fair):
$12000000 (Series A)
• Faire (formerly Indigo Fair):
$3400000 (Seed Round)
• Lumi:
$9000000 (Series A)
• Alchemy 43:
$3000000 (Seed)
• Alchemy 43:
(Seed)
• Stockwell:
$3000000 (Seed)
• M.Gemi:
$16000000 (Series C)
• M.Gemi:
$18000000 (Series B)
• M.Gemi:
$14000000 (Series A)
• INTURN:
$23000000 (Series B)
• INTURN:
$10000000 (Series A)
• INTURN:
$4000000 (Seed)
• Packagd:
$6000000 (Series A)
• Stadium Goods:
$5000000 (Series A)
• Birchbox:
$15000000 (Series C)
• Birchbox:
$11000000 (Series A)
• Birchbox:
$1000000 (Seed)
• Dollar Shave Club:
$91000000 (Series D)
• Dollar Shave Club:
$12000000 (Series B)
• Dollar Shave Club:
$10000000 (Series A)
• Dollar Shave Club:
$1000000 (Seed)
• Cricket's Circle:
$2000000 (Seed)
• Draper James:
$10000000 (Series B)
• BloomThat:
$6000000 (Series A)
• Cotopaxi:
$7000000 (Series A)
• Cotopaxi:
$3000000 (Seed)
• Shuddle:
$10000000 (Series A)
• Shuddle:
$3000000 (Seed)
• Glossier, Inc.:
$8400000 (Series A)
• Into The Gloss:
$8000000 (Series Unknown)
• Into The Gloss:
$2000000 (Seed)
• PS Dept.:
$5000000 (Series Unknown)
• Retention Science:
$7000000 (Series A)
• Retention Science:
$750000 (Seed)
• Retention Science:
$1000000 (Seed)
• Bonobos:
$55000000 (Series D)
• Bonobos:
$30000000 (Series Unknown)
• Bonobos:
$16000000 (Series Unknown)
• Bonobos:
$19000000 (Series B)
• Bonobos:
$3000000 (Seed)
• Chloe + Isabel:
$15000000 (Series C)
• Chloe + Isabel:
$9000000 (Series A)
• Darby Smart:
$6000000 (Series A)
• Darby Smart:
$1000000 (Seed)
• Chime:
$4000000 (Seed)
• Wanelo:
$3000000 (Series Unknown)
• HotelTonight:
$4000000 (Series A)
Kirsten Green
San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A. - Canada
Investing In
Retail (& E-Commerce) • Consumer
Description
Kirsten Green is the Founder and serves as a Managing Director & General Partner at Forerunner Ventures. She also serves as the Board Member at Rockets of Awesome, Draper James, Glossier and Outdoor Voices. Kirsten Green is the Founder and serves as Managing Director at Forerunner Ventures. Previously, she was an adviser to TSG Consumer Partners. Before founding Forerunner Ventures, Kirsten was an analyst in the equity research department at Banc of America Securities (Montgomery Securities). Prior to that, she was an associate at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Kirsten graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Business Economics, and she holds a CPA license and a CFA certification. Kirsten serves on the board and executive committee of the Full Circle Fund.
Adam Rothenberg
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
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).
Josh Felser
Investing in Retail (& E-Commerce) • Sales (...
San Francisco Bay Are..., U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• Patreon:
$60000000 (Later stage VC)
• buildingconnected:
$22000000 (Later stage VC)
• ApplePie Capital:
$16500000 (Later stage VC)
• BetterUp:
$12900000 (Early stage VC)
• Fi:
$7020000 (Early stage VC)
• Ease Central:
$6500000 (Early stage VC)
• TrueFacet:
$6000000 (Early stage VC)
• Embark Veterinary:
$4500000 (Seed Round)
• Agentology:
$4500000 (Early stage VC)
• Trizic, Inc.:
$3300000 (Seed Round)
• Nestio:
• HiveWatch (Network Management Software):
• Arrive Recommerce:
$16000000 (Series A)
• Arrive Recommerce:
$5000000 (Seed)
• Xclaim:
$7000000 (Series A)
• Xclaim:
$7000000 (Seed)
• Xclaim:
$4000000 (Seed)
• ClimateAI:
$12000000 (Series A)
• WeaveGrid:
$15000000 (Series A)
• Arrive Outdoors:
$5000000 (Seed)
• Floating Point Group:
$2000000 (Seed)
• The Happy Home Company:
$4000000 (Seed)
• ENSO:
$3000000 (Seed)
• 9GAG:
$3000000 (Seed)
• Message Bus:
$3000000 (Series A)
• Cardpool:
(Seed)
• Infectious:
$750000 (Seed)
• Friendster:
$2000000 (Series A)
Josh Felser
San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A.
Investing In
Retail (& E-Commerce) • Sales (& Marketing) • Cosmetics (& Fashion) • Entertainment (& Sports) • CleanTech • Gaming (& eSports) • Advertising • Analytics • Developer tools • Local commerce • Payments • Mobile Apps • Online Social
Description
Josh Felser is a Co-Founder and serves as Partner at Freestyle Capital. He also serves as Advisor at Catalyst Investors. Previously he Co-Founded and was CEO of Crackle, formerly known as Grouper Networks, a company that uses P2P technology to allow users to share their personal media within private groups. He previously served as Vice President of America Online and as General Manager of AOL's music brands Spinner, Winamp and Shoutcast. Felser was the co-founder of Spinner.com, a leading Internet music destination and served as President until its May 1999 purchase by America Online. In July 1996 he founded Internet music startup, RadioCo (a division of Organic Online), which ultimately merged with DJ.com (renamed Spinner.com). Previously, Felser was a Director of Business and Product Development in the Multimedia Group of U.S. West; an executive with News Corp. and a Manager, Business Development for News Corp.'s Fox Inc. in Los Angeles. Felser received his BA in Political Science from Duke University and his MBA from Fuqua School of Business at Duke. He is also the Co-Founder of FYI Living and serves as Chairman of the company.
Justin Butler
Investing in Businesses Solutions • Hardware...
San Francisco Bay Are..., U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• Tortuga logic:
$2000000 (Seed Round)
• Impossible Aerospace:
$9400000 (Early stage VC)
• Enovix:
• Spell:
(early stage)
• Veev:
• Tenstorrent Inc.:
(early stage)
• Tortuga Logic, Inc.:
• Eclipse Ventures:
(early stage)
• Lucira Health:
(early stage)
• WeR.ai:
• Nex Cubed:
(early stage)
• NarrativeWave:
(early stage)
• Pinscriptive:
• ThinkIQ:
(early stage)
• Exara, Inc.:
• Osprey Data Systems Corp:
• Ubix.io:
(early stage)
• Nucleus RadioPharma:
$56000000 (Series A)
• Nucleus RadioPharma:
$6000000 (Seed)
• Cellares:
$260000000 (Series C)
• Cellares:
$82000000 (Series B)
• Cellares:
$18000000 (Series A)
• Capstan Medical:
$31000000 (Series B)
• Watchmaker Genomics:
$40000000 (Series A)
• Syng:
$49000000 (Series A)
• Safely You:
$20000000 (Series A)
• Rune Labs:
$23000000 (Series A)
• BrightInsight:
$100000000 (Series C)
• BrightInsight:
$40000000 (Series B)
• BrightInsight:
$25000000 (Series A)
• Common Networks:
$25000000 (Series B)
• Common Networks:
$7000000 (Series A)
• Common Networks:
$2000000 (Seed)
• Tortuga logic, Inc. dba Cycuity:
$2000000 (Seed)
Raj Kapoor serves as the Chief Strategy Officer at Lyft. He is also the Head of Business for Lyft's self-driving division. He is the co-founder and CEO of Mayfield portfolio company fitmob, a mobile company that is re-inventing the gym through social/local workouts. He serves as board advisor at ClassPass. He also currently serves as Venture Advisor & Managing Director to Mayfield Fund. He has been working in the internet/mobile/interactive space for 21 years. He started in interactive TV at Bell Atlantic, founded the internet club at Harvard Business School, was an early employee at @Home, and later ran e-commerce services at Excite@Home. He co-founded Snapfish in 1999 as CEO and then sold the company to Hewlett Packard for $300 million. His next venture took him to Mayfield, where he invested in 12 companies including Lyft, Qunar, Red Beacon/Home Depot, and Rubicon Project.
Charles Moldow
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Charles Moldow serves as General Partner at Foundation Capital. He serves as Member of Board of Directors at LendingHome, States Title and CoverWallet. He served as Board Member & Advisor at BTCJam. He has a background in general management, sales, marketing, product management, and business development. Before coming to Foundation Capital, he was part of two teams that successfully built companies from early start-up through greater than $100 million in sales and exits near or above a billion dollars. Charles has made fourteen investments since joining Foundation, of which five have been acquired: PowerSet to Microsoft; Xoopit to Yahoo!; Adwhirl to Google; Weblistic to Spot Runner and Therative to Phillips. Charles' current portfolio includes: BancBox, CloudOn, Copious, Everyday Health, Fanhood, Utah Street Labs, HomeRun, Adroll, Motif Investing, Revel Touch, and SunRun. Prior to Foundation, Charles spent five years with Tellme Networks and was a member of the founding executive team. While there, he led Tellme in raising one of the largest private financing rounds in the country post-Internet bubble, adding $125 million in cash to the company balance sheet during tough market conditions in August, 2000. Tellme was acquired by Microsoft in 2007 for $760 million. Prior to Tellme, Charles was a member of the founding team of Internet access provider Home Network. In 1996, he established the @Media division and over the ensuing three years helped establish Media as the leading broadband media provider. In 1997 the company went public. A year later, Charles assisted in the $7 billion acquisition of Excite Network. Prior to that, Charles spent three years in the Mergers and Acquisitions practice at Merrill Lynch. Charles holds a BS degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and received his MBA from Harvard University. He serves as an Advisor at VSL Partners. He also serves as a Board member at Grabr.
Anna Barber
Investing in Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) &b...
Los Angeles - California, U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• JoyHub:
$120000 (Pre Seed Round)
• Humata:
$4000000 (Seed)
• Source:
$9000000 (Series A)
• Upwards:
$12000000 (Series A)
• PathMatch:
$2000000 (Pre Seed)
• WeeCare, Inc.:
$12000000 (Series A)
• Suma Wealth:
$2000000 (Pre Seed)
• Suma Wealth:
$1000000 (Pre Seed)
• ChargerHelp!:
$1500000 (Seed)
• Ayana Therapy:
$120000 (Pre Seed)
• Shop Latinx:
$120000 (Pre Seed)
• StatsHelix:
$120000 (Pre Seed)
• Preveta:
$120000 (Convertible Note)
• Sike Insights:
$120000 (Pre Seed)
• Lactation Lab:
$120000 (Pre Seed)
• Pod People:
(Pre Seed)
• CLLCTVE:
$120000 (Pre Seed)
• Revolution RE:
$120000 (Pre Seed)
• Repeat:
$2000000 (Seed)
• LIV:
$120000 (Seed)
• Blue Fever:
$480000 (Pre Seed)
Anna Barber
Los Angeles - California, U.S.A.
Investing In
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Retail (& E-Commerce) • CleanTech • A.I. (& Big Data) • Future Of Work • Human Resources • Music • Consumer • Woman Focused
Description
Most Interested In
-B2B marketplaces
- solving unsold inventory
- future of work, disintermediating education, consumer fintech, digital health
- environmental security: climate tech
- retail experience innovation
- social impact
Not Interested In
Biotech; hardware; cannabis; martech
Brendan Dickinson
Investing in Retail (& E-Commerce)
New York - City, U.S.A.
Previous Investments
• Apartment List:
$50000000 (Later stage VC)
• Leanplum:
$47000000 (Later stage VC)
• MindTickle:
$27000000 (Later stage VC)
• Uncommon Co.:
$18000000 (Early stage VC)
• UrbanSitter:
$17000000 (Later stage VC)
• ClimaCell Inc.:
$15000000 (Early stage VC)
• Genome Medical:
$11000000 (Early stage VC)
• Arbe Robotics:
$9000000 (Early stage VC)
• Ascendify:
$9000000 (Early stage VC)
• Pathios Therapeutics:
$8800000 (Early stage VC)
• ExecThread:
$6500000 (Later stage VC)
• BoostUp.ai:
$6250000 (Early stage VC)
• Mynd:
$5000000 (Later stage VC)
• Homeis:
$4000000 (Seed Round)
• NatureBox:
(early stage)
• JOOR:
(mid stage)
• Marvin.:
$15000000 (Series A)
• RenoFi:
$14000000 (Series A)
• RenoFi:
$6000000 (Series A)
• Earnipay:
$4000000 (Seed)
• Clara:
$5000000 (Series A)
• Embroker:
$100000000 (Series C)
• Embroker:
$28000000 (Series B)
• Embroker:
$12000000 (Series A)
• Taptap Send:
$13000000 (Series A)
• Ladder:
$38000000 (Series C)
• Ladder:
$30000000 (Series B)
• Ladder:
$14000000 (Series A)
• Even Financial:
$25000000 (Series Unknown)
• Even Financial:
$16000000 (Series A)
• Even Financial:
$6000000 (Seed)
• Quantum Circuits:
$18000000 (Series A)
Brendan Dickinson
New York - City, U.S.A.
Investing In
Retail (& E-Commerce)
Description
General Partner at Canaan
invests in startups that are changing the world with code in the FinTech (& Financials services), e-commerce and frontier tech sectors + built Canaan’s investment thesis in insurance and passionate about companies that re-imagine how financial services products are purchased and sold
+8,497
