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.
Oakland - California, U.S.A. - Canada
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Education • BioTech • FinTech (& Financials services) • Woman Focused • Productivity
Dr. Brian Dixon serves as Venture Partner at Elm Street Ventures. He also serves as the Chief Executive Officer of BioRelix, Inc. Prior to joining BioRelix in October 2007, Dr. Dixon served as Vice President with Bayer HealthCare in West Haven Connecticut. In that position, he led a multi-disciplinary organization of up to 130 employees that delivered state-of-the-art expertise in oncology biomarker discovery, new lead discovery, research drug formulation, pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism to Bayer's global R&D business. In addition, he held leadership roles in R&D licensing initiatives, strategic alliances and cross divisional collaborations in translational medicine. From 1998 to 2001, Dr. Dixon directed Bayer drug discovery efforts in both the Osteoporosis and Oncology therapeutic areas. He serves as a Director of BioRelix, Inc. Dr. Dixon was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed post-doctoral training at Harvard University.
New York - Seattle - Washington, U.S.A.
BioTech • Businesses Solutions • A.I. (& Big Data) • Robotics
General Partner at IA Ventures
What I look for
Pre-product market fit companies making the world suck less by delivering magical-seeming solutions to important and difficult problems. And appeal to a rational economic buyer.
Founders who are customer domain experts with a formidable strategic understanding of, and an ambitious non-obvious take on, a fast growing market.
Companies benefiting from a massive fundamental trend. Ones where the market will continue to blossom over the next 10+ years. For example:
DataDog and DigitalOcean benefit from the incredible growth of new software developers,
Kepler benefits from the burgeoning space economy & software-defined satellites,
DataRobot benefits from the importance of ML and the desire to democratize it,
Coiled benefits from Python becoming the defacto language of data science/engineering,
Canvas benefits from the move to value-based health care, and
Vectra benefits from the rise of AI, the move to the cloud, and the increasing sophistication of security attacks.
Companies with audacious visions that can deliver an MVP and have many collisions with the market in the 12 months following our initial investment because distribution matters as much as product. Ones that can get to fast-growing, high-margin, scalable, and repeatable revenue within 18 months.
Companies that have a thesis about how they can be a 70%+ gross margin business with an accelerating advantage that enable them to capture the majority of the market and resulting economics.
Founders that display clarity, courage, & urgency (clarity of speech == clarity of thought). Ones who are relentlessly resourceful and can attract the talent to achieve the vision.
How I like to invest
Provide enough runway. 24+ months of capital (thoughts on burn and team size at the seed stage) to build team, product, demonstrate the irrefutable product-market fit needed to raise the next round from a great investor.
Have enough conviction to do the whole round. No lead investor should make founders scavenge to fill out the round.
Value great syndicate members over ownership. The right syndicate can change the complexion of a company. Bottom line is the founder has the final say as to the right raise and right syndicate — keeping in mind it’s in both our interests to have a small focused group of truly helpful investors.
Hold an additional amount in reserve from the outset in case the company needs a bridge to demonstrate product-market fit. This falls under the responsibility of a true lead investor.
Invest in only a handful of companies a year. New investments should never be “options” or “lottery tickets.” Every investment I make has the potential to change the world, be a legendary company, and return our fund many times over.
Keep it simple (e.g. post-money SAFE) and expect that the time from signed term sheet to money in the bank will be less than 2 weeks.
Pay my own legal fees.
How I like to work with companies
Earn the trust of founders. Founders who believed in me enough to let me invest in their company.
Do no harm. The singular focus of a seed-stage company is finding irrefutable product-market fit. Investors can and do help, but most important is to ensure they don’t randomize founders. Founders know their business better than anyone.
Be an accountability partner. This has an outsize effect on success.
Be aligned. Every round of funding is an experiment. It is important to be explicit about, constantly assess, and evolve the hypotheses that are being tested. The company and its investors must be aligned prior to an investment. I’ve found that the best way to achieve this is for the founders and investors to explicitly define and agree upon the hypotheses being tested with this round of funding (here is an example of a hypothesis document ). That is not to say things won’t change, but it’s much easier when both parties are starting from a place of mutual understanding.
How I like to communicate
Be open. Send me anything you think is helpful or useful. When in doubt, send it. I read every email — if I have something of value to say I’ll respond, if not I won’t. The more information we share, the better we can work together.
I’ve found that the best entrepreneurs send out monthly updates.
Be candid. If I’ve done something that you want me to stop doing, keep doing, or start doing — let me know. I’d rather you be honest with me and tell me I screwed up than keep it to yourself. It makes me better and builds trust between us.
I’m your investor. I believe in you. I want you to succeed. I’ve seen it all (ducks!). You don’t need to market to me.
What I hope for
While each company has its own path to success, patterns do stand out. Generally, within 18 months after our initial investment, the best companies have built the right team, have the product in market and have demonstrated conclusive and irrefutable product-market fit (if you are not sure you have it, you likely don’t).
Once a company has demonstrated product-market fit, actively help raise the next round. Work closely with companies to refine the pitch (here is some great advice). Introduce them to the best VCs.
Invest my pro-rata in subsequent rounds of those companies that have demonstrated success. On average we invest somewhere between $6 and $10M over the life of the best companies in our portfolio. And those companies return 10x++ our total investment.
Boston Massachusetts - Seattle Washington - Pasadena, U.S.A.
BioTech • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Medical Devices (& Hospital Services) • Healthcare (& Wellness) • Consumer • Pharmaceutical (& Medicine)
Launched in November 2011, the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab) serves as a resource for students from across Harvard interested in entrepreneurship and innovation. The programming offered by the i-lab is designed to help students grow their ventures at any stage of development and covers a wide range of disciplines. The i-lab fosters collaboration among Harvard students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston communities. Community members are invited to attend many of the events hosted at the i-lab, to stop at the InnoBreak Cafe (offering coffee and snacks), and utilize the Center's community lobby open workspace and WiFi. For Harvard student led teams whose ventures have progressed to a more advanced stage, the i-lab offers a Venture Incubation Program (VIP) during the Spring, Summer, and Fall of each calendar year.
San Francisco Bay Area - Westport - Connecticut, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • BioTech • Businesses Solutions • Retail (& E-Commerce) • A.I. (& Big Data) • Blockchain (& Cryptos) • Future Of Work • Nanotechnology • Consumer • Woman Focused
Most Interested In
2.12 Angel's focus is on Enterprise Technology. Our goal is to be the "The highest value-add to Founders per dollar invested" - we invest fast (2 meetings, answer at 12 the next day) and bring a lot of services we pay for to support Founders (exec coach, CTO mentor, Sales coaching, Culture and value program, Founder concierge etc.). We invest 100k and made 30 investments in 2021
Not Interested In
We don't invest in consumer, clean energy, and pharma/biotech as those sectors are clearly outside of my 'circle of competence'
New York - Brooklyn, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Education • BioTech • FinTech (& Financials services) • Energy • A.I. (& Big Data) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Blockchain (& Cryptos) • Cloud Services (& Infrastructure) • Developer tools • SaaS • Woman Focused
Partner at Notation
Most Interested In
We invest in pre product-market fit and tech heavy companies based in NYC. We like to lead the first round of financing, typically pre-seed or seed.
Nicholas Chirls is a Co-Founder and serves as General Partner at Notation Capital. Previously, he also served as Co-Chief Executive Officer at Alphaworks. He served as a Head of Investments at betaworks. Prior to this, he served as the Head of Investments at Betaworks.
Boulder - Colorado, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • BioTech • AgroTech • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • IoT (& Wearables) • CleanTech • Blockchain (& Cryptos) • Developer tools • Food & Beverage • Medical Devices (& Hospital Services) • Robotics • Healthcare (& Wellness)
Co-founder and Managing Director, @v1-vc
San Francisco Bay Area, U.S.A.
BioTech • Businesses Solutions • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • IoT (& Wearables) • Cloud Services (& Infrastructure) • Food & Beverage • Logistics (& Distribution) • Mobility • Nanotechnology • Consumer
Most Interested In
New Food & Engineered Biology. Industry 4.0. Transformation of Transportation to New Mobility.
Not Interested In
Life Sciences. Healthcare. Medical Devices. Pharma.
Founder Bridge 37 Ventures • Founder Dorwart Whiskey • Director @intel • Chairman @critical-perfusion • CEO @Alandra•Founder @davannayoga•22 yrs in LatAm & Asia
San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • BioTech • AgroTech • A.I. (& Big Data) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Future Of Work • Robotics • Mobility • Pets • Woman Focused
Most Interested In
We look for founders using advanced technology or unique market insight to attack high impact problems in the real world, across themes like human health, climate & sustainability, manufacturing and food & agriculture. Our investments include Full Harvest, Mammoth Biosciences, Misty Robotics, Renew Financial, Palantir and Assurex Health.
Not Interested In
Entertainment, adtech, retail/ecommerce.
VC @ Claremont Creek Ventures • Investor @palantir-technologies, @badgeville, @snappytv, @flipswap • Founder @orbit-commerce • Worked at @rre-ventures, @in-q-tel, @bina-technologies
San Francisco Bay Area, U.S.A.
BioTech • AgroTech • Energy • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Food & Beverage • Impact • Material Science • Medical Devices (& Hospital Services) • Healthcare (& Wellness) • Consumer • Pharmaceutical (& Medicine) • Woman Focused
Principal at SOSV
Boston Massachusetts - Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • IT (& TMT) • Media • Education • BioTech • Businesses Solutions • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Healthcare (& Wellness) • Investment Management
Founded in 1989, ABRY Partners invests in Business Services, Communications, Education, Entertainment, Healthcare Services, Information Services, Media and Online Media. Since 1989, the firm has completed over $36 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity investments involving approximately 450 properties. ABRY manages $3.5 billion of capital in its active funds. The firm is currently investing ABRY Partners VII, a $1.6 billion private equity fund. Investments in portfolio companies range from $25 million to $150 million, typically take controlling positions.The Senior Equity III Fund is a $750 million fund providing senior equity and mezzanine capital. Investments range from $15 million to $50 million in companies that are either owned by others, or sponsored by ABRY's private equity fund. The Senior Debt II Fund is a $1.2 billion fund providing senior debt capital to media, communications, business, and information service companies. These investments are typically first and second lien bank debt securities purchased in the primary or secondary market.