🪴 5 graphs every founder should see

This edition’s a bit different, I’m keeping it light, visual, and packed with random, skimmable data nuggets you didn’t know you needed. Use at your own convenience (my favourite use: fun facts to impress, or confuse people at your next party)

Shoutout to Carta and my friend Peter, the LinkedIn’s data storyteller behind all these. He writes almost daily, this collection is just from the past two weeks. Go follow him for more.

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💭 TL;DR

🏙️ Series A valuation across different cities

In Silicon Valley, the median Series A valuation for software startups hit $63.9M in 2024. In San Diego? $41.7M.

Why the gap?

Two big reasons: Bay Area rounds are bigger, and founders there avoid heavy dilution. Plus, intense competition for deals in Silicon Valley drives valuations higher—especially in AI.

But it’s not just about geography. Even within a single city, valuations vary widely. No two deals are the same.

Location matters, but so do the dynamics of supply, demand, and sector focus. Your context shapes your valuation way more than just a geolocation.

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🚶🏽‍♂️‍➡️ Are VCs really reluctant to fund solo-founders?

VCs love cofounders, and the data backs it up.

Solo founders are rising: 10 years ago, just 17% of startups on Carta had one founder. Today, it's closer to 30%. But raising VC cash as a solo act? Still rare.

From 2015–2024:

• 25% of startups had one founder.

• Only 18% raised a priced round.

• Just 12% became unicorns.

Teams of 2 founders hold steady, while larger teams dominate later-stage successes.

AI's solo-founder-friendly wave hasn’t shifted the numbers much. The elusive $1B startup with no VC funding? Still waiting on that one.

🔮 Will startup headcount grow in 2025?

The biggest story in venture-backed startups? Headcount.

Or rather, the lack of it. For 20 months, net headcount growth across the sector has been flat.

Here’s the breakdown:

• 2019-2020: +284K jobs

• 2021-2022: +582K jobs

• 2023-2024: +11K jobs

Why?

Rising interest rates, tighter budgets, layoffs, and fewer backfills. Efficiency is the new norm, whether driven by AI or cautious growth. Startups are hiring fewer people, and even early-stage growth isn’t offsetting the drop at later stages.

Will headcount surge once funding returns? The answer could define 2025.

🦄 New startup unicorns by year

Will we get 100 new unicorns by the end of 2024?

So far, 67 startups on Carta have crossed the $1B valuation mark, with numbers rising each quarter. For context, Carta tracks 638 US unicorns, while Crunchbase counts 763 - 84% overlap.

How many unicorns really deserve the title?

In 2021, we saw 308 new US unicorns, nearly one a day. Three years later, 15% have fallen below $1B. Others clung to unicorn status despite down rounds or avoided fundraising altogether.

Question is, will the AI-agent boom lead to better outcome, or just repeat the same 2021 hype?

🌱 Seed and Series A round sizes raised in 2024

Seed:

• Cybersecurity: $5.2M median

• Web3: $5M

• Hardware: $4.6M

• SaaS: $4M

• Biotech: $3.8M

Series A:

• Renewables: $15.3M median

• Cybersecurity: $15M

• Hardware: $13.8M

• SaaS: $12M

• Biotech: $11.5M

Once again, thanks for Peter for putting all these together.

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