Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Techstars has just released its “2024 State of Innovation Survey.”

In the introduction written by David Cohen, the organization’s Co-Founder and recently named Chief Executive Officer, he writes that, “as the ‘Great Venture Capital Reset’ continues, this year’s survey returned to many of the topics we covered in 2023, and added some new questions to get to the heart of the global innovation economy and find out what it’s really like to be a founder (and VC) today.”

The survey generated 1,550 responses, and Cohen highlighted seven in his introduction.

• IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) are out: Entrepreneurs are no less ambitious, but those ambitions are less likely to include an IPO. With fewer start-ups going public overall, just 15 percent of all the founders surveyed say their primary long-term goal for their start-up is to go public. One third (34 percent) say their goal is to be acquired by Big Tech or a large corporation, while a similar number (30 percent) would opt to remain private/independent.
• Start-up culture is nose-to-the-grindstone: In a tight market, nothing less than utter conviction and a flat-out approach are required to beat the odds. This is reflected in the hours entrepreneurs work, with nearly one-third (31 percent) working at least 60 hours per week, and almost one in five (17 percent) working 70 hours or more.
• Nearly half of founders have experienced anxiety in the past year: How well can start-ups truly serve their customers if founders are suffering poor mental health? Long hours and an always-on mindset are clearly taking a toll throughout the industry. With respondents (entrepreneurs and VCs) able to check as many boxes as are applicable to them, 45 percent say they have experienced anxiety in the past year, with 23 percent experiencing “depression.”
• Founder flywheel – entrepreneurs keep coming back for more: A pattern of entrepreneurs going on to found other start-ups continues apace, showing how momentum within an ecosystem becomes self-sustaining. Three-quarters (79 percent) of current entrepreneurs have worked for other start-ups, while 44 percent say that at least some co-workers have gone on to establish other start-ups.
• As artificial intelligence (AI) proliferates, the majority of founders still focus on other tech: Despite AI being the megatrend of the moment, the majority (60 percent) of founders surveyed worldwide are not building an AI solution. However, 33 percent are using AI as an enabler of their business and 41 percent say the technology is a direct component of their business.
• The Valley still rules, but Asia is on the march: Almost half (48 percent) of entrepreneurs and VCs believe Silicon Valley will still be the world’s most innovative hub five years from now, up three percent from last year’s survey. However, the great Asian cities are gradually making up ground, thereby confirming the shift towards a more multipolar technology world. Overall, there are five Asian cities in the top 10, vs. three U.S. hubs.
• The U.S. will see the greatest spike in new start-ups, as Africa eclipses
  Europe: Entrepreneurs and VCs in 2024 (29 percent) are significantly more likely to believe North America will see the greatest spike in new start-ups (vs. 22 percent in 2023). But a surging U.S. is only part of the story. Nearly three times as many respondents (17 percent) predict that Africa will produce the most startups this year compared to Western Europe (down 4 to 6 percent).

To download the full report, click here.

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