Prior Colleagues Underperform Strangers: Founding teams who had worked together before achieved a median exit valuation of $2.3B, compared to $2.9B for teams with no prior work history - a 21% gap that directly contradicts the conventional wisdom that shared history de-risks a partnership.

Prior Exit Experience Nearly Doubles IPO Outcomes: Among IPO outcomes in the dataset, teams where at least one founder had previously built and exited a company reached a median valuation of $5B, versus $2.6B for teams without prior exits. CEO startup experience alone added a 41% premium ($3.8B vs. $2.7B median at IPO).

Solo Founders Nearly Disappear at the Top: While 82% of all $1B+ exits came from teams of 2+, among the top 5% of exits (valued between $24B and $98B), only one was led by a solo founder. Solo-founded companies also take roughly three years longer to reach a liquidity event.

7,300+ Open PM Roles at a 3-Year High: Open product management roles at tech companies globally now exceed 7,300 and are already up nearly 20% since the start of 2026 — sitting 75% above the trough hit in early 2023 and at the highest level since 2022.

67,000+ Engineering Openings with No AI Slowdown (Yet): There are more than 67,000 open engineering roles globally (26,000 in the U.S. alone), and the rate of increase has been accelerating since the start of the year. Recruiter demand is almost back to 2022 peak levels — a leading indicator that sustained hiring demand is real.

AI Roles Are Hockey-Sticking: AI-specific roles — defined as all positions at AI-native companies plus AI-focused roles at traditional tech firms — are growing at an accelerating rate well above any other job category. Design roles, by contrast, have plateaued entirely.

Outbound and Partner/Ecosystem Lead All Growth Categories: Intent-based outbound and ABM each account for 20% of the most impactful growth experiments reported by GTM leaders, with AI now enabling far more precise account targeting. Partner and ecosystem tactics, including B2B influencers and co-marketing, tied at the same level.

AI Discovery Is Emerging as a High-Intent Channel: AI discovery now accounts for 12.7% of high-intent leads at companies like Docebo (up 429% year-on-year) and 10% of signups at Webflow (up 4x year-on-year). Late-funnel SEO is proving to be the foundation for strong answer engine optimization (AEO).

Events and Community Drive 16% of Top Growth Experiments: Despite (or because of) the digital-first environment, in-person and community-led tactics ranked third overall among GTM leaders' highest-impact experiments — ahead of product-led growth motions (10%), paid advertising (6%), and product launches (8%).

Most LPs in Recent Vintage Funds Are Still Waiting: More than half of 2020-vintage funds have now begun generating DPI, but for 2021 and 2022 vintages that rate sits at roughly one-third and one-quarter respectively. The median DPI for 2017-vintage funds, the oldest in the dataset, was just 0.27x, meaning even the most mature funds have returned only a fraction of invested capital.

The 3x Return Threshold Remains Rare and Power-Law-Distributed: In the 2019 vintage, the 90th-percentile TVPI was 3.01x while the median sat at just 1.33x. The gap between top-decile and median performance is far larger than any other performance band and widens further back in time.

Secondary Markets Are Filling the Liquidity Gap: VC secondary transaction volume reached an estimated $61.1B in the 12 months from July 2024 through June 2025, surpassing VC-backed IPO proceeds of $58.8B over the same period. Active VC funds may ultimately take 15 to 20 years to fully return capital to LPs in the current extended-hold environment.