Cohort 1

1. Build leadership teams of 4-5 ‘true’ CXOs and 7-12 VPs

Distributions of CXOs and VPs by firm size

Explore data by company, by absolute number and by ratio (CXO = 1):

excluding founders

2. Exec team build-out over time

Share of companies with that role identified

1. by funding rounds

exec_role Pre VC Early Stage VC Later Stage VC Exits
CEO 44% 98% 100% 100%
COO 15% 37% 69% 65%
CTO 29% 76% 69% 66%
CProductO 9% 40% 53% 72%
CFO 1% 21% 71% 90%
CRO/CCO/CBO 5% 16% 59% 68%
CMO 3% 21% 57% 76%
CHRO 0% 6% 46% 80%
CDesignO 25% 62% 67% 83%
CDataO 0% 0% 33% 50%
CStrategyO 11% 13% 56% 57%
COperationsO 18% 50% 22% 60%
Chief Supply Chain Officer 0% 0% 23% 67%
Other CXO 16% 47% 51% 69%
VP Engineer 5% 22% 75% 86%
VP Product 3% 16% 64% 84%
VP Sales 6% 30% 72% 83%
VP Marketing 2% 20% 72% 81%
VP Finance 4% 14% 51% 91%
VP HR 2% 9% 64% 72%
VP Design 2% 9% 35% 69%
VP CS 2% 19% 55% 86%
VP Operations 9% 23% 61% 66%
VP Business Development 9% 26% 60% 59%
VP Data 0% 8% 47% 68%
VP Strategy 0% 9% 54% 59%
VP Supply/Retail 0% 5% 67% 93%
GC 4% 13% 62% 94%
GM 6% 37% 72% 89%
Other VP 10% 17% 59% 62%

2. by years since firm birth

exec_role b. 1~3y since birth c. 3~5y since birth d. 5~10y since birth e. 10+ years
CEO 100% 93% 100% 100%
COO 100% 71% 55% 48%
CTO 100% 90% 75% 69%
CRO/CCO/CBO 100% 100% 48% 63%
CMO 100% 67% 62% 63%
Other CXO 100% 100% 53% 65%
VP Engineer 100% 90% 74% 82%
VP Sales 100% 50% 65% 80%
VP Marketing 100% 90% 67% 67%
VP Finance 100% 83% 60% 89%
VP HR 100% 57% 53% 69%
VP CS 100% 75% 56% 71%
VP Operations 100% 89% 52% 72%
VP Business Development 100% 78% 64% 77%
GC 100% 88% 64% 84%
GM 100% 89% 73% 75%
Other VP 100% 67% 48% 67%
CProductO NA 88% 46% 48%
CFO NA 100% 62% 79%
CHRO NA 60% 43% 68%
COperationsO NA 0% 17% 25%
Chief Supply Chain Officer NA 100% 50% 33%
VP Product NA 0% 60% 61%
VP Design NA 100% 45% 76%
VP Strategy NA 100% 37% 77%
VP Supply/Retail NA 67% 58% 75%
CDesignO NA NA 44% 75%
CDataO NA NA 12% 75%
CStrategyO NA NA 50% 50%
VP Data NA NA 32% 27%

3. by years since series A

exec_role b. 1~3y since A c. 3~5y since A d. 5~10y since A e. 10+ years
CEO 100% 100% 100% 100%
COO 47% 86% 60% 59%
CTO 68% 88% 70% 62%
CProductO 42% 82% 57% 67%
CFO 28% 83% 79% 71%
CRO/CCO/CBO 19% 67% 63% 62%
CMO 27% 77% 61% 69%
CHRO 4% 78% 61% 64%
CDesignO 50% 67% 60% 33%
CDataO 0% 0% 41% 80%
CStrategyO 29% 75% 57% 67%
COperationsO 60% 40% 25% 50%
Chief Supply Chain Officer 11% 67% 50% 0%
Other CXO 53% 78% 58% 60%
VP Engineer 36% 88% 83% 84%
VP Product 33% 62% 70% 68%
VP Sales 38% 78% 80% 83%
VP Marketing 34% 69% 75% 85%
VP Finance 30% 92% 78% 84%
VP HR 22% 82% 64% 67%
VP Design 14% 67% 59% 57%
VP CS 25% 88% 73% 69%
VP Operations 32% 75% 55% 61%
VP Business Development 34% 78% 69% 46%
VP Data 15% 50% 50% 38%
VP Strategy 20% 75% 53% 29%
VP Supply/Retail 19% 71% 59% 75%
GC 30% 83% 74% 83%
GM 50% 100% 84% 82%
Other VP 29% 100% 51% 78%

4. by firm size

exec_role a. 1 - 20 a. 21 - 50 b. 51 - 100 c. 101 - 250 d. 251 - 500 e. 501 - 750 f. 751 - 1000 g. 1001 +
CEO 43% 92% 98% 98% 99% 100% 100% 100%
COO 15% 39% 48% 59% 56% 60% 57% 67%
CTO 33% 67% 70% 73% 82% 79% 70% 71%
CProductO 10% 28% 51% 50% 65% 67% 63% 72%
CFO 1% 17% 34% 46% 65% 67% 64% 97%
CRO/CCO/CBO 0% 8% 20% 36% 59% 68% 72% 84%
CMO 2% 25% 35% 38% 54% 42% 64% 85%
CHRO 0% 3% 6% 17% 53% 33% 59% 88%
CDesignO 17% 21% 45% 47% 88% 43% 57% 50%
CDataO 0% 17% 0% 14% 40% 21% 0% 50%
CStrategyO 5% 21% 35% 53% 71% 71% 62% 86%
COperationsO 11% 17% 44% 29% 50% 33% 50% 33%
Chief Supply Chain Officer 0% 0% 11% 12% 33% 0% 100% 50%
Other CXO 10% 46% 51% 49% 54% 62% 40% 83%
VP Engineer 7% 19% 38% 58% 72% 78% 81% 100%
VP Product 4% 17% 33% 51% 58% 67% 78% 93%
VP Sales 3% 14% 39% 59% 74% 76% 75% 87%
VP Marketing 4% 14% 40% 54% 65% 74% 80% 90%
VP Finance 3% 11% 25% 47% 52% 70% 78% 84%
VP HR 0% 8% 16% 32% 59% 72% 51% 79%
VP Design 0% 6% 19% 41% 36% 40% 65% 100%
VP CS 2% 10% 28% 44% 58% 72% 64% 74%
VP Operations 4% 18% 33% 51% 57% 67% 68% 74%
VP Business Development 5% 22% 38% 52% 66% 69% 83% 93%
VP Data 0% 0% 9% 30% 45% 54% 40% 72%
VP Strategy 3% 6% 18% 17% 45% 45% 45% 75%
VP Supply/Retail 0% 17% 36% 37% 80% 82% 62% 75%
GC 0% 9% 16% 46% 68% 71% 80% 88%
GM 5% 21% 42% 66% 77% 88% 88% 94%
Other VP 6% 19% 19% 28% 42% 36% 45% 78%

3. At what point is the first VPx or CxO (ie: per function) hired?

Number of companies hire their first VP/CXO in each stage

1. by funding rounds

exec_role Pre VC Early Stage VC Later Stage VC Exits
CEO 129 85 7 1
COO 30 50 58 7
CTO 89 66 37 3
CProductO 20 29 60 9
CFO 13 43 111 8
CRO/CCO/CBO 8 24 82 11
CMO 17 36 80 10
CHRO NA 7 86 18
CDesignO 6 5 10 2
CDataO 1 1 14 5
CStrategyO 5 5 19 2
COperationsO 4 3 9 2
Chief Supply Chain Officer NA 1 10 4
Other CXO 17 29 27 9
VP Engineer 17 52 105 4
VP Product 11 45 94 6
VP Sales 15 36 66 5
VP Marketing 9 57 99 5
VP Finance 6 28 99 7
VP HR 4 18 106 9
VP Design 3 11 51 9
VP CS 9 21 71 11
VP Operations 10 40 81 9
VP Business Development 14 36 68 7
VP Data 1 11 42 8
VP Strategy 3 7 37 14
VP Supply/Retail 2 10 29 5
GC 5 23 116 9
GM 24 64 85 7
Other VP 8 11 46 13

2. by years since firm birth

exec_role a. 0~1y since birth b. 1~3y since birth c. 3~5y since birth d. 5~10y since birth e. 10+ years
CEO 217 1 1 1 2
COO 39 30 23 46 7
CTO 128 17 20 23 7
CProductO 37 17 16 33 15
CFO 16 32 44 68 15
CRO/CCO/CBO 8 20 26 55 16
CMO 18 32 27 56 10
CHRO 3 5 17 62 24
CDesignO 9 3 3 6 2
CDataO 2 1 1 10 7
CStrategyO 6 6 5 11 3
COperationsO 4 5 3 5 1
Chief Supply Chain Officer NA 1 2 10 2
Other CXO 39 12 5 16 10
VP Engineer 21 40 52 54 11
VP Product 15 27 41 61 12
VP Sales 13 32 31 37 9
VP Marketing 20 33 52 58 7
VP Finance 4 29 42 53 12
VP HR 5 19 30 66 17
VP Design 4 5 14 39 12
VP CS 9 11 29 52 11
VP Operations 20 20 42 45 13
VP Business Development 20 23 28 46 8
VP Data 1 7 16 30 8
VP Strategy 4 6 11 28 12
VP Supply/Retail 2 12 10 15 7
GC 10 25 42 65 11
GM 20 52 56 43 9
Other VP 12 10 13 35 8

3. by years since series A

exec_role a. 0~1y since A b. 1~3y since A e. 10+ years c. 3~5y since A d. 5~10y since A
CEO 217 3 2 NA NA
COO 39 61 1 26 18
CTO 128 41 6 12 8
CProductO 37 28 6 22 25
CFO 16 86 4 35 34
CRO/CCO/CBO 8 49 7 33 28
CMO 18 65 5 27 28
CHRO 3 24 8 31 45
CDesignO 9 7 NA 2 5
CDataO 2 3 4 4 8
CStrategyO 6 14 2 4 5
COperationsO 4 8 1 3 2
Chief Supply Chain Officer NA 4 1 4 6
Other CXO 39 18 4 9 12
VP Engineer 21 100 NA 32 25
VP Product 15 80 2 35 24
VP Sales 13 69 1 22 17
VP Marketing 20 86 NA 40 24
VP Finance 4 75 2 32 27
VP HR 5 53 3 42 34
VP Design 4 23 2 16 29
VP CS 9 46 4 25 28
VP Operations 20 61 2 33 24
VP Business Development 20 56 1 26 22
VP Data 1 22 2 15 22
VP Strategy 4 19 3 8 27
VP Supply/Retail 2 22 3 12 7
GC 10 71 5 35 32
GM 20 105 3 34 18
Other VP 12 21 1 20 24

4. by firm size

exec_role a. 1 - 20 a. 21 - 50 b. 51 - 100 c. 101 - 250 d. 251 - 500 e. 501 - 750 f. 751 - 1000 g. 1001 +
CEO 136 64 16 3 3 NA NA NA
COO 26 33 20 34 13 8 3 8
CTO 95 38 17 21 14 2 3 5
CProductO 25 14 16 20 20 10 5 8
CFO 9 22 26 49 34 14 7 14
CRO/CCO/CBO 3 9 21 37 29 12 4 10
CMO 14 22 18 35 26 4 11 13
CHRO NA 4 3 23 40 14 10 17
CDesignO 6 4 3 3 3 NA 1 3
CDataO 1 1 NA 2 4 1 NA 12
CStrategyO 2 6 4 7 5 3 NA 4
COperationsO 2 2 4 2 5 1 NA 2
Chief Supply Chain Officer NA 1 2 3 5 1 1 2
Other CXO 21 18 8 8 8 7 2 10
VP Engineer 15 28 32 48 26 11 6 12
VP Product 12 19 25 44 26 12 8 10
VP Sales 12 17 27 28 21 6 4 7
VP Marketing 13 26 31 47 33 7 6 7
VP Finance 2 14 19 43 28 16 9 9
VP HR 2 7 19 39 38 16 3 13
VP Design 1 4 9 21 11 6 8 14
VP CS 10 5 13 31 27 12 4 10
VP Operations 10 17 19 42 27 10 3 12
VP Business Development 10 20 23 30 24 8 4 6
VP Data NA 2 2 16 18 5 5 14
VP Strategy 4 3 4 6 15 10 2 17
VP Supply/Retail NA 9 7 14 8 3 1 4
GC 2 10 18 53 40 13 7 10
GM 12 34 33 55 30 11 NA 5
Other VP 6 7 5 13 19 7 2 19

4. At what HC is the first person in X function hired?

Eg Talent/Recruiting (20th), HR (50-60), Finance (25-30), Legal (70-80) - with some nuance by sector etc

1. Employment counts when first CXO/VP was hired by function

excluding founders

2. Employment counts when first employee was hired by function

5.Evolution of team functional-split

by funding round (and by headcount-stages, and by biz model) - see tech/eng drop, as GTM grows

1. by founding round

functions Pre VC Early Stage VC Later Stage VC Exits
product 2% 4% 3% 3%
engineering 20% 24% 20% 20%
design 6% 5% 3% 3%
analytics 1% 2% 3% 3%
sales 6% 7% 8% 9%
marketing 9% 9% 9% 7%
account management 3% 5% 6% 7%
business development 2% 3% 3% 2%
legal 0% 1% 1% 1%
recruiting 1% 2% 2% 3%
HR 1% 1% 2% 2%
general management 6% 5% 3% 2%
finance 2% 2% 3% 3%
administration 6% 4% 4% 4%
customer success 6% 9% 11% 11%
retail 3% 2% 3% 4%
operations 5% 6% 8% 9%
unknown 21% 10% 7% 8%

2. by years since firm birth

functions b. 1~3y since birth c. 3~5y since birth d. 5~10y since birth e. 10+ years
product 2% 4% 3% 4%
engineering 29% 20% 21% 26%
design 4% 2% 4% 4%
analytics 1% 3% 3% 3%
sales 8% 5% 7% 7%
marketing 7% 7% 8% 8%
account management 6% 3% 6% 5%
business development 2% 3% 2% 2%
legal 1% 1% 1% 1%
recruiting 4% 4% 3% 3%
HR 2% 1% 2% 2%
general management 3% 4% 3% 2%
finance 3% 3% 3% 3%
administration 4% 2% 4% 4%
customer success 11% 8% 12% 11%
retail 0% 3% 2% 2%
operations 3% 18% 9% 7%
unknown 8% 9% 8% 8%

3. by years since series A

functions b. 1~3y since A c. 3~5y since A d. 5~10y since A e. 10+ years
product 3% 3% 3% 4%
engineering 20% 21% 21% 26%
design 4% 3% 4% 5%
analytics 2% 4% 3% 4%
sales 7% 5% 8% 4%
marketing 9% 7% 8% 9%
account management 4% 4% 7% 4%
business development 3% 2% 2% 1%
legal 1% 1% 1% 1%
recruiting 2% 3% 3% 2%
HR 2% 2% 2% 2%
general management 5% 3% 3% 2%
finance 3% 3% 3% 3%
administration 4% 3% 4% 4%
customer success 9% 10% 13% 9%
retail 3% 4% 3% 3%
operations 9% 13% 7% 7%
unknown 9% 8% 7% 9%

4. by firm size

functions a. 1 - 20 a. 21 - 50 b. 51 - 100 c. 101 - 250 d. 251 - 500 e. 501 - 750 f. 751 - 1000 g. 1001 +
product 2% 3% 4% 4% 3% 3% 4% 3%
engineering 23% 24% 23% 21% 22% 20% 23% 22%
design 5% 6% 5% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3%
analytics 1% 2% 2% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
sales 6% 6% 7% 7% 7% 9% 7% 9%
marketing 8% 10% 10% 9% 9% 9% 7% 7%
account management 1% 3% 3% 4% 6% 7% 6% 6%
business development 2% 2% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2%
legal 0% 0% 0% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%
recruiting 1% 1% 2% 2% 3% 3% 3% 3%
HR 0% 1% 1% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%
general management 8% 6% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
finance 3% 2% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
administration 4% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3%
customer success 4% 8% 10% 12% 11% 12% 12% 12%
retail 3% 2% 3% 3% 2% 3% 2% 2%
operations 4% 6% 7% 7% 8% 8% 10% 8%
unknown 26% 14% 10% 9% 8% 7% 8% 7%

5. by business model and firm size

6. GTM functions split: Ratios of Mktg:Sales:BizDev:CS.

how many overall headcount per 1 HC in each of these functions

8. The more technical/ back-end driven your product, the fewer PMs you’ll have…

PM to engineer ratio (much lower at database company versus consumer Internet) product = 1

9. RIFs: How many companies experienced a drop in headcount at some point?

When? Which? How severe? Which functions most affected?

10. How many companies specifically experienced drop in headcount since covid (March 2020+)?

As above, how severe, which functions, and to what extent recovered now?

Cohort 2

0. Experience by exec role

Number of years post-bachelor when the current position starts

exec_role mean_year_postedu median_year_postedu
CDataO 16.83333 18.5
CDesignO 19.66667 21.0
CEO 21.56250 20.5
CFO 20.79605 20.0
Chief Supply Chain Officer 19.88889 21.0
CHRO 21.94286 21.0
CMO 18.75207 19.0
COO 18.88095 20.0
COperationsO 17.00000 20.0
CProductO 17.79688 18.0
CRO/CCO/CBO 21.19802 21.0
CStrategyO 16.17647 15.0
CTO 16.66667 17.0
GC 21.89349 21.0
GM 13.03404 12.0
Other CXO 23.37500 23.0
Other VP 19.64706 20.0
VP Business Development 17.11468 16.0
VP CS 18.14737 17.0
VP Data 17.04545 15.5
VP Design 18.51316 19.0
VP Engineer 18.76074 19.0
VP Finance 18.40000 18.0
VP HR 17.75352 17.0
VP Marketing 16.79178 16.0
VP Operations 17.60215 16.0
VP Product 16.56735 16.0
VP Sales 19.09514 19.0
VP Strategy 17.76087 17.5
VP Supply/Retail 21.03797 21.0
NA NaN NA

1. Tenure by exec role (months at current position)

not sure what diffs if any we’ll find (also grouped by function, stage, bizmodel)

excluding founders

exec_role tenure(months)
CEO 43
COO 28
CTO 33
CProductO 26
CFO 28
CRO/CCO/CBO 25
CMO 24
CHRO 21
CDesignO 35
CDataO 21
CStrategyO 25
COperationsO 32
Chief Supply Chain Officer 24
Other CXO 23
VP Engineer 25
VP Product 23
VP Sales 21
VP Marketing 22
VP Finance 24
VP HR 21
VP Design 25
VP CS 23
VP Operations 24
VP Business Development 25
VP Data 23
VP Strategy 23
VP Supply/Retail 24
GC 27
GM 22
Other VP 26
  1. by biz model

2. Secondary Hubs

we don’t have locations for previous job positions, so we would only be able to show the current snapshot of geo breakdowns, but not the trends.

2. Engineering: Higher % of team non-HQ based (ie remote) vs other functions, even where no secondary eng hubs:

% of team non-HQ based, by by functions (current snapshot)

functions numeric.mean numeric.sd numeric.p25 numeric.p50 numeric.p75
product 56% 22% 40% 54% 69%
engineering 63% 18% 53% 63% 76%
design 60% 22% 46% 60% 75%
analytics 60% 23% 46% 59% 77%
sales 78% 20% 64% 83% 94%
marketing 64% 19% 50% 65% 77%
account management 80% 21% 67% 85% 100%
business development 74% 23% 57% 79% 100%
legal 66% 25% 50% 64% 92%
recruiting 62% 23% 45% 63% 77%
HR 62% 23% 50% 63% 79%
general management 67% 22% 52% 69% 84%
finance 56% 21% 42% 56% 71%
administration 70% 20% 60% 75% 85%
customer success 74% 19% 64% 78% 89%
retail 76% 22% 62% 79% 100%
operations 73% 19% 60% 75% 87%
unknown 77% 17% 68% 81% 90%

% of team non-HQ based by HQ location

location HQ_n numeric.mean numeric.sd numeric.p25 numeric.p50 numeric.p75
Other 79 33% 17% 21% 28% 43%
san francisco, california, united states 70 30% 13% 21% 29% 39%
new york, new york, united states 32 33% 13% 24% 33% 45%
london, england, united kingdom 18 30% 10% 23% 27% 40%
los angeles, california, united states 12 37% 8% 30% 39% 42%
berlin, berlin, germany 6 54% 18% 45% 58% 64%
boston, massachusetts, united states 6 29% 12% 20% 26% 37%
paris, île-de-france, france 6 28% 5% 26% 29% 31%

3. Establish hierarchy of eng titles as they scale

Dev, Senior Dev, Principal Dev, EM, ED - look at numbers & ratios in team with scale

Engineering team by level and firm size

emp_cat line Manager Director VP CXO
a. 1 - 20 1 0 0 0 1
a. 21 - 50 6 0 1 0 1
b. 51 - 100 14 1 1 0 1
c. 101 - 250 30 3 2 1 1
d. 251 - 500 67 6 4 1 2
e. 501 - 750 105 10 6 2 1
f. 751 - 1000 170 16 10 2 1
g. 1001 + 307 31 19 4 2

Engineering team by level and firm size (CXO = 1)

emp_cat line Manager Director VP CXO
a. 1 - 20 2 0 0 0 1
a. 21 - 50 5 0 0 0 1
b. 51 - 100 11 1 1 0 1
c. 101 - 250 22 2 1 0 1
d. 251 - 500 43 4 2 1 1
e. 501 - 750 74 7 4 1 1
f. 751 - 1000 125 12 7 1 1
g. 1001 + 199 20 12 2 1

4. "The most senior product-role at company evolves with scale (from Head -> Director -> VP -> CXO): review by funding round & headcount-split

what’s the Goldilocks equation for hiring Product leadership to substitute founder (not too fast, not too slow! not too junior, not too senior!)"

Number of product roles at the median firm

1. by funding round

stage line Manager Director VP CXO Founder CXO Founder VP
Pre VC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Early Stage VC 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
Later Stage VC 7 1 1 1 0 0 0
Exits 16 1 2 2 1 0 0

2. by years since firm birth

age_cat line Manager Director VP CXO Founder CXO Founder VP
b. 1~3y since birth 5 1 2 NA NA NA NA
c. 3~5y since birth 6 1 1 0 0 1 NA
d. 5~10y since birth 8 1 1 1 0 1 0
e. 10+ years 16 2 2 1 0 0 0

3. by years since series A

age_seriesA_cat line Manager Director VP CXO Founder CXO Founder VP
b. 1~3y since A 2 0 0 0 0 1 1
c. 3~5y since A 9 1 1 1 1 1 0
d. 5~10y since A 13 1 2 1 1 1 0
e. 10+ years 19 1 3 1 1 0 0

4. by firm size

emp_cat line Manager Director VP CXO Founder CXO Founder VP
a. 1 - 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
a. 21 - 50 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
b. 51 - 100 1 0 0 0 0 1 1
c. 101 - 250 4 0 1 0 0 1 0
d. 251 - 500 7 1 1 1 1 1 0
e. 501 - 750 15 1 2 1 1 1 0
f. 751 - 1000 22 1 3 1 1 1 0
g. 1001 + 40 2 5 2 1 1 0

5. Manager/Directors

  • Hire Ho or Do Product at Series A or B;
  • Hire FC, FD or HoFinance at Series A else B;
  • Ho or Do People at Series A or B

Number of companies hire their first Manager/Director by functions in each stage

1. by funding rounds

functions Pre VC Early Stage VC Later Stage VC Exits
product 26 91 101 5
engineering 59 115 66 3
design 48 74 82 4
analytics 13 52 128 12
sales 36 77 101 4
marketing 58 126 68 2
account management 4 17 64 6
business development 19 85 105 8
legal 2 10 72 12
recruiting 6 33 149 9
HR 11 50 139 9
general management 12 52 132 7
finance 18 54 133 5
administration 17 46 146 5
customer success 39 114 75 6
retail 19 26 79 9
operations 33 90 102 4
unknown 83 105 62 1

2. by years since firm birth

functions a. 0~1y since birth b. 1~3y since birth c. 3~5y since birth d. 5~10y since birth e. 10+ years
product 29 55 62 69 8
engineering 63 86 52 35 7
design 50 58 41 52 7
analytics 11 47 53 80 14
sales 40 59 55 59 5
marketing 61 103 52 32 6
account management 2 14 30 35 10
business development 26 73 53 54 11
legal 4 7 22 49 14
recruiting 9 30 58 85 15
HR 12 43 58 80 16
general management 20 36 50 85 12
finance 15 43 55 81 16
administration 20 41 65 76 12
customer success 43 84 60 38 9
retail 17 26 33 47 10
operations 46 65 46 61 11
unknown 114 59 41 30 7

3. by years since series A

functions a. 0~1y since A b. 1~3y since A c. 3~5y since A d. 5~10y since A e. 10+ years
product 29 139 33 19 3
engineering 63 155 20 3 2
design 50 110 28 17 3
analytics 11 109 53 30 2
sales 40 130 22 25 1
marketing 61 168 14 8 3
account management 2 40 27 19 3
business development 26 146 28 14 3
legal 4 28 32 24 8
recruiting 9 98 51 35 4
HR 12 116 43 34 4
general management 20 97 49 36 1
finance 15 105 52 33 5
administration 20 114 56 21 3
customer success 43 162 22 5 2
retail 17 58 33 23 2
operations 46 126 32 20 5
unknown 114 111 19 4 3

4. by firm size

functions a. 1 - 20 a. 21 - 50 b. 51 - 100 c. 101 - 250 d. 251 - 500 e. 501 - 750 f. 751 - 1000 g. 1001 +
product 19 37 56 69 21 11 7 3
engineering 46 74 57 54 6 5 1 NA
design 32 51 37 49 27 4 4 4
analytics 8 20 31 64 41 24 9 8
sales 22 39 47 73 29 2 3 3
marketing 46 73 70 51 12 2 NA NA
account management 2 3 7 26 31 7 8 7
business development 18 38 49 69 27 8 2 6
legal NA 4 4 21 32 9 10 16
recruiting 6 13 21 71 50 19 10 7
HR 3 19 38 67 55 21 4 2
general management 6 17 32 64 53 25 2 4
finance 9 17 36 77 42 14 11 4
administration 6 31 32 67 51 21 2 4
customer success 27 68 65 61 13 NA NA NA
retail 10 17 20 32 18 11 11 14
operations 23 38 67 67 25 6 3 NA
unknown 73 75 47 46 9 1 NA NA

6. Chief of Staff increasingly common, but 25% of the time, and higher if no COO

has_COO has_chief_of_staff n pct
FALSE FALSE 77 34%
FALSE TRUE 47 21%
TRUE FALSE 50 22%
TRUE TRUE 49 22%
NA FALSE 2 1%

7. How many of the first 10, 50, 100 employees at a startup are still there x years later, or by time of IPO?"

(expect very few - because journey is long and talent needs change…reality-check for founders to expect attrition, but to make sure that those early joiners are treated well (good leavers, secondary equity, etc)

  • excluding founders

  • average % of early employees by tenure.

  • *does not add up to 100% because values represent average percentages across all companies

first < 1 year 1 - 5 years 5 - 10 years more than 10 years
10 25% 53% 27% 25%
50 27% 54% 19% 12%
100 30% 55% 16% 8%

8. How quickly does organization turn over (as in >=50% new faces)?

6-12 months? What about executives, 12-18 months?

2016 Snapshot: how many months did it take to replace 50% of the team since 2016-01-01?

excluding founders

level numeric.mean numeric.sd numeric.p25 numeric.p50 numeric.p75
CXO 38 21 21 33 65
Director 31 17 19 26 36
line 27 11 20 24 30
Manager 29 15 19 26 35
VP 34 17 22 28 47

9. How long are people in their roles by tier?

Tiers: Leadership (C-Suite), Sr. Management (EVP, SVP, VP), Management (Directors, Managers), Other

excluding founders

level tenure(months)
line 17
Manager 19
Director 21
VP 23
CXO 27

Cohort 3

1. Number of co-founders

n_founders
Min. :1.000
1st Qu.:2.000
Median :2.000
Mean :2.236
3rd Qu.:3.000
Max. :7.000

2. mix of founder roles

exec_role n
CEO 266
CTO 111
Other CXO 44
CProductO 33
COO 23
VP Engineer 13
CDesignO 10
VP Product 9
CMO 8
VP Business Development 7
CFO 6
CStrategyO 6
CRO/CCO/CBO 5
Other VP 5
GM 4
VP Marketing 4
VP Strategy 4
VP Operations 3
CHRO 2
GC 2
VP CS 2
VP Design 2
CDataO 1
COperationsO 1
VP HR 1
VP Supply/Retail 1

3. founder education

rank n_founders pct_founders pct_all_executives
1-20 164 38% 28%
21-200 132 31% 28%
201-500 41 10% 11%
500+ 91 21% 34%

4. first-time founder?

# of previous positions as a founder n pct
1 154 36%
2 50 12%
3 20 5%
4+ 13 3%
NA 189 44%

5. founder backgrounds

1. (tech v non-tech)

tech_founder not_stem stem unknown
FALSE 21% 40% 40%
TRUE 6% 72% 22%

2. (company type & prestige)

name value
type_global500 26%
type_us1000 29%
type_portco 14%
type_cb_company 88%
type_venture_backed 60%
type_venture_acquired 26%
type_venture_beyondA 54%
type_venture_ipo 27%
type_other_ipo 22%
type_other_acquired 19%
type_pro_services 15%
type_technology 65%
type_financials 14%
type_elite_firms 10%
type_any 93%

6. experience

Number of years post-bachelor when the current position starts

year_postedu
Min. :-3.000
1st Qu.: 4.000
Median : 7.500
Mean : 9.041
3rd Qu.:13.000
Max. :32.000
NA’s :47

7. co-founders

1.shared work history

2.shared school

8. Hiring from network

1. Hire (at all levels) skewed from network initially, then from growth-stage companies, and later from corporate; Where hires made not following this formula, tenure on average shorter

name pre VC Early Stage VC Later Stage VC Exits
type_global500 4.9% 5.6% 7.3% 7.8%
type_us1000 6.0% 7.5% 9.9% 10.9%
type_portco 1.4% 1.2% 1.4% 1.2%
type_cb_company 28.3% 30.8% 33.8% 34.8%
type_venture_backed 10.1% 11.9% 13.0% 12.4%
type_venture_acquired 3.7% 4.4% 4.3% 4.1%
type_venture_beyondA 8.9% 10.9% 12.1% 11.4%
type_venture_ipo 4.5% 6.2% 8.0% 7.7%
type_other_ipo 6.7% 7.3% 8.8% 9.8%
type_other_acquired 3.5% 3.5% 3.9% 4.2%
type_pro_services 2.5% 2.7% 2.8% 2.6%
type_technology 24.1% 26.6% 27.4% 25.4%
type_financials 5.0% 5.1% 5.7% 5.7%
type_elite_firms 1.3% 1.5% 1.7% 1.5%
type_any 45.7% 48.8% 51.0% 50.8%

2. Hire in execs vs promoting internal talent in ratio of 80/20

Internal promotion is likely under-estimated because people tend to list their most senior position within the same company, rather than listing the entire job history

promote_internally n pct
FALSE 7484 72%
TRUE 2882 28%

Most likely to promote internal talent to leadership in roles of… COO, VP Sales, VP Customer Success

Least likely to promote internally to roles of… CFO, VP Eng, VP Product

exec_role promote_internally n pct
Chief Supply Chain Officer TRUE 8 42%
COperationsO TRUE 9 38%
VP CS TRUE 149 37%
CDataO TRUE 9 36%
VP Operations TRUE 133 34%
VP Product TRUE 174 33%
VP Strategy TRUE 33 33%
GM TRUE 641 32%
VP Data TRUE 33 32%
VP Supply/Retail TRUE 48 31%
NA TRUE 60 31%
VP Engineer TRUE 213 30%
VP Sales TRUE 344 30%
VP Business Development TRUE 134 28%
CStrategyO TRUE 10 27%
VP Finance TRUE 111 27%
VP Marketing TRUE 210 27%
CRO/CCO/CBO TRUE 60 26%
VP Design TRUE 35 25%
Other VP TRUE 35 24%
VP HR TRUE 78 24%
Other CXO TRUE 35 22%
CProductO TRUE 34 21%
GC TRUE 66 21%
COO TRUE 45 20%
CDesignO TRUE 7 18%
CMO TRUE 46 18%
CHRO TRUE 26 17%
CTO TRUE 54 16%
CFO TRUE 49 15%
CEO TRUE 41 11%

3. Can we observe concentration of hiring from small group of other companies - and what drives this? eg geo-local, close-sectorally, close-culturally

9. Executives education

1. Education level of exec hires by function: MBA or post-grad qualifications

degrees n pct
bachelor 3819 46%
jd 308 4%
master 1961 24%
mba 1891 23%
phd 316 4%

2. Education level of exec hires by function: Technical vs non-technical degrees

exec_role not_stem stem unknown
CEO 18% 42% 40%
COO 32% 30% 38%
CTO 7% 68% 25%
CProductO 24% 54% 22%
CFO 47% 14% 39%
CRO/CCO/CBO 38% 25% 36%
CMO 36% 20% 43%
CHRO 46% 14% 41%
CDesignO 40% 4% 56%
CDataO 8% 58% 35%
CStrategyO 24% 39% 37%
COperationsO 30% 35% 35%
Chief Supply Chain Officer 26% 58% 16%
Other CXO 32% 32% 37%
VP Engineer 8% 71% 21%
VP Product 20% 55% 25%
VP Sales 43% 22% 35%
VP Marketing 44% 21% 36%
VP Finance 48% 15% 37%
VP HR 47% 10% 43%
VP Design 47% 15% 38%
VP CS 31% 33% 36%
VP Operations 35% 32% 33%
VP Business Development 38% 22% 39%
VP Data 13% 67% 20%
VP Strategy 27% 35% 39%
VP Supply/Retail 34% 40% 26%
GC 33% 18% 50%
GM 40% 22% 39%
Other VP 27% 35% 38%

3. Education level of exec hires by function: Years of post-education work experience when their current role starts

exec_role year_postedu
CEO 8
COO 13
CTO 11
CProductO 11
CFO 16
CRO/CCO/CBO 16
CMO 13
CHRO 16
CDesignO 12
CDataO 12
CStrategyO 10
COperationsO 10
Chief Supply Chain Officer 17
Other CXO 15
VP Engineer 15
VP Product 12
VP Sales 15
VP Marketing 12
VP Finance 14
VP HR 13
VP Design 15
VP CS 14
VP Operations 13
VP Business Development 13
VP Data 12
VP Strategy 11
VP Supply/Retail 17
GC 15
GM 9
Other VP 13

10 Product managers

Prior experience of PMs - technical vs non-technical? Mix, variance by seniority, biz-model, geo?

level not_stem stem unknown
CXO 20% 50% 30%
Director 24% 48% 28%
line 28% 47% 25%
Manager 26% 48% 26%
VP 28% 43% 29%
cleaned_sector stem n pct
B2B Marketplace TRUE 317 47%
B2C Apps TRUE 1272 47%
B2C Marketplace (digital) TRUE 1002 41%
B2C Marketplace (physical) TRUE 361 49%
D2C E-Commerce TRUE 359 38%
Marketplace (other) TRUE 59 47%
Other TRUE 31 34%
SaaS TRUE 1696 53%