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Founder Survey // Q4 2025 // Results Summary //

This report reflects responses from 55 Initialized founders across pre-seed through Series B companies. The majority are seed stage teams, so the results should be read as a snapshot of how early stage founders are currently operating, how teams are structured, where time and money are being spent, and which challenges are showing up most consistently right now. Respondents are primarily based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, with additional companies across the U.S. and internationally.

The goal of sharing this back is to give you visibility into what your peers are seeing and doing today.

All individual responses and recommendations have been anonymized.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

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In-person work is becoming the default again

~75% of companies have some form of office presence, with fully remote now in the minority among this group.

AI tools are now a standard line item

Most teams are spending on AI infrastructure and credits. Cursor, ChatGPT, and Claude are showing up consistently across teams.

Lean teams are staying lean

Founders frequently reported that AI tools allow smaller teams to move faster, reducing pressure to grow headcount early.

Distribution and GTM execution are increasingly the focus

Revenue growth, user acquisition, and distribution were consistently ranked ahead of hiring or team expansion as priorities for the coming year.

RESPONDENT OVERVIEW

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55
Initialized Founders Responded

Company Stage

The respondent group is primarily made up of seed stage companies, with a smaller group of Series A and later-stage teams.

Team Size

1-5 employees
23 (42%)
5-10 employees
13 (24%)
10-30 employees
8 (15%)
30-80 employees
9 (16%)
80-150 employees
2 (4%)

Location (HQ)

SF Bay Area
19 (35%)
Remote
14 (25%)
NYC
5 (9%)
LA / SoCal
5 (9%)
Other
12 (22%)

WORKPLACE & TEAM CULTURE

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Workplace Setup

In-person 44%  ████████░░
Hybrid 31%  ██████░░░░
Remote 25%  █████░░░░░

Team Culture & Work Mode

Office-centric & Collaborative
15
Async-first & Outcome-driven
14
High-intensity (996 mindset)
13
Sprint-based
7
Experimenting & Evolving
3
Flexible & sustainable
1

Key Insights

More teams are going in person — Nearly 75% of companies report some form of in-office presence, reflecting a shift from the remote-first approach that became common in recent years.

"996" culture is prominent but debated — While high-intensity work schedules are often discussed publicly, founders noted that in practice this often reflects time spent together socially or periods of intensity rather than sustained long workdays.

PRIORITIES & PAIN POINTS

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While revenue and growth are the clear priorities, the challenges founders report are often operational.

What Founders are Focused on

Many teams are focused on distribution and execution while navigating hiring constraints, technical debt, and fundraising pressure.

Grow revenue / increase sales
33
Improve product-market fit
21
Accelerate user acquisition
19
Grow team / hire key talent
18
Scale eng team / tech infra
13
Raise next round of funding
12
Build brand awareness
10

Where Founders are Getting Stuck

Hiring and retaining top talent
24
Technical complexity / scaling
21
Sales cycle too long / unpredictable
18
Building a sales function
13
Shifts in customer behavior
11
Competitive pressure / saturation
10
Managing burn rate
10
Fundraising in current market
8

AI TOOLS & SPENDING

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How founders are spending on AI and what tools are showing up most often.

AI Infrastructure Spending (Last 12 Months)

AI tools have become a meaningful expense across early stage companies. Most respondents reported spending on AI infrastructure or credits, with a significant portion investing more than $10,000.

$500 – $1,000
33%
$5,000 – $10,000
18%
$10,000+
13%
$1,000 – $5,000
11%
Not sure / varies
11%
$0 (haven't spent yet)
7%
Less than $500
7%

Current Tech Stack Favorites

When asked about must-have tools, AI-assisted development tools appeared most consistently across responses.

Cursor // 8 mentions — most frequently mentioned AI coding tool
ChatGPT / OpenAI // 8 mentions combined — general purpose AI assistant
Claude Code / Codex // 6 mentions combined — AI dev workflows
Slack // 5 mentions — primary communication layer
Granola // 3 mentions — AI-generated meeting notes
HuggingFace / vLLM / PyTorch // 2+ each — ML infrastructure

WHO FOUNDERS TURN TO FOR HELP

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Here are some of the top advisors, teams, and champions recommended by other Initialized founders.

Fractional CFOs

zeni.ai Kristy Butts

Design Services

awesomic.com baked.design ideo.com

GTM / Sales Advisors

Saifi Shoof Greg O'Brien Jamie Nacht Farrell

Executive Coaches

Andrew Skotzko Faith Meyer (Mochary Method) Emily Iscoff Daigian

Government Relations / Sales

saratoga-group.com Eric Snelgrove

Legal

venturouscounsel.com

HOT TAKES & EXTERNAL FACTORS

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Founders shared candid perspectives on how external factors are influencing their strategies.

// On AI and competition
"Lower barriers to competent software execution have caused us to focus on building core competencies and accumulating advantages in hardware, relationships, product taste, data and economies of scale."
// On policy changes
"Because academic labs have had their funding frozen in the U.S., we are prioritizing selling our biotech robots to larger pharma companies. Europe seems to see the U.S.'s freezing of academic funding as an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage."
// On AI productivity claims
"There's significant hype and uncertainty around AI-native development. We see about a ~10% productivity boost from AI tools, but it's unclear whether that's due to suboptimal usage on our end or inflated market narratives claiming AI makes teams 10x faster."
// On talent
"Competition for top engineers is really tough, but there is a ton of noise also with recent layoffs. We get large inbound applicant volume, but only a small number of candidates make it through the process."
// On immigration concerns
"With multiple top level employees and my cofounder being immigrants it makes us nervous about what the government will do next."

Changes in Founder Behavior

When asked about shifts in founder norms and behavior, several themes appeared consistently:

// Lean teams
"The most successful companies stay lean and use AI to scale and grow."
// In-person work
"Smaller teams, more in person."
// 996 culture
"In private conversations, many founders admit it's closer to a normal workday plus time spent together socially, with periods of intensity."
// Distribution focus
"A huge part of attention is directed towards distribution."
// Self promotion
"There's been a lot more noise around aggressive work cultures and more willingness toward templated self promotion."

FUNDRAISING INSIGHTS

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Time to Close

0 – 3 Months
15
4 – 6 Months
1
6 – 8 Months
1

The vast majority of recent fundraises closed within 3 months.

Key Learnings from Recent Fundraises

// On preparation
"Talk to other people (founders, etc) to figure out what the largest questions surrounding your company are, and prepare for them."
// On approach
"Ask for money, get advice. Ask for advice, get money."
// On metrics
"Growth stage metrics are very different from seed stage metrics. Important to show trends."
// On authenticity
"Authenticity over everything else."
// On hardtech and larger raises
"For hardtech founders or someone looking to raise more than $4M on their Seed round, structure your raise to give larger investors enough time. They will want an intro call, an in person meeting, and then a partner meeting. That process takes longer."

We hope this early share is useful context as you plan the year ahead. Thank you again to everyone who contributed.

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