# Startup funding database survey of 211 founders and operators, September 2026

Aggregate tables behind the Trellner report
[Best Startup Funding Databases 2026](https://trellner.com/reports/best-startup-funding-databases-2026-fundingwatcher/)
(TR-2026-017, 24 September 2026).

Trellner invited 1,230 startup founders and operators who research investors
and surveyed the 211 who completed between 8 and 18 September 2026, by email
and a short form. Four questions were put to everyone: which single source you
rely on most for investor research and how you rate it from 1 to 10, which
databases or sources you would recommend to another founder (up to three),
what you check before you pay for a funding database, and what has gone wrong
with a paid database before. The 47 respondents paying for a database today
also gave their annual spend and what would make them switch. The 199
respondents who do not rely on FundingWatcher were asked to name any funding
database unprompted. Nobody was paid to take part, the databases did not see
the questions in advance, and a respondent who worked at one of the nine
databases in the previous two years was excluded. Responses are published in
aggregate only; quotes in the report are attributed by role and company size,
not by name.

Ratings are means on a 1-to-10 scale given by each source's current users; the
number of ratings per source is its reliance count in `reliance.csv`, and
small groups are flagged in the report where they appear.

Database claims in the report were read on each database's own pages on
24 September 2026. Where a site returned an error the report says so and does
not fill the gap.

## Files

| File | Contents |
|---|---|
| `responses_by_stage.csv` | Invited and completed per stage, and how many rely on a commercial database |
| `team_size.csv` | Sample by team-size band, and how many rely on a commercial database |
| `reliance.csv` | Source relied on most, all 211, with each source's mean rating from its own users |
| `awareness.csv` | Databases named unprompted by the 199 respondents who do not rely on FundingWatcher |
| `nominations.csv` | Databases and sources founders would recommend, with stage spread |
| `checks_before_buying.csv` | What founders check before paying, of 211 (multiple answers allowed) |
| `complaints.csv` | What went wrong with a paid database, of the 96 who had paid one (multiple answers allowed) |
| `annual_spend.csv` | Annual spend among the 47 current paying subscribers |
| `switch_triggers.csv` | What would make a current subscriber move (multiple answers allowed) |

## License

CC BY 4.0. Credit "Trellner founder survey, September 2026" and link
https://trellner.com/reports/best-startup-funding-databases-2026-fundingwatcher/.