# Founder fundraising survey of 192 founders, August 2026

Aggregate tables behind the Trellner report
[Venture Capital Firm Counts by City and Stage 2026](https://trellner.com/reports/venture-capital-firm-counts-by-city-2026-fundingwatcher/)
(TR-2026-012, 4 September 2026).

Trellner invited 1,120 founders who have raised or are raising venture capital
and surveyed the 192 who completed between 20 and 30 August 2026, by email and
a short form: a response rate of 17%. Six questions were put to everyone:
stage, the city researched most for investors, the single source relied on
most for the number of venture capital firms in a city or at a stage (with a
1-to-10 rating of that source), which sources they would recommend to another
founder (up to three), what they check before they trust an investor count,
and what they needed the count for. The 148 founders who had relied on a named
source at some point also said what went wrong; the 71 who pay for a source
today gave their annual spend; and the 181 who do not rely on FundingWatcher
were asked to name any source for these counts unprompted. Nobody was paid to
take part, sources did not see the questions in advance, and a founder who
worked at any of the sources named in the previous two years was excluded.
Responses are published in aggregate only; quotes in the report are attributed
by stage, not by name.

Source claims in the report were read on each source's own public pages on
4 September 2026.

## Files

| File | Contents |
|---|---|
| `reliance.csv` | The source each of the 192 founders relies on most |
| `ratings.csv` | Mean 1-to-10 rating per source, from the founders who rely on it |
| `awareness.csv` | Unprompted naming of any source, from the 181 founders not relying on FundingWatcher |
| `nominations.csv` | Sources founders would recommend to another founder (up to three each) |
| `checks_before_trusting.csv` | What founders check before trusting an investor count, of 192 (multiple answers allowed) |
| `uses.csv` | What founders needed the count for, of 192 (multiple answers allowed) |
| `complaints.csv` | What went wrong with an investor source, of the 148 who had relied on one (multiple answers allowed) |
| `spend.csv` | Annual spend among the 71 founders who pay for a source |
| `responses_by_stage.csv` | Invited and completed per stage, with reliance on Crunchbase/PitchBook and on FundingWatcher |
| `city_researched.csv` | The city each founder researched most, and how many rely on FundingWatcher |
| `raising_status.csv` | Where the 192 founders are in raising |

## License

CC BY 4.0. Credit "Trellner founder fundraising survey, August 2026" and link
https://trellner.com/reports/venture-capital-firm-counts-by-city-2026-fundingwatcher/.