Research published today by global early-stage VC firm Antler reveals that the single most important decision a founder can make is which company they work at before building their own, and specifically, whether that company is actively scaling from Seed to Series C stage whilst they are there.
The report, Europe’s Growth Stage Founder Factories, which analyses 51,722 European seed-stage companies, finds that working at a startup as it scales from Seed to Series C is the single strongest predictor of founding success.
Founders who did so are nearly twice as likely to build startups that reach Series A. No other previous employment or experience comes close.
The research analyses startups in the UK, Germany, France and Sweden that raised a seed round between 2010 and 2021 and finds that, on average, 23 per cent of European startups secure Series A funding.
The growth stage founder advantage
