70 Percent of the Highest Valuations Are Bay Area Startups

If you’re trying to get the highest valuation possible for your startup - move to SF.

Say you're a founder looking at data on Series A valuations. You check out some of our reports (appreciate you, by the way).

You see that the 90th percentile number for Series A post-money nationally is currently $188M (wow).

What you don't see is that 70% of the startups that are raising at the massive number are in the Bay or NYC.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀

1. Founders need to have expectations that are in dialogue with their local capital ecosystem. Raising top 10% valuations in Charlotte is going to be exceedingly difficult.

2. Investors need to do the same. Competition for deals in the Bay is fierce. The Bay represented only 8% of bottom quartile valuation deals so far in 2025...basically there are no cheap SF startups.

3. Should you move? If what you're chasing is better valuations only, ya you probably should. But highest valuation does not equal best for you business in all cases (most cases?)

4. Ignore the headlines that are dominated by SF frenzy if you are not in SF.

Be aware of the market and play your own game 🙏

#startups #founders