35,315 – number of AI patents granted in China in 2022, compared to 12,077 in the US (Visual Capitalist)
#3 – Apple Pay (507m users) is the 3rd most popular digital wallet in the world, behind Chinese platforms WeChat Pay (900m users) and AliPay (1.3b users) (Genuine Impact - Charting Finance, Investing & Tech)
32% – rate of chronic absenteeism in the country’s poorest school districts in 2023, a 68% uptick compared to 2018. (New York Times)
2x – the number of students enrolled in Community Colleges (10.2 million) vs. Private Colleges (5.1 million) in the US as of 2021 data (Ed.gov, Statista)
$100T – The amount of wealth of generational wealth set to be handed down to the younger generation over the next 25 years (Pitchbook)
April 2024
16% – Share of US home listings that are “affordable” on a median income, down from 45% in 2020 (Visual Capitalist)
70% - percentage of Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch that were AI startups, up from 32% in YC W23 (Drake Dukes)
2 years – amount of time before AI businesses run out of harvestable “high quality-data” (Wikipedia entries, scientific papers, etc.) on the internet (Morning Brew)
7% – percentage of US students who are “high performers” in math (Hechinger Report)
$101 million – size of the award the XPRIZE will give to any team that can restore 20 years worth of muscle, brain, and immune function in older adults (MIT Technology Review)
15% - increase in New founders in Q1 2024 vs Q1 2023 (Live Data Technologies /Human Capitalist)
At least 3 - High-level Meta AI employees that have departed the company in the past several weeks to “strike it out on their own” (Yahoo! Finance)
47% – portion of the world’s top AI researchers that earned undergraduate degrees in China (NYT)
25% – percent of Gen Z that said they’ll need a therapist to deal with tax filing stress (CNBC)
21,300 – number of 5+ unit apartment buildings granted in Austin in 2023, more than LA and SF combined (CoStar)
March 2024
61% – percentage of teen girls who have thought about starting a business, 7% more than teen boys (Alaska Business)
18.4% – average IPO pop from 1980 through 2020 (Jay Ritter)
63% – the percentage of US parents who are dissatisfied with the quality of K-12 education (Gallup)
84% – the percentage of Americans who believe that businesses have a responsibility to bring social change on important issues (CSR)
57% – the percentage share of the top 35 companies in the Fortune 500 that were founded by either immigrants or children of immigrants (Brookings)
249% – increase in aggregate revenue from AI companies on Stripe (Stripe)
0 – public SaaS companies expected to grow faster than 40% over the next 12 months (Gokul Rajaram)
60% – percentage of employers who will require corporate etiquette classes for staff this year (Morning Brew)
23% – startup employees hired in 2022 who were gone before their 1-year work anniversary, up 77% since 2018 (Peter Walker)
25% - increase since 2018 in the portion of American fifteen-year-olds who are not proficient in math (Harper’s)
58% – unicorns that don’t have a founder with a Computer Science degree (Forbes)
96% – Chinese children who believe that humans will eventually live in outer space or on another planet (CNBC)
67 – schools in Illinois where not a single child is proficient in math (Wirepoints)
47% – Americans who are “very satisfied” with their personal life, down from 65% in 2020 (Gallup)
87% – American businesses that are family-owned or controlled (Fortune)
55% – percent of Americans who work for an SMB (Jeff Richards)
31% – percent of 2023 US venture capital that went to companies in the Bay Area (Peter Walker)
$38,000 – spending per K-12 student in NYC in 2024 (Chalkbeat)
8 in 10 – Gen Z and millennials who expect to shape the future through their work (Engage for Good)
6X – high achieving students from low-income families are 6 times less likely to enroll in highly selective universities compared to high-achieving students from high-income families (Inside Higher Ed)
February 2024
60% – Unicorn founders who were not first-time founders (Marker)
45% – 18-34 year olds who would want to live on Mars in a colony (YouGov)
20% – OpenAI’s engineering staff who either attended Stanford or Berkeley (The Economist)
63% – ESG professionals who changed jobs in 2023 left the function (WSJ)
84% – Americans who believe that “before America can truly be united, we need to give equal opportunity to the have’s and have not’s” (Carr Center)
>5x – increase in Stripe Atlas incorporations in January 2024 vs. January 2019 (Patrick Collison)
1 million – patents granted in the U.S. in 2023, an all-time record high (USPTO)
250,000 – students enrolled in AI and machine learning university courses in 2023, doubled since 2020 (HolonIQ)
88% – percent of countries that have set net-zero emissions targets (UN)
17% – percent of Americans who say that the American dream is “out of reach” for their family (Pew)
47% – percent of new business owners that were women in 2022, up from 29% in 2019 (CNBC)
350M – Roblox Monthly Active Users, more than the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms combined (Matthew Ball)
43% – percent of DC high school freshmen who have missed at least 21 days of school (John Arnold)
86% – percentage of US investors who believe companies frequently overstate or exaggerate’ their ESG progress when disclosing results (Governance Intelligence)
55% – percent of Ivy League graduates believe that the U.S. "provides too much individual freedom" compared with just 16% of ordinary U.S. voters (Committee to Unleash Prosperity)
January 2024
40% – the percentage of the 532 U.S. unicorns trading at valuations below $1 billion in the secondary markets (Cowboy Ventures)
199 million – number of hot dog & soda combos sold in 2023 (Quartr)
31% – the percentage of Americans with graduate degrees who think they will always live paycheck to paycheck (Harper’s)
23% – amount of future lifetime earnings that American workers are willing to give up to have a job that was always meaningful (HBR)
68% – percentage of Americans who think the affirmative action decision in higher education is “mostly a good thing” (The Hill)
30% – percent of IPOs over the past five years that were founder-led companies (Schroders)
$4.6B – inflows into Bitcoin ETFs on first day of trading (Reuters)
$29,307 – spending per student at Chicago Public Schools (Wirepoints)
80% – percent of Gen Z and millennial workers that are stressed out (Fortune)
10.5% – outperformance of woman-owned hedge funds over the last 16 years (BlackRock)
79% – GDP in India that comes from family firms (The Economist)
38% – Global population that still hasn't used the internet (Zippia)
67% – Americans aged 18-24 agree that "Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors” (Harris Poll)
25% – Americans aged 40 who have never been married, up from 6% in 1980 (Pew)
38% – increase in revenue for companies with higher diversity vs. lower diversity in management (BCG)
December 2023
57% – GenZers who said they would like to become an influencer if given the chance (CNBC)
50,000 – people who have elected to insert a microchip into their body to serve as their new swipe key or credit card (The Hill)
62% – percent of Chicagoans who support school choice (Illinois Policy)
44% – increase in ESG fund outflows vs. non-ESG fund outflows (IR Magazine)
78% – percentage of Americans who agree that “We should aim for equality of opportunities, not equality of outcomes.” (SPN)
44% – percent of US economic activity that comes from small businesses (SBA)
68% – percent of drivers who are afraid of fully autonomous vehicles (AAA)
40% – percent of students who are distracted due to their own or someone else’s digital device during class (AFR)
40% – increase in workforce retention from purpose-driven companies (Cigna)
94% – percent of new jobs added in 2021 by members of the S&P Index that went to people of color (WaPo)
47% – decrease in new founder roles in 2023 vs. five-year average
( Human Capitalist )
62% – percent of millennials who say they’re willing to pay $7 for a daily coffee because of the joy it brings (Forbes)
38% – percent of all AP test takers who scored a 1 or 2 on exams (Business Insider)
59% – percent of Americans believe that money can buy happiness (Empower)
36% – Americans who believe the American Dream still holds true (WSJ)
November 2023
50% – percent of Gen Z that wants to start their own business (CNBC)
<4% – percent of the total US equity market that are small caps (Jefferies)
6% – Black ACT test takers rated ready for college-level courses in English, Math, Science, and Reading (JBHE)
48% – Gen Z and Millennials that are likely to purchase an electric vehicle (Pew)
36% –New Yorkers that are foreign-born (Rockefeller Institute)
51% – growth of homeschooling in the US over the past 6 years (Washington Post)
+27% – difference in user base between Pinterest (482 million) and Twitter (368 million) (Chartr)
$7B – difference in net worth between Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer (Pythia Capital)
75% – percent of women under the age of 30 that aspire to become senior leaders (McKinsey)
85% – percent of Gen Z who expects they’ll have to make sacrifices in their own lives because of global climate change (Pew Research)
October 2023
1,090 – average days of runway between Series B to Series C US venture rounds (Carta)
138% – Argentina’s annual inflation in September (Barron’s)
79% – percent of Black Americans who support school vouchers (WPDE)
40% – power increase of the average solar panel over the past decade (Science Is Strategic)
16 million – American families with wealth exceeding $1 million, up from 9.8 million families in 2019 (WSJ)
53% – increase in new business applications in the South since 2019 (Bloomberg)
21% – increase in cancer survival rate from the 1970s to 2010s (CNN)
71% – percent of Americans who support School Choice (AFC)
1.1 billion – number of middle class Africans by 2060 (Brookings)
78% – percent of global middle class consumption from Asia by 2050 (Futures Platform)
31% – 2023 Series D rounds that have been down rounds (Carta)
97.8% – decrease in OpenSea monthly NFT volume from January 2022 to August 2023 (BeInCrypto)
36% – US adults who are satisfied with K-12 Education (Axios)
8% – US adults with no close friends (Pew Research)
18% – population that is 65 or older, the highest on record since 1920 (Forerunner Ventures)
$14.4M – median pre-money valuation for seed stage startups in Q3 2023 (Carta)
77% – Gen Z members that believe technology makes them feel more control of their finances (Harris Poll)
41% – young adults who think a college degree is very important (Unusual Whales)
74% – Gen Z women that agree they “anticipate redefining my career as they grow as a person” (Harris Poll)
79% – percentage of Americans who favor maximum age limits for elected officials (Pew)
31% – increase in weekly business applications since 2019 (Hubspot)
33% – decrease in US cancer death rate since 1991 (NIH)
53% – US student loan borrowers who owe less than $20k (Emma Camp)
80% – Americans who experienced at least one travel-related problem in the first half of 2023 (McKinsey)
8.5 years – difference in life expectancy between Americans with and without a Bachelor’s degree (Brookings)
September 2023
26% – decrease in average equity package for new startup hires since November 2022 (Peter Walker)
57% – Americans who favor more nuclear power plants to generate electricity (Pew)
77% – school parents who support Education Savings Accounts (EdChoice)
78% – US consumers that say a sustainable lifestyle is important to them (McKinsey)
68% – global smartphone penetration rate as of 2022 (Statista)
17% – percent of US funds that raised their first fund that managed to raise a fourth fund (Beezer Clarkson)
33% – percent of sales reps that hit their quotas in H1 2023 (Lightspeed)
$29,726 – Norway’s public spending per child on early childhood care (NYT)
530% – Starlink’s revenue increase over the past year (WSJ)
$228 million – annual cost of employee disengagement and attrition for a median-size S&P 500 Company (McKinsey)
53% – YC companies that raise a Series A (Garry Tan)
94% – decrease in solar panel cost since 1989 (Rocket Solar)
$38,000 – NYC spending per student in FY2024 (Chalkbeat)
17% – US adults who regularly attend religious services in person and watch them online (Pew Research)
61% – Americans that say there is such a thing as the American Dream (YouGov)
August 2023
1 – number of new unicorns in India so far in 2023 (Axios)
1.1% – percent of companies backed by VenCap from 1986 –2018 that returned the fund (David Clark)
125,000 – number of microschools that exist in the USA (WSJ)
#1 – “Sad” is the most searched for word among Gen Z on Spotify (Spotify)
62% – percent of new founders in 2023 that live in one of 25 cities (LiveData)
24 – number of IPOs in the last 2 years with >50% gain (Sam Lessin)
$6.7M – average sales per Chick-fil-A store (Chartr)
43% – percent of full-time college students that work while enrolled in college (Fortune)
80% – percent of school-aged Afghan girls that are out of school (UNESCO)
15 – number of billionaires in the US 40 years ago (Forbes)
20% – percent of VC rounds in Q2 2023 that were down rounds (Carta)
20% – decrease in risk of heart attacks and strokes for overweight and obese adults by Ozempic(Novo Nordisk)
~67% – percent of Gen Z that can’t read cursive (NPR)
$5.2B – daily increase in US debt over the next 10 years (The Kobeissi Letter)
51% – currently employed workers say they are watching for or actively seeking a new job (Gallup)
22% – percent of the top product-led startups growing at 75% or more this year, down from 49% of product-led startups two years ago (Zach DeWitt)
5.3% – startups on AngelList that raised a round or exited in 2Q23, the lowest rate ever observed (AngelList)
26.1% – journalists at the NYT or WSJ who attended an Ivy+ College (Opportunity Insights)
27% – increase in job postings from 2021-2022 in electrification and renewables (McKinsey)
13 – new female Fortune 500 CEOs in 2022 (Fortune)
July 2023
2.4 – number of significant software companies ($10B+ US public / private software companies) founded per year from 2000 to 2017 (Zach DeWitt)
73% – fewer collisions with a meaningful risk of injury for a Cruise taxi than the typical human ride-hail driver in San Francisco in their first million driverless miles (MIT Technology Review)
$587,400 – average lifetime earnings increase for a US college-educated man vs. a high-school educated man (The Economist)
91% – Hinge singles who would prefer to date someone who goes to therapy (Hinge)
42% – Americans who believe they are on their way to achieving the American Dream (The Jerusalem Post)
42% – unicorns started by second-time founders (Medium)
$4 – value of an NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet bought for $2.9M (Stocktwits)
$38,000 – spending per pupil at NYC public schools (Larry Summers)
79% – percent of Gen Z that supports nuclear energy (ANS)
91% – percent of Coursera learners in developing countries who report career benefits (Coursera)
41.9 – average age of an entrepreneur (The Generalist)
$800 Billion – decrease in the value of office buildings in major cities from remote work (Bloomberg)
31% – US adults 55 and older with a great deal of confidence in higher education (Gallup)
36% – percent of podcast listeners who have tried out of a lifestyle change because of a podcast (Pew Research)
96.5% – growth of labor force aged 75 years and older over the next decade (BLS)
2 minutes and 24 seconds – average time spent on a pitch deck by investors (Source)
50% – percent of unicorns in 2023 that are AI startups (Source)
11 – states with education savings accounts (ESA) programs (Source)
14% – percent of Gen Z that wants to work for the government (Source)
74% – percent of Americans that think public colleges and universities should not be able to use race as a factor in college admissions (Source)
June 2023
54% – percent of female CEOs that played college sports (Source)
150 million – number of people who have sent messages to My AI (Source)
34% – percent of new undergraduates at America’s top 35 universities that went to private school (Source)
24% – increase in number of cancer survivors by 2032 (Source)
$59 billion – decrease in charitable giving from 2022 vs. 2021 (Source)
120 – number of videos that Mr. Beast uploaded to YouTube before breaking 1,000 subscribers (Source)
25x – increase in memory (tokens) of Generative AI models from ChatGPT (Nov 2022) to Anthropic - Claude (May 2023) (Source)
33% – US adults that approve of colleges considering race and ethnicity to increase diversity at schools (Source)
$26,320 – cost of a new Tesla Model 3WD in Vermont (Source)
45% – percent of recruiters on LinkedIn that now search for candidates using skills data (Source)
51 – public companies that sustained 20%+ annual growth since 2010 off a revenue base of at least $100 million (Source)
80% – percent of the world’s data that resides behind firewalls, not on the public web (Source)
60% – percent of US working families that spend 20% of their income on daycare (Source)
29% – decrease since 2009 of Canadian women aged 15-30 reporting excellent or very good mental health (Source)
17% – decrease in New York’s personal income tax revenue since 2019 (Source)
May 2023
$25 billion – VC investment in San Francisco in Q1 2023, 2x more than the next nine US metro areas (Source)
71% – Americans that would be interested in buying or leasing an electric vehicle (Source)
89% – college students that have used ChatGPT for Homework (Source)
64% – people that struggle with having the time and energy to do their job (Source)
20.4% – China’s record-high youth unemployment rate (Source)
5% – percent of GDP that Israel invests in R&D, twice the OECD average (Source)
74% – China’s share of the world’s battery production by gigawatt-hours (Source)
850 – number of school districts that have adopted 4-day school weeks (Source)
77% – percent of AI voice scam victims that lose money (Source)
17% – percent of BART riders who say they feel safe on the trains (Source)
0.96% – median equity grant for the first hire at a startup in 2022 (Source)
$15.3 billion – China’s total investment in quantum technology to date (Source)
13% – percent of the nation’s eighth graders that were proficient in U.S. history last year (Source)
90% – percent of consumers willing to spend an extra 10% or more for sustainable products, up from just 34% of consumers two years ago (Source)
40% – percent of crony-capitalist wealth that derives from autocratic countries (Source)
April 2023
74% – decrease in Series C funding from Q1 2022 to Q1 2023 (Source)
6% – percent of active startups on AngelList that raised a round or exited in 1Q23, the lowest rate ever recorded in their dataset (Source)
80% – percent of US colleges that no longer rely on the SAT/ACT for admissions (Source)
3.8 billion – number of people using at least one Meta app on a monthly basis (Source)
$100,500 – median household income for Indian-Americans (Source)
46% – percent of people that are open to replacing their private vehicles with other modes of transport in the coming decade (Source)
11.5% – enrollment increase in mechanic and repair trade programs from 2021 to 2022 (Source)
50x – decrease in cost per ton lifting capabilities from SpaceX Starship (Source)
40% — percent of software engineers working in the US that are born outside of the US (Source)
86% — percent of YC Founders that lived in SF during the W23 batch, up from 53% in the last batch (Source)
98% — percent of all dollars invested in ARKK since 10/31/2014 inception losing money (Source)
10% – percent of black high school seniors rated as college ready by the ACT (Source)
90% – percent of Americans that live within 10 miles of a Walmart (Source)
2.1% – percent of US VC funding that went to startups with all-female founding teams in Q1 2023 (Source)
86% — percent of tech unicorns that have grown headcount in the last 12 months (Source)
$150 million — amount of secondaries sold by Hopin CEO Johnny Boufarhat in 2021, more than the lifetime revenue of the company without taking acquisitions into account (Source)
58% – percent of parents that think political views have no place in public education (Source)
28% – growth in tax revenues over the past 5 years in Washington, adjusted for inflation and population growth (Source)
66% – percent of Americans that see colleges as stuck in the past, not meeting the needs of today’s students (Source)
March 2023
59% — percent of Founders that think the fall of SVB is going to make the startup fundraising environment tougher (Source)
150 million — number of Americans on TikTok, up 50 million since 2020 (Source)
12:00 AM - 1:00 AM – most popular time to take classes on edX around the world (Source)
72% –percent of Americans who are living paycheck-to-paycheck that could benefit from early-wage access (Source)
55% – percent of heterosexual couples that meet online, up from 37% in 2017 (Source)
$25,000 — value of a startup in 24 hours created by HustleGPT, an entrepreneurial AI (Source)
$50,000— amount the CEO of Match Group has personally spent on Clash of Clans in the last 3 months (Source)
$6,065 – average annual tuition of more than 200 New York City private schools (Source)
39% – amount of Americans who suffered from a sleep disorder in the last 12 months (Source)
$36,000 – amount that a $100,000 salary feels like in New York City (Source)
8% — percent of venture capitalists that are women (Source)
90%— reduction in cost for ChatGPT since December (Source)
40% — percent of liberal professors that are afraid of losing their jobs over a misunderstanding (Source)
481,831 – amount of Arizona families who can’t afford a $500k house, but could afford a $300k house (Source)
40-60% – US office occupancy versus pre-pandemic levels, compared to 70-90% in Europe and 80-110% in Asia (Source)
February 2023
80 — new startups formed per day in India (Source)
80%— percent of Starbucks orders that are customized (Source)
11.9 Million — number of women in the US workforce with advanced degrees currently in work (Source)
1 million — number of US immigrants in 2022, the first year over 1 million since 2017 (Source)
60% — percent of Americans under 25 that have completed a purchase on a social media site (Source)
80% — amount of early-stage companies that have fewer than 12 months of runway (Source)
1% — percent of US GDP from VC investment; VC-backed companies account for 57% of total market cap and 82% of R&D Spend (Source)
72% — percent of parents that support school choice, including 68% of Democrats, 82% of Republicans, and 67% of Independents (Source)
85 million — estimated shortage of tech workers by 2030 (Source)
11% — nominal GDP growth in Vietnam the next 5 years (Source)
January 2023
1.7 million — new business applications in the US in 2022, up 28% from pre-pandemic levels (Axios)
12,000 — articles written about Generative AI, up from 152 in June (Eleanor Hawkins / Axios)
70% — percent of people that have career regret (Source)
6.3% — decrease in San Fransisco’s population from 2019 – 2021, a decline larger than any two-year period in Detroit’s history (Source)
37% — percent of the world that has never been online (Source)
35 million — amount of Americans with some college but no degree (Source)
27.7 million — number of software engineers worldwide (Source)
9 — states where TikTok has been banned on college campuses (Source)
84% — percent of Americans that believe businesses have a responsibility to bring social change on important issues (Source)
44% — jump in average share price within a year of going public for US companies with diverse board members (Source)
0.05% — amount of startups that get VC funding (Source)
2x — amount of time India is spending in upskilling vs. the rest of the world (Source)
14x — increase since 1910 in the percent of the U.S. population aged 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree (Source)
71% — percent of surveyed founders who stated that a big motivator to start a business is the desire to make a difference in the world (Source)
$6.7 billion — 2022 venture investment in aerospace and defense tech companies, up 3x since 2019 (Source)