The Startup Scene is Actually Pretty Lit Right Now (And We Have the Data to Prove It)

The economy may feel stormy, but Mercury's latest survey of 1,500 founders shows early-stage teams are more optimistic than the headlines suggest. Confidence is rising and the teams leaning into AI are widening the performance gap.

These respondents span companies under six years old across software, services, retail, and commerce. Their answers paint a picture of founders who are adapting faster than the market turbulence can shake them.

The Vibe Check: Founders Are Surprisingly Chill

Eighty-seven percent of founders said they're more confident about their business than last year and only three percent lost confidence. Inflation hurt 36% of respondents, yet 38% said it opened new opportunities as buyers searched for better options.

Heavy AI adopters are driving the optimism. Sixty percent of those teams reported a significant confidence boost compared to just 28% of companies not investing in AI.

Funding Strategies Are Getting Creative

Forget the old “raise VC or die” mindset. Seventy-three percent of surveyed companies raised under $5M in their last round and they're mixing capital sources freely. Service firms lean on bootstrapping, while tech teams combine angels and loans. Retail brands are embracing revenue-based financing in a big way.

Teams that blended multiple funding sources were 40% more likely to cross the $5M mark. Diversify or stall.

AI Companies Are Living in the Future

Companies investing heavily in AI aren't cutting back—they're scaling up.

• 79% of heavy AI adopters are hiring more because of AI tools.
• They're three times more likely to be actively scaling their teams.
• 68% report active growth versus 13% of companies not using AI.

AI isn't replacing people—it's amplifying them. Sales, marketing, and customer teams are getting new headcount to keep up with demand.

The Contractor Revolution Is Real

Sixty-one percent of companies described themselves as reliant on contractors. Sixty-four percent do it to add capacity quickly and 32% want global reach from day one. Heavy AI adopters are four times more likely to say they're very reliant on flexible teams.

Everyone's Spending More—But Smarter

Seventy-nine percent of founders increased spend this year, with AI and automation taking the biggest slice of the budget. Seventy-three percent raised those line items and 55% reallocated money away from legacy tools to fund them.

The lingering pain point is the 2022 R&D tax change—73% said it hurt the business, forcing some to trim R&D and slow hiring. Relief is on the way now that the policy has been fixed.

The Bottom Line: The Playbook Shift Is Real

High-performing founders share four traits:

• Mixing funding sources instead of betting on one.
• Using AI to amplify teams, not replace them.
• Building global contractor networks from day one.
• Spending smarter and reallocating fast.

Significant AI adopters posted a 93% positive outlook versus 71% for everyone else. That gap is mindset, not just tooling. The teams embracing the shift are steering the market rather than reacting to it.

The startup economy isn't limping along—it's evolving. If you're building right now, you're part of the group rewriting the rules. Trade a little doom-scroll time for building—the future looks bright from here.