Pre-seed startup funding in Q1 2026 matches recent quarters, suggesting a stabilization of the market.

AI is reshaping how founders build and compensate their teams. Smaller teams are proliferating. Since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, overall hiring has slowed, departures have fallen, and net headcount growth has flattened.

So, you want to raise a pre-seed round. How do you convince VCs to write a check? Early-stage investors share some of their personal tips for pre-seed fundraising.

The startup compensation market is bifurcating between companies that are AI-native and those that aren’t. For both groups, however, AI is changing the way executives think about how many people they need to hire, who they need to hire, and how those hires should be compensated.