Where is Top Talent Going?

By: Collin West & Katalina Veal

Talent is one of the leading indicators of startup success.

As early-stage startups prepare for growth, they need to scale up their teams to meet customer demand. While we have all seen headlines announcing various tech companies laying off talent, the question is: where are these people taking their skills and talent to next? Are they staying in tech? Or are they leaving tech for less volatile industries? Below are some of the talent flow insights we uncovered by leveraging our proprietary data platform.

78% of top talent is staying in the tech industry

Of the top tech talent that switched jobs (voluntarily or involuntarily), between Jan 1, 2022 and Apr 30, 2022, 78% of them joined another tech company. We are seeing the same trends as of June 30, 2022.

But what about for inherently more risky early-stage startups?

82% of top talent has either joined a similar-stage company or an earlier-stage startup.

We also uncovered that between Jan 1, 2022 and April 30, 2022, 39% of top talent that changed companies (voluntarily or involuntarily), joined similar-stage companies and 43% of top talent actually transitioned to earlier-stage companies. As shown in the Ensemble Data Platform Exhibit below, only 18% of top talent left to join later-stage companies.

Although the broader economic landscape is changing, the majority of early-stage talent is staying within the early-stage tech ecosystem as of April 30, 2020. We are also seeing the same trends as of June 30, 2022.

This dynamic is ever-changing and will likely continue evolving over time. We plan to continue releasing insights on how top 1% talent reacts to macroeconomic changes. However, at this point in time, we believe startups still have access to the same (or even higher-quality) caliber of talent amid many tech company layoffs.