RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK — Looking at 15 different local or regional job board sites for “startup” jobs, the exclusive WRAL TechWire Jobs Report showed 7,051 openings (not accounting for duplications in postings) this week, the lowest since WRAL TechWire began tracking this data.

Numbers fell below 8,000 for the first time at the beginning of the month and have dropped steadily since.

Recently, WRAL TechWire spoke to Scot Wingo about the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report for Q3 2023, released on October 12. (The report shared a pretty bleak outlook; not only was last quarter one of the lowest for deal flow in the past few years, but investors are anticipating more trouble ahead.)

Wingo, founder of the Tweener Fund, told WRAL TechWire that despite the national numbers, he’s optimistic about how our “young” ecosystem can handle a tough fundraising season.

“We don’t have that many Series C and beyond companies, that out in Silicon Valley are jamming up the system with untenably high 2020-era valuations that make it near impossible to raise capital,” said Wingo. “When you peel the onion on the Pitchbook data by ‘stage’ (e.g. seed/A/B/C) you find that because B/C is so large, that’s where the bulk of the pain is. Underneath seed and A is pretty vibrant, and that’s good for the Triangle.”

Indeed, a Ventures survey earlier this year found that 57% of early-stage founders were more optimistic about their ability to raise capital than they had been in the previous nine months. In 2022, 43% of founders were optimistic, and in 2021, 54% were optimistic.

“The strength of Triangle startups is we’re scrappier than other regions,” said Wingo earlier this month. “That’s due to relatively sparse funding in the region, but the silver lining is our companies aren’t living on hundreds of millions of venture capital without signs of getting to cash flow positive. When headwinds form from externalities, our companies hunker down, grow revenues while managing expenses, and make the previous rounds last longer.”

Trends for ‘startup’ jobs in the Triangle

Starup job posting numbers fell 6.8% this week and are 69.1% lower than this time last year.

Here’s a look at the trend from the last 16 months:

Here are the numbers from all 15 different local or regional job board sites that we review weekly for WRAL TechWire’s exclusive Jobs Report for “startup” jobs:

Check back next week for an update on the WRAL TechWire jobs report.