How Founders Format Email Addresses: Data From 38,151 Startups
If you have ever guessed a founder's email address, you probably tried [email protected] first. You were right to. We looked at 38,151 founder and executive email addresses in the VCbacked database, and two-thirds follow that pattern exactly. But the odds change a lot with company size, funding stage and country.
Key findings
- 66.2% of founders use just their first name: [email protected].
- 17.9% use first.last (jane.smith@) and 8.7% use first initial plus last name (jsmith@).
- Those three patterns cover 92.8% of addresses.
- First-name-only drops from 79.6% at pre-seed to 54.6% at Series C.
- In Germany, Switzerland and Italy, first.last is nearly as common as first name, or more common.
The three patterns that cover 93% of founders
38,151 founders and executives whose first and last names are plain letters. Remaining 3.2% use other formats. Source: VCbacked.
Bigger companies move to first.last
A 5-person startup can give everyone their first name. A 500-person company runs out of Davids. The share using first name only falls steadily with headcount:
| Employees | first@ | first.last@ | flast@ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-10 | 72.6% | 14.0% | 7.0% |
| 11-50 | 65.6% | 18.2% | 9.0% |
| 51-100 | 61.1% | 21.5% | 10.2% |
| 101-250 | 59.3% | 21.9% | 9.8% |
| 251-500 | 57.0% | 23.8% | 9.9% |
| 501-1000 | 56.9% | 24.9% | 11.2% |
| 1001-5000 | 42.6% | 30.3% | 18.9% |
…and so do later-stage companies
Four in five pre-seed founders use just their first name. By Series C it's barely more than half, as companies adopt a company-wide format and the founders follow it.
The pattern depends a lot on country
| HQ country | first@ | first.last@ | flast@ | Founders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 70.4% | 12.0% | 11.0% | 22,415 |
| Brazil | 69.1% | 25.8% | 2.8% | 430 |
| Australia | 68.9% | 21.6% | 4.9% | 759 |
| Singapore | 68.0% | 20.4% | 1.9% | 701 |
| Sweden | 67.4% | 29.5% | 0.8% | 484 |
| United Kingdom | 66.3% | 23.2% | 4.0% | 3,255 |
| Netherlands | 64.4% | 22.2% | 4.9% | 492 |
| Canada | 63.4% | 17.1% | 15.1% | 1,508 |
| France | 57.7% | 29.9% | 6.7% | 1,245 |
| Spain | 55.5% | 22.2% | 13.1% | 481 |
| Germany | 47.3% | 39.3% | 2.4% | 1,211 |
| Switzerland | 45.3% | 41.9% | 5.0% | 618 |
| Italy | 34.4% | 48.6% | 3.0% | 430 |
| Japan | 28.6% | 27.1% | 6.0% | 469 |
flast@ (jsmith@) is mostly a North American habit: 11% in the US and 15% in Canada, but under 5% in most of Europe. In Italy, first.last is the most common format. Japan is the outlier: 16.2% of Japanese founders use their last name alone, more than in any other country we looked at.
What this means if you're guessing an address
- Small or early-stage US company: try first@ first. It's right about 7 times in 10.
- Series B or later, or 250+ employees: first@ is still the best single guess, but first.last@ is a strong second.
- Germany, Switzerland, Italy or France: try first.last@ alongside first@. In Italy, try it first.
- Japan: try last@ as well as first@ and first.last@.
- Check before you send. A guessed address that bounces hurts your sender reputation. Verify it, or use a source that already has it.
For a step-by-step method, see our guide on how to find a startup founder's email address.
Methodology
We took the primary founder or executive contact for each company in the VCbacked database where the email address, first name and last name are all present, and the names contain only letters. That excludes hyphenated and multi-part names, which make patterns ambiguous. That left 38,151 people. We compared the part of each address before the @ with the person's name, ignoring capitals. Company size, stage and country come from each company's profile. Data as of November 3, 2026.
Questions
What is the most common email format for startup founders?
[email protected]. 66.2% of the 38,151 founders we analyzed use it. first.last@ (17.9%) and first initial plus last name (8.7%) come next.
Do larger companies use a different email format?
Yes. 72.6% of founders at companies with 1-10 employees use first name only, falling to 42.6% at companies with 1,001-5,000 employees, where first.last@ rises to 30.3%.
Which countries prefer first.last email addresses?
Italy (48.6%), Switzerland (41.9%) and Germany (39.3%) have the highest share of first.last@ founder addresses. In the US it's 12.0%.
Skip the guessing: VCbacked has founder contacts for tens of thousands of venture-backed startups.
Using this data? You are welcome to quote or chart these figures. Please credit VCbacked and link to How Startup Founders Format Their Email Addresses (Data From 38,151 Founders).
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