Silicon Valley Bank this morning released Startup Outlook 2011 (PDF), a survey of startup perceptions.

The financial institution surveyed 375 U.S.-based, private, VC-backed software, hardware and cleantech companies, and found that startups are generally optimistic about current business opportunities and that they will continue to hire throughout 20111 to support the expected growth.

In fact, 83 percent of surveyed startups said they planned to hire this year, up significantly from the 73 percent of startups that reported plans to hire in last year’s report.

Other key findings: nearly one in four companies (23 percent) exceeded their 2010 revenue targets, again up significantly from 2009 (15 percent). Two in three surveyed executives posited that business conditions in 2010 are better than they were in 2009, and three in four expect they will get even better in the coming 12 months.

Yay optimism!

Twenty-five percent of respondents are pre-revenue, 74 percent had 2010 annual gross revenues of less than $10 million, and 95 percent had 2010 annual gross revenues of less than $50 million. The average 2010 revenues among revenue-generating companies was $13.9 million, and the average size of the responding companies is 55 employees.

The number one challenge cited across all respondents is access to capital.

Independent market research firm Koski Research conducted the online Startup Outlook survey for SVB Financial Group in February 2011. The full report can be found below.

startup_outlook_2011