Report: The anatomy of an Entrepreneur

August 10, 2009 at 5:11 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

The Kauffman foundation has released a report called the anatomy of an Entrepreneur that studies the background and motivation of people that start companies.

Something that stood out for me was the number of years that entrepreneurs worked for other before starting their own companies.

Years founders worked for other employers before starting their own companies Years founders worked for other employers before starting their own companies

More than 75% of the respondents* had worked for someone else for over 6 years before making the leap. The typical story in the popular media of a successful entrepreneur starts with the founder dropping out of college. Clearly dropouts are the minotiry. Do these stories get published due to the media having a selection bias toward outlier stories? Or do I have a memory bias that only remembers outlier stories being published? Either ways, a great report to clear any common misconceptions about entrepreneurship.

Get inspired now!

Abhinav

* A caveat on their methodoloty. Their definition of an entrepreneur includes any one that either founded a company or was an early employee. Given that it is far riskier to be an early employee at a startup than having the same job at an established company. Although, arguably, it is a far stretch from being an entrepreneur.

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