60% of Successful Entrepreneurs are Married with Children

Wicked Ice

Wicked Ice

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Nov 11, 2007
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Although entrepreneurs provide the majority of jobs in the United States, little is known about what makes them tick. The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur fills in some gaps by providing insights into high-growth founders' motivations, their socio-economic, educational, and familial backgrounds, as well as their views on the factors determining the success of start-ups.

A team of researchers led by Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University, Raj Aggarwal of the University of Akron, Krisztina Holly of the University of Southern California, and Alex Salkever of Duke University surveyed 549 company founders of successful businesses in high-growth industries, including aerospace, defense, computing, electronics, and health care. The findings are presented in the following two reports.

Family Background and Motivation
The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Family Background and Motivation provides insights into high-growth founders' motivations and their socio-economic, educational, and familial backgrounds.
Findings include:

More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds and were well-educated: 95.1 percent of those surveyed had earned bachelor's degrees, and 47 percent had more advanced degrees.
Seventy-five percent of the respondents ranked their academic performance among the top 30 percent of their high school classes, and 52 percent said they ranked among the top 10 percent. In college, 67 percent of the founders ranked among the top 30 percent of their undergraduate classes, and 37 percent ranked their performance among the top 10 percent.
Founders tended to be middle-aged—40 years old on average—when they started their first companies. Nearly 70 percent were married when they became entrepreneurs, and nearly 60 percent had at least one child, challenging the stereotype of the entrepreneurial workaholic with no time for a family.

Making of a Successful Entrepreneur
The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Making of a Successful Entrepreneur provides insight into company owners' views about what influences the success or failure of a startup business. Entrepreneurs identified prior work experience, learning from previous successes and failures, a strong management team, and good fortune as the most important factors in their success.
Findings include:

Professional networks were important to the success of their current businesses for 73 percent of the entrepreneurs. In comparison, 62 percent felt the same way about personal networks.
Only 11 percent of the first-time entrepreneurs received venture capital, and 9 percent received private/angel financing. Of the overall sample, 68 percent considered availability of financing/capital as important. Of the entrepreneurs who had raised venture capital for their most recent businesses, 96 percent considered financing important.
Eighty-six percent of Ivy-League graduates ranked university education as important, as compared with 70 percent of the overall sample. Only 20 percent of entrepreneurs and 18 percent of Ivy-League graduates ranked university education as extremely important.
Most company founders (86 percent) ranked state or regional assistance as slightly or not at all important.
In identifying barriers to entrepreneurial success, the most commonly named factor – by 98 percent of respondents – was lack of willingness or ability to take risks. Other barriers cited by respondents were the time and effort required (93 percent), difficulty raising capital (91 percent), business management skills (89 percent), knowledge about how to start a business (84 percent), industry and market knowledge (83 percent), and family/financial pressures to keep a traditional, steady job (73 percent).
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The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur
 


Wicked Ice said:
surveyed 549 company founders of successful businesses in high-growth industries, including aerospace, defense, computing, electronics, and health care.
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Colour me dubious. 3 of those 5 industries are state protected monopolies.

Also, I find it ironic, if not outright disturbing that academics are analyzing market actors. It's like asking your cat to translate for your dog.
 
Yeah, it's a poor study purely because all the selected sectors require 2 things: degree for entry (i.e. you need a degree in medicine/electronics/aeronautical engineering to understand what is going on) or deals with the state.

Not to mention, 48% of people in the US are married. I'd expect in a higher middle class/lower upper class that the percentage is higher, simply due to social norms.

The start-up genome is far more interesting for this sort of thing:
Startup Ecosystem Report - Startup Genome
 
how does entrepreneurship compare with alcohol consumption? im worried that my jeffrey is not drinking enough recently to be successful
 
Lies, damn lies and statistics. I hate statistics. They can be manipulated, fudged figures pulled out of an A hole. 98.2% of people know this.
 
l.jpg
 
Hello friend,

I no think man become rich and success because they marry wife and have children.

I think it because man who rich and success attact lot women who want for marry them and have baby. That why lot success man have wife and children.

Good luck bro
 
95% of all bachelors are supposed to have a bachelors degree, 47% higher degrees. I don't think so.
 
mattseh said:
Are you an entrepreneur if you are in a market that is not completely free?
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I don't think that is the question actually.

Can you really be "successful" if you operate in a monopoly environment?

No one is impressed by someone on stilts slam dunking a basketball.
 
sumitdhawan said:
Hello friend,

I no think man become rich and success because they marry wife and have children.

I think it because man who rich and success attact lot women who want for marry them and have baby. That why lot success man have wife and children.

Good luck bro
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R.I.P English
 
sumitdhawan said:
Hello friend,

I no think man become rich and success because they marry wife and have children.

I think it because man who rich and success attact lot women who want for marry them and have baby. That why lot success man have wife and children.

Good luck bro
Click to expand...

Hi friend,
My friend married a guy with $3,000 to his name.
She pushed him to be better and go work for himself and they opened up a business together. Now we be sipping champagne on their Yacht 8 years later and all the young wealthy guys I know are foreveralone, so stfu bro.
 
Lol, Mituzo and Guerilla ripped that study apart. I bet I can prove the opposite if I do a survey of independent bounty hunters.
 
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