Anatomy of an Entrepreneur, in pictures

Vivek Wadhwa is at it again, this time through a slideshow at Business Week that digs into his study of the same name for the Kauffman Foundation. 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.

Comments

[Vivek Wadhwa]

Tim, once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur. Even though I am in academia, my heart is still in the entrepreneurial world...hence the motivation to learn and document everything I can about entrepreneurs!

I have gotten some very interesting feedback to this research which I can use help in deciphering. Many BusinessWeek readers argue that a "small business person" isn't the same as an "entrepreneur". To be honest, I never gave this any thought and always assumed they were one and the same. But if you read the comments posted in the blog which accompanies the slide show which you have linked above, you will have some food for thought also.

I would encourage you and Bob Litan and the other "Kauffman elders" to post your thoughts on that blog. This may be an interesting research project for someone else! :)

There is also a discussion on BusinessWeek about the difference between male and female entrepreneurs. If you or one of your colleagues have the time, I would love to share the dataset with you and get your help in analyzing these differences. (I have far too much on my plate right now to do this...on top of Part 2 of this research, I have 3 other big projects in progress).

Regards,

Vivek

[Aaron McKenny]

Great post, thanks for posting the links! I definitely was surprised by the number of people that were married and had children at the time of launching businesses. I would think that this would make them more risk-averse and thus less likely to launch a new venture.

I've referenced you on my blog, but can't get the trackback to work (it thinks I'm spamming you and gives me an error, heh, oh well)

Cheers!

[Tim Kane]

Thanks Aaron. I blame Typepad -- have disliked their upgrade for months and thought about switching. Thanks for the effort!

On substance, the biggest surprise of my year at Kauffman is learning that entreps are older than the stereotype. Inspiring, actually. I should stop blaming my kids for killing my Poker Genius ambitions, huh?

[Aaron McKenny]

I hear you, Blogspot definitely has its share of issues as well (it doesn't even natively support trackback, I had to install a browser plugin to add the option).

It would be interesting to find out if there is any difference in the kind of venture a entrepreneur starts based on age whether it's sliced by tech v. non-tech, new concept vs. franchise/new take on an old concept, or whatnot.

I'm thinking perhaps younger entrepreneurs may take more risks with cutting-edge, fast-growing industries whereas people that have been working for a while may open up shop in an industry somewhat related to their previous experience.

On the flip side, an article I read a while ago by Nikolaus Franke, et. al "Venture Capitalists' Evaluations of a Start-Up Teams: Trade-Offs, Knock-Out Criteria, and the Impact of VC Experience" (http://ssrn.com/abstract=944239) seems to point to industry experience (and to a somewhat lesser extent age) as being one of the bigger factors in getting VC funding.

Agreed, don't give up your poker genius ambitions... rather, use those poker skills to fund your next start-up! ;)

By the way, is KCEL still running the Entreprep program? I can't find anything on the Kauffman website about it and wanted to get back in touch with Alice Darnell who I believe ran the program when I went through it...

[marriage and sex]

well in new in this but let me tell u that for a become a good Entrepreneur u new to have a vision and fallow that vision till the end do it and u will achieve any task.