People- we are being LIED to. It is complete bullsh*t that 9 out of 10 startups fail. There is no scientific research that supports this claim. It’s a potent myth.
10 answers from the community
If its a myth then what are your data points to debunk it? It may not be 9 out of 10 but hey even if 7 out of 10 its high enough to make the point.
If startups had a high success rate then everyone would be doing them, and VCs/angels wouldn't be so cautious with their money. Instead, they all look for those 1 or 2 companies a year that become the next Instagram or Snapchat, etc.
It was probably never a scientific statistic. It could've been ONE VC's record and repeated as gospel. I don't the official stats is that 9 out of 10 fail.
It goes along the lines of: 5 fail, 4 zombies and moderate success and 1 hits it out of the park.
Zombies are even worse than failure. I've had a few and they kill you a little every day.
9 out of 10 (where the 9 includes zombies) has been my experience over the past 30 years.
The stat is 10% of all startups are funded and growing. There are another 38% that never raise money and are growing as well. So technically 9 out of 10 are not int he "funded and growing" category but 48% of all startups are growing and doing just fine.
Here are the stats. Slide #8 has the data:
http://www.slideshare.net/Mattermark/mattermark-weekly-19
This is a contrived study done by Mattermark, a for-profit company. In fact, there is so little value to this study and it's so misleading to the public that it can be legally taken down for misleading the public.
Empirically driven research, generally conducted by academic institutions and deliberated through peer review, is what advances science, -- not a sample set of 50 responses to a questionnaire answered by affiliated business partners.
All of this is bullshit. I literally see hundreds of start ups that are tanking. Accelerators churn out more start ups than can ever possibly succeed at a 1 in 10 ratio.
The real ratio has to be more like 1 in 100.
It reflects a ratio between total seed fundings to total A rounds.
That ratio changes due to market, economy changes, but overall it's a good reflection.
From a competitive point of view, I appreciate the lies that are spread about the risks of failure in a startup. Why would I want hundreds more companies competing in my space?
Therefore, .001% succeed.