A Better Startup Study

The Kauffman Foundation research study, "After Inception: How Enduring is Job Creation by Startups", paints a better picture of startups and the U.S Economy. Some highlights from the study are:

• Job destruction caused by failing and contracting ventures is at least partially balanced out by the job growth that occurs at surviving firms from birth to age five
• Twenty-five years after firms start, only about 20% survive, but the employment numbers appear to level off at around 68% if their initial values.
• A recession does adversely affect startups' employment in the first, second, and third year.
• The consequences of starting during a recession do not last until year five when employment reaches about the same level as firms that were not started in recessions.
• Exposure to prolonged recessions (such as the current recession) does negatively affect job creation.
• Surviving startups retain 80% of the jobs they create at birth five years later.
• While approximately 50% of startups fail within the first five years, the other 50% that grow open up new opportunities for employment.

 In the days ahead, I am delving deeper in order to determine which startups are more likely to survive? What are the factors that affect survivability? How can we better help the survivability rate of startups?