A blog series dedicated to help explore your entrepreneurial career and answer the question; how do I know I'm ready to be a founder or an entrepreneurial employee? Thoughts from 1871 CEO, Howard Tullman, The Starter League CoFounder, Mike McGee, SimpleRelevance CEO, Erik Severinghaus, and more.
Why does everyone want to be a founder? After having worked at Startup Institute for a year and a half now, I have met hundreds, if not thousands of entrepreneurs and yet, I am still amazed at the number of people who are founding or want to found their own company.
Does everyone have their own company these days? Is this is the modern American dream? Forget the white picket fence, let’s build a software company! Did they all go see The Social Network together and get mesmerized by the oozing sex appeal of an angsty, hoodie-wearing Jesse Eisenberg? Is this just part of my generation? Has everyone been bitten by the startup bug?
To try to dig into this question, I turned to Google and searched “Gen Y” and “entrepreneurship” and was amazed by what I found. Dozens of articles citing how this generation, more than any previous, is more entrepreneurially-minded. In fact, Gen Y is almost two times more likely to major in entrepreneurial studies while and college, with the goal of starting their own business soon after. One study states that half of recent college graduates believe that being self-employed is more secure than having a full-time job. And why wouldn’t they? Let’s take a look at the some of the most successful companies of our time and the corresponding ages of their founders (hint: they all have something in common).
- Microsoft: Bill Gates (20) & Paul Allen (22)
- Google: Sergey Brin (25) & Larry Page (25)
- Apple: Steve Jobs (21) & Steve Wozniak (26)
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg (20)
Did you see the pattern? All of them were in their (early) twenties when they founded their companies. Is it any wonder that this generation has such a fascination with the idea of technology, startups, and being your own boss?
But these companies are one in a million. What about your typical, everyday startup - how often do they succeed, and who are their founders? Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot CTO, provides some insight in his blog, which are different than you might think:
- Average age of founders is 40
- The majority of founders are serial entrepreneurs, with the average number of businesses launched of 2.3
- 75.4% had worked as employees at other companies for more than six years before launching their own companies
So, I ask again, why does everyone want to be a founder? Well, that’s what we’re here to discuss and debate. The Founder Syndrome is a blog series that we’ll be publishing over the next month, that culminates with a panel discussion on March 31st. In the series, we’ll explore the question of how to know when you’re ready to be a founder or an (entrepreneurial) employee. Posts and opinions will come from various startup community members in the Chicago ecosystem.
Join the discussion and RSVP to the panel today!
