- Successful startup founders gain 3.1 more years of seniority than non-entrepreneur peers.
- Founders of failed startups still gain an average of 2.4 years of seniority.
- Startup founders’ wages are up to 40% higher than non-founders on average
- Just 20% of workers ever reach top-level seniority (level 20) in their carers - compared to most founders who reach this level
The fact that 90% of all startups fail eventually - may put many budding entrepreneurs off of taking the leap altogether.
However, new research has revealed that even founders of failed startups tend to gain, on average, 2.4 years of seniority compared to their non-entrepreneurial peers, Moneyzine.com reports.
“It’s been a challenging year for new startups, with many would-be entrepreneurs understandably reluctant to launch their business in an uncertain market. With that said, it’s clear that the gumption, ambition, and varied skill set required of a startup founder is highly valued within the workplace - whether that startup succeeds or fails makes less of a difference than starting in the first place.”Luke Eales, CEO of Moneyzine.com
Entrepreneurship pays off
The research, focusing on venture-backed entrepreneurs, discovered that founders of startups would typically obtain jobs up to three years more senior than their peers upon leaving the startup.
Perhaps even more surprising, however, was the finding that even founders of failed startups tended to find new roles with an average of 2.1 years more seniority than non-founder peers. While successful startup founders can undeniably find greater success than failed founders, the main conclusion that can be drawn from these findings is that those who start something in the first place tend to come out better overall than those who never begin at all.
The many hats of entrepreneurs
One likely reason for these findings is that, whether successful or not, entrepreneurs tend to have an extremely varied skill set not often found amongst employees in the traditional workforce.
It takes a startup an average of 6 months to hire employees. As such, they will find themselves often wearing the hat of CEO, accountant, marketer, sales manager, and more. Entrepreneurs are more likely to be valued in the workplace for the diversity of their experience and the proven ability to use their intuition to deliver results.
Rags to riches
This latest research resoundingly points to the idea that individuals with the ambition and perseverance to launch their own businesses are more likely to be rewarded for doing so than daring not to. What’s more, history has proven this to be so.
Most recently, WeWork Co-founder Adam Neumann, who left the business in 2020 after multiple conflicts of interest coming under scrutiny, has been awarded a reported $350 million investment in his latest real-estate venture.
However, it’s not difficult to find other examples of successful entrepreneurs with a path of failed businesses behind them. Milton Hershey, for example, started three different candy companies which all subsequently failed before he eventually started the Hershey Company that secured his global success.
Another amazing example of persisting after failure is the story of Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky, along with his co-founders Joe Gebbie and Nathan Blecharcszyk. The three entrepreneurs reportedly received seven rejections from major investment companies before finally getting their shot - and now, the company is valued at over $113 billion.
Contributors
