Illusions of Entrepreneurship
May 28th, 2008 by Dave
If you’ve gotten irrationally exuberant over the prospects of starting up your own business, here’s your cold shower. Scott Shane goes through some of the popular conceptions of startups busting myths and setting out the more sobering reality supported by data. To cut to the chase, government intervention to help startups is not necessarily a good thing; Shane says that if government gets involved it should be more like VCs and selectively target those startups with the potential for explosive growth. But aren’t VCs already doing that? Shane writes that you are more likely to slip and die in your bathtub than to receive VC funding for your startup. But it is not all bad news; some startups do very well and business ownership is a significant source of wealth in this country. The key is to choose the right industry and choose a business that is highly scalable.
