Why The Top 1% of Founders Quit Their Startups

That quote from Paul Graham’s essay <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">How Not to Die</a> stuck with me during my struggles as a 3rd-year founder backed by Y-Combinator. For an average small business in the US, you <a href="https://softwareconnect.com/accounting/four-things-every-start-up-should-know-about-selecting-software/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">beat 25%</a> of competitors by surviving year one on average. By year four, you’ve <a href="https://softwareconnect.com/accounting/four-things-every-start-up-should-know-about-selecting-software/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">beaten half</a>. For funded startups, the numbers look even better. <img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*CLHV3SFXwGotUpfI06i8tQ.png" style="height:471px; width:700px" /> Source: TechCrunch You beat out <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/17/heres-how-likely-your-startup-is-to-get-acquired-at-any-stage/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">~90% of your competitors if you’ve survived long enough for a Series-C</a>. Directionally, if your chances of becoming a unicorn were 1% when you started, you 10x that probability by surviving long enough to get a Series-C. Now, proposing “just don’t die” as a solution to “I’m dying” in an industry where 95% of startups fail sounds silly. But on a deeper look, it holds merit when you examine why most early-stage startups die. According to surveys by <a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/startup-failure-reasons-top/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">CB Insights</a>, founders list running out of money and competition as the top reasons. When you speak to founders, that’s rarely the case. Paul seems to agree with me on this one: <a href="https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/why-the-top-1-of-founders-quit-their-startups-b1f10603292a">Visit Now</a>