

Success Breeds Success in Startups - quizbiz
http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-028.pdf

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randomwalker
Summary: a previously successful entrepreneur is two-thirds more likely to
succeed in his next venture than a first-time entrepreneur. Part of this
difference is (obviously) attributable to skill, but the paper makes and
supports the claim that part of it is due to the fact that past success
improves perception, making it easier get funded and to hire smart people. The
key statement (slightly edited) is:

"Successful entrepreneurs are somewhat better than unsuccessful ones; the
differential is amplified by their ability to attract more and better
resources."

They define success as going public, but claim that "the findings are similar"
if success is defined to include acquisitions and mergers.

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vaksel
It pretty much boils down to funds and streetcred. A first time entrepreneur
starts out with 5-20K in savings and no connections. A failed entrepreneur is
also in the same boat, no money, maybe a few connections.

Meanwhile a repeat successful entrepreneur has a few mil in the bank, street
cred to get VC $$$ and free media coverage. And that gets them that starting
core of users to help grow the service during hte early days.

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joepestro
Totally agree. Gaining initial traction is magnitudes harder as a first time
entrepreneur. Would Twitter be at its current level if Evan Williams didn't
have the credibility that came from founding Blogger?

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robertgaal
When linking to a PDF: please put this in the title. I hate 'em.

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sachinag
Um, that's why the Scribd link is automagically generated.

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bonsaitree
Then it should say [pdf] and not [scribd].

The latter is to a proprietary web document viewer for PDF files.

The link provided is directly to a PDF file.

One is most definitely not the other. As much as some folks may wish it,
Scribd != PDF.

