Want to identify successful startup founders? Check Linkedin.
Over the past few weeks on the blog, we’ve been exploring how to identify successful startup founders (obviously, this matters A LOT to investors in early stage companies). Are entrepreneurs born or made? I remember a few years back, there were some (credible) studies that seemed to point to the existence of the entrepreneurship gene. In the book, Born Entrepreneur, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life, author Scott Shane looked at identical and fraternal twins and their inclinations to be entrepreneurs. The siblings who shared 100% of their genes demonstrated higher rates of entrepreneurship — leading Shane to estimate that 30-40% of successful startup skills are innate. Successful entrepreneurs are more tribal This startup gene theory is being challenged by some more recent work at MIT’s Sloan School of Management (admittedly, the existence of the startup gene would be b-a-d for the MBA program business). In The Power of Alumni Networks — Success of Startup Companies Correlates with Online Social Network Structure of Its Founders, researchers found that university networks whose alumni have a stronger “old-boys-network” (larger...
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