Nascent entrepreneurs study: what 71 people did.
The nascent entrepreneurs study by Carter, Gartner and Reynolds followed 71 people partway into founding a business. Six to eighteen months later, those with a business had made it real to others. Those still trying had focused on internal work instead.
Who the 71 people were.
In 1996, Nancy Carter, William Gartner and Paul Reynolds published "Exploring start-up event sequences". Their 71 subjects came from two surveys of 683 adults in Wisconsin and 1,016 across the United States. Those interviews took place in 1992 and 1993. None were business owners yet, so they resemble your position closely. Then the researchers went back six to eighteen months later.
Forty-eight per cent reported a business in operation. More than twenty per cent had given up, and almost a third were still trying.
What the nascent entrepreneurs study found.
However, the split matters less than what each group did. Those with a business sought facilities, got financial support and formed a legal entity. They also organised a team and devoted full time to it. So the start up event sequences of launchers made the business tangible to others. Meanwhile, those still trying focused on saving money and preparing a plan.
Also, building a prototype separated people still trying from those who gave up, not from those who launched.
The limits you should keep.
Seventy-one people is a small sample from early 1990s America, partly from a single state. Therefore, the nascent entrepreneurs study shows an association, not a cause. Committed people may simply have done more of everything. So it cannot tell you what successful founders do first in your country or decade. In short, it predicts nothing about you, but your column carries the same distinction.
Compare your column with the nascent entrepreneurs study.
Split your list into acts that made the business real to others and acts nobody saw.
Pick one item from the first type, like asking a supplier for a price, and schedule it.
From the book.
So take the narrow version, because the narrow version is the only one I can defend. Among those 71, all of them partway into an attempt, the ones who ended up with a business had put more of their effort into the acts that placed it in front of somebody else, and the ones still trying had put more of theirs into the acts that nobody outside could see.
I Want to Start a Business but I Never Actually Start, chapter 3: What counts as started
Questions about nascent entrepreneurs study.
What did the nascent entrepreneurs study measure?
It asked 71 people partway into founding a business what happened six to eighteen months later. It then compared what each group had been doing.
Did building a prototype lead to launching?
Not on its own. It separated those still trying from those who gave up, rather than trying from having a business.
Does this study predict my outcome?
No. It describes 71 people three decades ago and reports an association, not a cause.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 3, “What counts as started”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Nobody has seen my business: the question to ask.
- 02 Who has seen my business idea: fill in one column.
- 03 Correlation vs causation in startups: what survives.
- 04 Nascent entrepreneurs study: what 71 people did.
- 05 First online sale story: eleven minutes, fifteen dollars.
- 06 Stealth mode startup: why it is not hiding.
- 07 Visible vs answerable: six ways your count breaks.