Findings from a survey of 300 founders helped answer three leading questions – are co-founders more successful than single founders, does age matter, and are repeat founders more likely to be successful than first time founders. Age and gender are two hotly debated subjects in the startup world right now.
Not surprisingly perhaps, 84%-89% of successful startups tend to be spearheaded by co-founders, rather than single founders. Facebook is a notable example of a “suite” of successful co-founders while Zynga is an example of a single founder.
The data seems to suggest that younger founders do disproportionately better, especially in late stage startups. Of startups with an actual or potential exit valuation of $25+ million, 47% of the founders are younger than 30 years vs. 67% for startups with exit valuation of $500+ million.
Similarly, repeat founders do disproportionately better in startups with $500+ million in exit valuation – 90% founders in this category are repeat founders. Notable examples are of course Sean Parker of Napster and Facebook fame. Sean is currently on startup#5.
