TED Talks provide a platform for utopians, doers, and visionaries. Entrepreneur Bill Gross is one of them: He explores why some startups are successful and others are not.
In the TED video archive There are countless exciting and less exciting lectures on all sorts of topics. startup scene has selected from the gigantic collection a worthwhile talk by the entrepreneur and Idealab founder Bill Gross excavated.
Gross is an avowed advocate of the startup approach:
“I believe that the startup organization is one of the greatest forms to make the world a better place.”
Startups can unleash human potential like never before. But why, Gross wonders, do so many startups fail? Among the more than 100 startups that have emerged in his Idealab incubator so far, there are many success stories, but also just as many failures.
An idea whose time has come
The speaker searched for the factors that determine a startup's success or failure and found them: the idea, the team, the business model, financing, and timing. He assigned scores along these five dimensions to 100 Idealab trainees and 100 other startup companies.
His result is surprising: Timing is key! The team ranks second, followed by the idea and the business model. Financing is therefore the least important factor among all success factors.
Here you can see Bill Gross’s entire lecture:
