Sick Hat tip @sacca Sent from my iPhone
It's quite dated now, but someone in 1994 did a survey of the founding dates of the Fortune 500 companies as of that year, and found that new companies were quite uncommon: 39% were over 100 years old, and about 50% were founded between the 1880s and the 1920s, in the "second industrial revolution". Only 16% of F500 companies (as of 1994) were founded after 1950.The authors speculate that the 1880s-1920s period dominates because it gave birth to the first large-scale corporations that could enter new markets, acquire new businesses, etc., through a mix of industrial and financial prowess. So while the Second Industrial Revolution gave rise to a bunch of F500 companies, the post-war Third Industrial Revolution based on chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, electronics, etc., hasn't given birth to as many new firms, because the older firms have been able to enter the market themselves, or buy up newcomers who do.
The exceptions they note: "companies such as Apple (1976), Compaq (1982) and McDonald's (1948), built new industries focusing especially on integrated-circuit technology and on franchising in the food and retailing sectors. Tellingly, the youngest member among the Fortune 500 is Office Depot (1986), one of the new breed of 'category killers' that have appeared in certain retail sectors. These category killers depend on sophisticated information technology for quick reporting of turnover figures and detailed data about their customers."
The article's here, but paywalled: http://www.jstor.org/pss/3117220
via _delirium on news.ycombinator.com
via slideshare.net
Fascinating look into how the sausage gets made.
It is a priori better to have a real co-founder than to go it alone. I know now from experience. The problem is that most prospective co-founders are not real, hence co-founder conflict is the leading cause of startup death, as it nearly was for mine.
What are Real Co-Founders?
In my mind, there are just five universal criteria:
- You genuinely feel that each person is an irreplaceable, non-substitutable requirement for success
- You each believe that building this startup together is the absolute best thing you can do with your lives now and for the next number of years.
- You have aligned expectations on what success means, and what it will take from each of you to achieve it. You speak up when the other is messing up.
- You are each not only willing — but eager — to put the startup ahead of your personal life and all other priorities until success is achieved. This is not to say that real co-founders should not have a life outside the Company – some balance is absolutely critical. But the startup must clearly be the top priority by a longshot.
- You like each other as people.
If even one of these criteria is not met, you are Faux Co-Founders. And Houston, you have a problem: Entering into a Faux Co-Founder relationship is categorically worse than going it alone.