Israel - Extremely Low Startup Failure Rate Reported

As many of you know, the start-up scene in Israel is especially vibrant - for example, although it is one of the smaller countries worldwide, Israel is #3 on the NASDAQ after the US and China...

It should therefore come as no surprise that the failure rate for start-ups in Israel is extremely low. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics released data on 2,047 companies operating in the realm of research and development between 2003 and 2008. The data set included companies in the following market spaces: semi-conductors, biotech, medical devices, communications, clean tech and electronic components.

Of the 2,047 companies analyzed, 1,746 (85%) were categorized as start-ups; of these fully 1,222 started up during the term examined. Five years later, 488 of 547 companies that had ceased to exist were startups. Of the 1,222 companies started up from 2003 to 2008, only 35% had failed!

As a comparison:

In Britain 33% of new businesses fail during the first three years.

In the US fully 55% of new businesses are out of business by the end of their fifth year of life

For more on the success of the Israeli start-up community I highly recommed Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle

The secrets of my failure: Why ‘winning’ is not our natural state

Adam Fletcher penned a nice piece on failure for Venture Village, syndicated by VentureBeat - it's titled The Secrets of my Failure.

btw on the subject of failure in scientific research - less than 5% published - that means more than 95% fails, right? Wrong - because much of the 5% published is manipulated.

A couple of good books on the subject of error (aka failure) in scientific research and elsewhere are Wrong: Why experts* keep failing us--and how to know when not to trust them *Scientists, finance wizards, doctors, relationship gurus, celebrity CEOs, ... consultants, health officials and more by David H. Freedman or Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz.

Seen a good movie lately...?

I'm sure that just like me - you've all sat through movies and could not believe some producer(s) read that script and actually put real money to have that movie made...

Here are some thoughts from Paul Ormerod, brilliant British economist, on why movies flop:

Why do films flop?

Stat to Ponder - Percent of US Businesses Failing Every Year

Unbelievable - fully 10% of US businesses fail annually. Wow.

WSJ Publishes Old News on VC-backed Startup Failures

WSJ published some old news today...according to Deborah Gage, the VC (Venture Capital) secret is that 3 out of 4 startups fail...

News flash: 1 out of 10 succeeds...

Rough VC stats are as follows - for each 1,000 business plans a typical VC sees:
=> VC communicates with 100 teams
...meets with 10 teams for presentations
...invests in ONE single venture

Success stats are approximately:
+ 5-6 fail ... negative returns
+ 2-3 breakeven - living dead etc. ... zero returns
+ 1-2 minor success ... minor returns, in today's climate barely return VC investments
+ 1 raging success ... major returns, finances the whole deal

DO THE MATH - for a single raging success a VC team has to review approximately 10,000 business plans, sit through 100 presentations, invest in ten companies and work with them for periods that can stretch out to ten years and beyond.

It ain't an easy business - even if top firms like Kleiner Perkins and Accel sometimes make it seem like cake.

Hello World!

Hello World - launching a new blog on failure. It's about time.

Here's a first take at the raison d'être:
It has long been a given that failure is a precursor to success - if you don't try, you won't find success, but if you do try, you will inevitably fail; and you will fail far more than you will succeed. "Steiner on Failure" will allow you to understand the concept of failure, and how one can leverage failure to find more success - in life as a whole, in business, in the arts and in whatever field one may seek to develop in.