(Source: Worldwide Business Startups, Moya K. Mason)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. You\u2019re 3x\nas likely to create a startup at the age of 60 than at 30: <\/strong>According to a\n2018 study, the more experience you garner, the more the chances of you\ncreating a successful startup are. This leads to the fact that nearly 75% of\nall successful startups are created by people above the age of 55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Sources: KellogInsight)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. It\u2019s only\na matter of days to get your business started: <\/strong>If you\u2019re apprehensive about\nthe time sink in starting a new business, you do not need to worry. If you\u2019re\nin New Zealand, it only takes one single day to register and start your own\ncompany. This number is not much higher in the rest of the world, with\nSingapore taking an average of three days, Saudi Arabia with five days and the UK\nhaving an average delay of about 13 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Dynadot)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Startups\naccount for around 93% of all patents filed: <\/strong>Startups are heavily reliant\non bringing a new product or service to their industry and as a result, file\nmassive numbers of patents, far outshining their established counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Business Insider)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Startups\nand small businesses pay almost 50% of all payroll: <\/strong>Even though startups\ntend to have smaller teams and limited funds, the sheer amount of people\nemployed in the startup ecosystem is huge. Hence they have nearly half the\nworld\u2019s workforce on their payroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Business Insider)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. United\nKingdom is the best country to start a business: <\/strong>TheUK topped the\nForbes 2018 list of best countries to start a new business. This might come as\na surprise due to the ongoing Brexit situation, but UK remains a very strong\neconomy. It has one of the highest GDP per capita in the world and has very low\nunemployment rates. Apart from this, the UK government offers massive tax benefits\nto new businesses and has one of the lowest corporate tax rates among the G20\ncountries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Forbes)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. The male\nto female ratio in entrepreneurship is 10: 6.9: <\/strong>Given how much the global\ntrends regarding women have changed in the last century, it should come as no\nsurprise that more women are joining the startup ecosystems with their own\nventures. The ratio of men to women entrepreneurs is rising steadily and is\n10:6.9 in 2019, up 12% from 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. The fastest-growing startup market is\nthat of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: <\/strong>In 2008, only 1 out of the\ntop 10 companies in the world were tech-based. Today the number is seven out of\nten. Following this trend is the startup ecosystem. There is always scope to\nimprove the efficiency of a particular algorithm or method, and entrepreneurs\nare hard at work finding them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. Slack was\nthe fastest startup to reach $1 billion valuation, taking only 15 months: <\/strong>The\nmessaging and chat application Slack was the fastest product in the world to be\nvalued at $1 billion within just 15 months of its initial release. It was\ncreated as an internal tool for the company itself when it was working on\ndeveloping a game, but its value as an independent product was soon realized\nand it was released to massive success in August 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Fortune)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. WhatsApp\nwas the largest startup acquisition in history at $19 billion: <\/strong>WhatsApp\nbegan with 2 people who were rejected for a job at Facebook, who decided to\ncreate their own Instant Messaging service. WhatsApp quickly grew into the most\npopular messaging service in the world, with over 1 billion users reported\nrecently. Facebook acquired them in 2014, marking the biggest acquisition for a\nventure based company in history, a feat that is still to be topped today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: IT World Canada)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11. Startup\nto monitor other startups: <\/strong>Since large sums of money are often sunk into\nstartups, people often look to defraud and exploit venture capitalists. To\navoid this, a whole new industry revolving around checking new startup for\nfraud has emerged. Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) firms promise investors a\nsafety blanket. They undertake a thorough investigation of a startup before the\ninvestor meetings to ensure that everything is above board and as it should be.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Association of Certified Fraud Examiners) <\/p>\n\n\n\n A company can only be as good as the people working to make it a success. Apart from the founders, startups need a strong team of dedicated members if they hope to make it big in the market. Here we take a look at some figures and facts about the teams behind startups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12. It takes an average of 6 months to\nhire someone for a new startup: <\/strong>Since most startups operate with limited\npersonnel, the risks associated with a bad hire are very high. This means that\nthe processes associated with the hire of a new member need to be excruciatingly\nthorough. Startups are often advised to plan at least 6-8 months in advance for\nhiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Forbes)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 13. Managing the human elements of a\nstartup takes up 40% of a founder\u2019s time: <\/strong>Being a startup founder is not\nalways about looking for ways to improve your product or services. In the early\nstages of the business, as much as 40% of an owner\u2019s time is spent with tasks\nthat do not generate and income or improvements. These tasks include hiring, HR\nwork, payroll management, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Entrepreneur)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14. It is better to have a partner: <\/strong>Steve\nJobs and Wozniak, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Larry Page and Sergei Brin, have\none thing in common. They had an amazing partner to have their backs when they\nstarted their business out. It turns out that having someone to share the load\nwith has a tangible effect on the performance of a startup. It brings about a\n30% increase in investments, a 3x increase in user growth, and reduces the\npotential of premature over scaling by 19%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Small Business Trends)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15. A lot of\nstartups fail due to bad teams: <\/strong>As many as 23% of startups reported having\nthe wrong team as the primary cause of their failure. This usually happens\naround the time when startups grow to have around 11-50 employees. This is\nbecause this is the stage when the startup is moving on from being a close-knit\ngroup of people trusting each other to a more hierarchal company structure,\nleading to more chances of mismanagement and miscommunication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Entrepreneur)<\/p>\n\n\n\n While startups often begin with a very\nlimited pool of money, often the founder\u2019s own savings, they can grow to become\nmulti-billion dollar enterprises in the blink of an eye. These types of startups\nare termed as \u2018Unicorns.\u2019 These are privately held companies valued over $1\nbillion, while a valuation of over $10 billion earns them the name \u2018Decacorn\u2019\nand a valuation over $100 billion earns the name \u2018Hectocorn.\u2019 It is every\nentrepreneur\u2019s dream to enter the prestigious ranks of the Unicorns. Currently,\nthere are around 280 Unicorns in the world. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s take a deeper look into some other\nfinancial factoids about the startup companies of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 16. The most successful startup in the\nworld is valued at $150 billion:<\/strong> Ant Financial, the company that owns and\noperates Alipay, was officially founded in 2014 as a venture focused on\nproviding all-encompassing financial services to its customers. Due to Alipay\nalready being a household name across China, Ant Financial grew stupendously\nfast and currently operates nine subsidiaries. These subsidiaries offer all\nsorts of services, from loans to investments to cloud-based accounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Reuters)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17. Globally startups are valued at\nnearly $3 trillion in 2019: <\/strong>Upon hearing the word startup, people often\npicture the image of a small office with limited resources working on the next\nbig idea. However, globally speaking, all startups combined have more value\nthan the GDP of the UK and France taken together. This is a 20% increase from\n2017 and is expected to increase to $4 trillion by as soon as 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 18. Bytedance, worth $75 billion, is the\nhighest valued startup of 2019: <\/strong>Bytedance is a news and content platform headquartered\nin Beijing. It is the publisher of the mobile app \u2018Tik-Tok\u2019 which recently\ncrossed 1 billion users. Venture capital firms placed its value at $75 billion,\nsiting the far reaching use of \u2018Tik-Tok\u2019 as one of the primary reasons for\ndoing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Wall Street Journal)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 19. Female founders only generate 2.2%\nof all venture capital: <\/strong>In the USA, in 2018, all female founders combined\nwere only able to generate $2.88 billion in venture capital in their startup.\nThis is a significant amount less than their male counterparts who generated\nmore than $103 billion, 79% of the total. The rest of the $130 billion went to\nfounding teams consisting of both male and female members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Fortune)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 20. Incurring\nmassive debts, even up to $3.5 billion, is very usual:<\/strong> While the purpose of\na business is to make a profit at the end of the day, startups often have to\nundertake massive debts and loans to get there. Uber and Airbnb are currently\nsome of the highest values unicorns, but both undertook massive debts in 2016.\nUber reportedly took a $3.5 billion investment from just one investor, and Airbnb\nhad to resort to financing options from JP Morgan and CitiGroup to stay afloat\nand grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Pitchbook)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 21. Just the\nkick you needed: <\/strong>A lot of people are turning to the crowdfunding platform\nKickstarter to fund their startups. As of December 2019, more than $4.6 billion\nhas been raised on Kickstarter for more than 170,000 projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Kickstarter)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost everyone in the world has an idea\nthat they think can change the landscape of the world entirely. These ideas\nmore often not tend to be on the ridiculous side, and so they never see the\nlight of day. However, some people just lean into their crazy ideas and create\nan entire company around it! Let\u2019s take a look at some of the weirdest startups\nthe world has seen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe after learning about these, you can\nget inspired to monetize your own weird idea!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 22. Just buy something, anything: <\/strong>After\nhearing the fact that \u201cevery second thousands of people buy something on the\ninternet,\u201d the founders of The Something Store thought, \u201cWhy not sell actually\nsell \u2018Something\u2019?\u201d. While most people would have laughed this idea off, the\nfounders just ran with it and created an E-Commerce store. In this store,\ncustomers could go and pay 10$ for \u2018Something.\u2019 They didn\u2019t know what they were\ngoing to get until they got it! All the founders said is that the item would be\nworth at least $10 and would be completely legal. Unfortunately, this store is\nnow closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: HoustonPress)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 23. Just a bag full of crap:<\/strong> Who\ndoesn\u2019t like being surprised? Also, who doesn\u2019t like receiving a bag of junk?\nThese are the questions that must have gone through the minds of the good folk\nat Woot when they decided to start selling their \u2018Bags of Crap.\u2019 How it works\nis that on holidays, the Woot warehouses compile all the unsold things that\nthey have and need to get rid of and stuff 3 of these items in a battered old\npaper bag. These then sell for 1$ each. They can contain amazing things such as\nflat-screen TVs or absolute crap like fart pens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: RustyBrick)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 24. Oh no! I am out of snow! Where can I\nget some, do you know?: <\/strong>Everyone loves snow! Making snowmen and having\nsnowball fights is something that can bring joy to anyone\u2019s heart. However,\nwhat would you do if you want to do those things, but you don\u2019t have snow? Well,\nyou order snow online, obviously. Sounds silly, doesn\u2019t it? It didn\u2019t sound\nthat way to the founders of Ship Snow Yo, who claim they have shipped almost\n7000 kgs of snow across the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Ship Snow Yo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 25. I am Rich, I Deserve it: <\/strong>Are you\nvery rich but are frustrated that you can\u2019t show it off to your peers? Fear\nnot, I am Rich has your back. It was an IOS app that was released in August\n2008 and cost $999.99. All this app did was play a voice message that was \u201cI am\nrich, I deserve it, I am good, I am successful.\u201d If that sounds ludicrous, then\nwait for the clincher. Eight people actually bought the app! Unfortunately, the\napp was taken down in just one day. 8000$ for an app that must have taken the\nfounder around 10 minutes to create isn\u2019t a bad deal though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Gizmodo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 26. Just actual real garbage: <\/strong>This\nis real. This is a real thing that exists. You can purchase literal garbage,\nthat the founders of NYC Garbage say is \u201cHAND-PICKED from the fertile streets\nof NY, NY.\u201d The idea started in 2001 as a challenge posed to the founder by his\nfriend. Upon refusing to believe Justin\u2019s theory that viral marketing and\nappealing packaging can sell anything, his friend challenged him to sell\ngarbage. An E-commerce store was born, and the rest, as they say, is history.\nThe website claims to have sold more than 1400 garbage boxes across the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: NYC Garbage)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 27. Lick your cat, like a cat: <\/strong>All\ncat lovers out there know that cats lick each other to show affection and that\ncats see humans as just big cats. Knowing this, wouldn\u2019t you want to lick your\ncat to show affection to it? Now with LICKI Brush, you can! It is a small\nsilicone brush that you can hold in your mouth to \u2018lick\u2019 your cat. The brush\nwas featured on multiple media outlets, including Tonight Show with Jimmy\nFallon and The Jimmy Kimmel Show. The startup has branched into selling other\ntoys for cats as well, but LICKI Brush remains their most famous product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: PDXPetDesign)<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have looked at the massive amount of\nmoney that flows into the startup ecosystem and some of the weird ideas that\nmake it big in the world. Keeping this in mind, we would be remiss to not talk\nabout the huge scams that some startups have peddled in the name of being the\nnext big thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 28. Bleeding investors dry: <\/strong>Blood\ntests are some of the most important tools used in the medical field in today\u2019s\nworld. They give doctors a host of information about their patients. So, when\nTheranos claimed that their proprietary blood tests could perform the same\nfunction, but only require a thousandth of the blood standard texts takes, the\nmedical world was taken by a storm. Over a few years, the startup raised nearly\n$1.1 billion in funds from various sources. However, as soon as the machines\nbegan to be produced, their false claims were realized. Both the founders were\narrested in 2018 and are facing up to 20 years in jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Business Insider)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 29. The Dishonest Company: <\/strong>Founded\nin 2011 by actress Jessica Alba, The Honest Company offered its customers\nnatural, healthy alternatives to household items such as toiletries and\ncleaners. They managed to raise a funding of $490 million before they came\nunder scrutiny in 2017. It came to light that they had been using synthetic\nchemicals, most of them toxic, in a lot of their products. A class-action\nlawsuit for false marketing was filed against them. They chose to settle the\ncase for $7.3 million and agreeing to change all their labels and modify their\nmarketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: CNN Business)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 30. The Unhealthy Outcome: <\/strong>Outcome\nhealth, founded in 2006, promised a way to monetize a doctor\u2019s waiting room.\nThey provided more than 40,000 doctors with TVs and Tablets free of charge to\ndisplay educational content. They then gave out advertisement spaces to\npharmaceutical companies onto these screens to monetize them. They raised\nnearly $500 million through various investments. However, an investigation by\nGoldman Sachs revealed that Outcome had inflated the number of screens that\nthey claimed investors would be able to access. Following a series of lawsuits,\nthe founders stepped down, and the cases were settled out of court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Chicago Business)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 31. Caught buying their own merchandise:\n<\/strong>Hampton Creek was started following the rise of veganism and promised to\nsell vegan alternatives to classical food ingredients. Their most famous\nproduct was an eggless alternative to mayonnaise, called Just Mayo. Following a\nhuge boom in sales of Just Mayo, Hampton Creek approached investors and managed\nto garner nearly $900 million in valuation and $240 million in equity. The\ninflated sales numbers came to light when five former employees came forward to\nBloomberg, prompting an investigation. The founder was charged with fraud, and\nthe company had to rebrand itself into \u2018Just.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Bloomberg) <\/p>\n\n\n\n 32. No time to spend on licensing, just\ngive me $540 million: <\/strong>Zenefits was a company that was founded in 2013 to\nprovide affordable healthcare insurance in mind. To set about that goal they\nhired a huge number of brokers and had them undergo training to become licensed\nby the state of California to sell insurance. However, as many as 80% of the\nthem falsified their records of time spent training and obtained certification\nwith under 10 of the required 52 hours of training. The state of California\nsued them in 2015, leading to a multi-million dollar fine and the resignation\nof the company\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Business Insider)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Found something interesting missing in this list? We’d love to hear your feedback and include any suggestion you may have! Feel free to leave your comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A startup company refers to any company or project that is started by an entrepreneur to effectively develop an idea or a product into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\nA look at the people behind the Startups<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ebool.com\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Startups.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s about the money!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Weird Side of Startups<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ebool.com\/hub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Startups-Growth.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s all a scam<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Data Sources & References<\/h3>\n\n\n\n