TED Talk: The single biggest reasons why startups succeed

In this TED Talk Bill Gross explains why one certain factor is often essential for startups to succeed.

Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, a business incubator focused on new ideas, got curious about why some startups succeed and other fails. Therefore he gathered data from hundreds of companies (100 Idea Lab startups and 100 non-Idea Lab startups). He ranked each of these companies on five factors: idea, team, business model, funding and timing.

The result was that one factor stands out from the others. And the finding even surprised him.

Watch the 6:40 TED Talk in which he explains and exemplify why the one factor is so essential.

[ted id=2272]

Bill Gross founded his fist company, a solar energy company, when he was still in high school. Next, he he patented a new loudspeaker design in college. After school he started a company that was later acquired by Lotus, and after this he launched an educational software publishing company. Now, he serves on the boards of companies in the areas of automation, software and renewable energy.