Ted Talk Looks At The Single Biggest Reason Startups Succeed

For a recent Ted Talk, financial manager and author Bill Gross analysed the factors that can either make or break startups.

He took data from hundreds of companies, ranking them based on five factors he believes are key to influencing success.

These are the company idea, the team, business model, funding and timing.

Unsurprisingly, he expected a startup’s idea to be the key influence on success – after all it makes sense that a company with a weak idea is less likely to take off than say Snapchat, Tinder or YouTube.

However, his research actually found that timing was the most instrumental influence on success, coming in at 42%, followed by team (32%), idea (28%), business model (24%) and funding (14%).

He draws on Airbnb as an interesting example – a company he says succeeded partly due to the recession that created a greater need for cheap accommodation.

To see the full Ted Talk please click here.