6 ms·

Has anyone done a survey of the family socio-economic status of startup founders and early employees? I'd be curious to see how many founders/early employees ar

by dtran 11y ago

Has anyone done a survey of the family socio-economic status of startup founders and early employees? I'd be curious to see how many founders/early employees are from low-income families, whether their parents graduated college, etc. If not, I'd love to create one.

josephlau 11y ago
This is a great idea!
keithba 11y ago
There is this: http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anatomy-of-an-entrepreneur http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anat...
- dtran 11y ago
  Thanks-- that's useful: "More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds and were well-educated." I'm curious about the socio-economic background of the parents as well.
  - sharemywin 11y ago
    be careful because "entrepreneurs" can be people that have to work contractor, part-time work, or the same trade "my father" was in kind of work.
    - dtran 11y ago
      That's always the problem with surveys like these. I started the form, then realized it'd be very difficult for me to group everyone into multi-choice categories for job, background, etc.
  - brudgers 11y ago
    My understanding is that there is a very strong correlation between a person's educational and socio-economic attainment and those of their parents. The number that sticks in my head is that parental status accounts for 80%+.
    - sandstrom 11y ago
      This is an article I read on the topic. If you are born to parents in the lowest quartile you have ~10% chance of making it into the highest by age 26. For people born in the highest the probability is ~30%. (and if it was random it would, obviously, be 1/4 = 25%) http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america-no-less-socially-mobile-it-was-generation-ago-mobility-measured http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america...
      - refurb 11y ago
        But that's moving from the bottom to the top. How about from the bottom to the middle? What percentage never leave their quartile?
        0xcde4c3db 11y ago
        On its own, leaving a quartile doesn't say anything about the magnitude of the change, so it's not a very useful measure of anything. Another problem is that because the distribution is so heavily skewed toward the top (for both income and wealth, but more heavily for wealth), dividing the population into equal groups creates a somewhat misleading picture of mobility. A nonlinear breakdown of classes is more reflective of the distribution. In that case we might ask something like how many people move from the bottom 40% to the top 5%.
        sandstrom 11y ago
        This is a very good point, I totally agree! Although for some questions, e.g. "Can you escape poverty in the US today?" (which could be specified as moving from 1st -> 3rd quartile) this data works. But, for other types of questions, e.g. "Is extreme wealth mostly hereditary?" you'd need a non-linear breakdown of classes.
- danielvinson 11y ago
  This is unfortunately very outdated. (07/08/09) I would wager that a lot has changed in the last 7 years.
  - jonathankoren 11y ago
    I doubt it. Has access to capital changed? If anything, the trend is towards more concentration. Cronyism is just a given when it comes to finance and business dealings.
- danielvinson 11y ago
  "More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds" I'd like to offer a potential explanation of this: Middle and upper-lower-class individuals have the most to gain by doing things on their own. * An upper-lower-class or middle class child will not have the same burdens and problems as a lower-class individual as describes in this post. They likely have just enough of a support system to be able to make it on their own. * An upper-lower-class or middle class child will NOT be able to get into a great college with scholarships. They will likely choose a safer route, like a cheaper state school. This makes them less desirable to employers, so the "safe" route doesn't exist.
  - jsonne 11y ago
    Yep this is exactly it I believe. I come from a very middle class background. My dad is mechanic and my mom is a teacher. If I wanted to move up in the world this is the best route. I had neither the business connections nor the ability to afford an Ivy League school. That being said, I was lucky enough to go to a state school and for my parents to support me for about 6 months while I got my company making revenue. So your 2 conditions seem to hold true.
  - jschwartzi 11y ago
    My mom works in education and my parents are divorced, so I bought a degree from a lower-tier state school with loans. I still had to list both parents on my FAFSA and couldn't qualify for any need-based anything. Basically I ended up paying more for a less valuable piece of paper. Because my chosen school sucked it was really hard to find a job. I'm only where I'm at because I'm lucky, and I don't think many people in my situation would have had similar success.
rezistik 11y ago
I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.
- dtran 11y ago
  Hey-- feel free to reach out if you need someone to talk to-- david@crowdbooster.com and ricky@crowdbooster.com
  - rezistik 11y ago
    That's awesome, thank you!
- ryandrake 11y ago
  You know what's weird and uncomfortable sometimes? Going to lunch with your co-workers and listening to them talk about the awful problems of their lives, like how they wish their maids could come twice a week instead of every two weeks, and how difficult it is that they have to pay [my salary * 0.5] for their kid's private school. How worried they are about things like the stock market and how high the property taxes on their million dollar homes are. Total culture shock, not coming from money.
  - rezistik 11y ago
    Absolutely, it causes feelings of shame to bubble up from childhood that I didn't expect to feel again as an adult.
  - some-guy 11y ago
    My biggest shock was during my first internship during college making $30 / hour at an enterprise software company. For background: I went the community college / go-get-a-degree-in-your-late-20s-route in life, living off nearly minimum wage for many years before going to CC. The first paycheck comes after two weeks, $1800 after taxes and withholding. I am in awe of how much money I suddenly have in my bank account. My fellow students who were interning instantly started complaining about the tax rate and how they wouldn't be able to afford SF rent and the lease payment on a sports car.
akhilcacharya 11y ago
I'd also be interested in the mappings between this and the universities they came from . I'm sure there were kids in OP's position that got a 1400 instead of a 1600 and went to SJSU instead, for instance.
- streptomycin 11y ago
  Relevant: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17159 http://www.nber.org/papers/w17159

by dtran 11y ago

josephlau 11y ago

This is a great idea!

keithba 11y ago

There is this: http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anatomy-of-an-entrepreneur http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anat...

dtran 11y ago
Thanks-- that's useful: "More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds and were well-educated." I'm curious about the socio-economic background of the parents as well.
- sharemywin 11y ago
  be careful because "entrepreneurs" can be people that have to work contractor, part-time work, or the same trade "my father" was in kind of work.
  - dtran 11y ago
    That's always the problem with surveys like these. I started the form, then realized it'd be very difficult for me to group everyone into multi-choice categories for job, background, etc.
- brudgers 11y ago
  My understanding is that there is a very strong correlation between a person's educational and socio-economic attainment and those of their parents. The number that sticks in my head is that parental status accounts for 80%+.
  - sandstrom 11y ago
    This is an article I read on the topic. If you are born to parents in the lowest quartile you have ~10% chance of making it into the highest by age 26. For people born in the highest the probability is ~30%. (and if it was random it would, obviously, be 1/4 = 25%) http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america-no-less-socially-mobile-it-was-generation-ago-mobility-measured http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america...
    - refurb 11y ago
      But that's moving from the bottom to the top. How about from the bottom to the middle? What percentage never leave their quartile?
      - 0xcde4c3db 11y ago
        On its own, leaving a quartile doesn't say anything about the magnitude of the change, so it's not a very useful measure of anything. Another problem is that because the distribution is so heavily skewed toward the top (for both income and wealth, but more heavily for wealth), dividing the population into equal groups creates a somewhat misleading picture of mobility. A nonlinear breakdown of classes is more reflective of the distribution. In that case we might ask something like how many people move from the bottom 40% to the top 5%.
        sandstrom 11y ago
        This is a very good point, I totally agree! Although for some questions, e.g. "Can you escape poverty in the US today?" (which could be specified as moving from 1st -> 3rd quartile) this data works. But, for other types of questions, e.g. "Is extreme wealth mostly hereditary?" you'd need a non-linear breakdown of classes.
danielvinson 11y ago
This is unfortunately very outdated. (07/08/09) I would wager that a lot has changed in the last 7 years.
- jonathankoren 11y ago
  I doubt it. Has access to capital changed? If anything, the trend is towards more concentration. Cronyism is just a given when it comes to finance and business dealings.
danielvinson 11y ago
"More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds" I'd like to offer a potential explanation of this: Middle and upper-lower-class individuals have the most to gain by doing things on their own. * An upper-lower-class or middle class child will not have the same burdens and problems as a lower-class individual as describes in this post. They likely have just enough of a support system to be able to make it on their own. * An upper-lower-class or middle class child will NOT be able to get into a great college with scholarships. They will likely choose a safer route, like a cheaper state school. This makes them less desirable to employers, so the "safe" route doesn't exist.
- jsonne 11y ago
  Yep this is exactly it I believe. I come from a very middle class background. My dad is mechanic and my mom is a teacher. If I wanted to move up in the world this is the best route. I had neither the business connections nor the ability to afford an Ivy League school. That being said, I was lucky enough to go to a state school and for my parents to support me for about 6 months while I got my company making revenue. So your 2 conditions seem to hold true.
- jschwartzi 11y ago
  My mom works in education and my parents are divorced, so I bought a degree from a lower-tier state school with loans. I still had to list both parents on my FAFSA and couldn't qualify for any need-based anything. Basically I ended up paying more for a less valuable piece of paper. Because my chosen school sucked it was really hard to find a job. I'm only where I'm at because I'm lucky, and I don't think many people in my situation would have had similar success.

rezistik 11y ago

I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.

dtran 11y ago
Hey-- feel free to reach out if you need someone to talk to-- david@crowdbooster.com and ricky@crowdbooster.com
- rezistik 11y ago
  That's awesome, thank you!
ryandrake 11y ago
You know what's weird and uncomfortable sometimes? Going to lunch with your co-workers and listening to them talk about the awful problems of their lives, like how they wish their maids could come twice a week instead of every two weeks, and how difficult it is that they have to pay [my salary * 0.5] for their kid's private school. How worried they are about things like the stock market and how high the property taxes on their million dollar homes are. Total culture shock, not coming from money.
- rezistik 11y ago
  Absolutely, it causes feelings of shame to bubble up from childhood that I didn't expect to feel again as an adult.
- some-guy 11y ago
  My biggest shock was during my first internship during college making $30 / hour at an enterprise software company. For background: I went the community college / go-get-a-degree-in-your-late-20s-route in life, living off nearly minimum wage for many years before going to CC. The first paycheck comes after two weeks, $1800 after taxes and withholding. I am in awe of how much money I suddenly have in my bank account. My fellow students who were interning instantly started complaining about the tax rate and how they wouldn't be able to afford SF rent and the lease payment on a sports car.

akhilcacharya 11y ago

I'd also be interested in the mappings between this and the universities they came from . I'm sure there were kids in OP's position that got a 1400 instead of a 1600 and went to SJSU instead, for instance.

streptomycin 11y ago
Relevant: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17159 http://www.nber.org/papers/w17159