It also depends on how you define "startup". The informal definition we think of day-to-day is fairly fuzzy. There's nuance in differentiating a small busines

It also depends on how you define "startup". The informal definition we think of day-to-day is fairly fuzzy. There's nuance in differentiating a small business operated by a few people from a startup. Being venture-backed is a simple differentiator but there are still legitimate startups this would exclude, e.g., serial founders who don't need to raise or products that make money early. With respect to "fail"... is an acquihire or an even-money, 1-3x exit etc a "failure". Probably, yes for the VC, but not necessarily for the founder. Accelerators are incentivized to count "successes" liberally as well. With a more broad definition of startup, it's easy to see the failure rate at 99%+.