In the actual article they mention it: "The findings are similar if we define success to also include firms that were acquired or merged." Also numbers seem t

In the actual article they mention it: "The findings are similar if we define success to also include firms that were acquired or merged." Also numbers seem to be ok (about 1-in-5 for the first time enterpreneurs, 1-in-3 for the already successful ones and 1-in-4 overall), considering these are all venture backed companies, thus pre-selected from a much larger pool. Plus, if you check the list of 40 VCs (Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Benchmark, Bessemer, Greylock, Accel, etc.), these are also skewed toward the top of the distribution, so there is another level of pre-selection.