The core findings of this research are straightforward and contradict
some prevailing stereotypes. In the industries we researched,
entrepreneurs are more likely to come from a middle-class or upperlower-class
background, and very few come from backgrounds of
extreme wealth or extreme poverty. These entrepreneurs are usually welleducated,
with only 5 percent reporting having less than a bachelor’s
degree. They also are likely to be better educated than their parents
were, with half their fathers and a third of their mothers having at least
bachelors’ degrees. They performed well in high school and in college,
with the vast majority ranking average or above in their respective
institutions. Entrepreneurs don't always come from families of
entrepreneurs; slightly more than half of our sample were the first in
their families to launch businesses. On average, entrepreneurs tend to be
the middle child in a three-child household. They are significantly more
likely to be married and have children when they launch their first
businesses. Entrepreneurs are far more likely to have worked for an
employer for more than six years than to have quickly launched their
own businesses. Their primary motivations for launching a business are
to build wealth, to own their own company, and to capitalize on a
business idea they had.