Founder

Where these numbers come from

• Pay: No BLS occupation for founders; Carta / Kruze / Warp founder-pay data (2025-26); CB Insights / Startup Genome (startup failure rates).
• The outlook: CB Insights / Startup Genome / Wilbur Labs 2026 (failure rates, solo founders); PitchBook 2026 VC outlook; Kellogg Insight (founder age vs. success). Dated June 2026.
• Getting in: How many people take each route is our own estimate, rounded. O*NET OnLine occupation keyword searches for founder and for entrepreneur, across the full taxonomy, read August 2026: neither is an occupation, so no Job Zone, SVP range, education response, median wage or employment projection exists for this career; the closest literal match returned for founder is 51-4051.00 Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders. U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business, 2026, published February 2026 and sourced on its face to BLS Business Employment Dynamics, read August 2026, for the survival figures averaged over 1994 to 2022: 67.7% at two years, 49.2% at five, 33.9% at ten and 25.5% at fifteen, with 69.5% of those reaching five years also reaching ten and 76.1% of those reaching ten also reaching fifteen; and for the 2023 counts of 1.3 million establishments opening and about 1.2 million closing permanently. Those figures cover employer establishments, meaning businesses with staff on a payroll, and a first venture with no employees is outside the series. Y Combinator, its own Apply and Deal pages, read August 2026, for the four cycles a year, the on-time deadline with a published decision date, the same day interview decisions, the written feedback to everyone interviewed, the $500,000 investment for a fixed 7% plus $375,000 on an uncapped MFN SAFE worth about 2.5% more at a $15M cap, the absence of fees, and the requirement that a company be incorporated in the United States, Canada, the Cayman Islands or Singapore. Acceptance rates are not published on either page and none is claimed. U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, field of study data, CIP 52.07 Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations at bachelor level, 331 programs and 3,469 graduates, read August 2026, for the $61,000 median four years out. On what a minor may do: Delaware Code Title 8, sections 101 and 141, read September 2026, for the absence of any age on who may incorporate and on who may be a director, a director needing only to be a natural person; Texas Business Organizations Code section 3.004, read September 2026, for the other statutory shape, an organizer being anyone with the capacity to contract; California Family Code section 6710, read September 2026, for the disaffirmance rule in statutory form, a contract of a minor being voidable by the minor before majority or within a reasonable time afterwards; the Stripe Services Agreement, section 1.2, read September 2026, for accounts opening from 13 and a user under 18 having to add an adult representative bound by the same terms; the Apple Developer Program enrolment page, read September 2026, for individual enrolment requiring the legal age of majority and a parent or guardian being able to enrol and share the account; Internal Revenue Service guidance on responsible parties, read September 2026, for the responsible party on an employer identification number needing a Social Security number or individual taxpayer number and no age being stated; and NerdWallet’s guide to opening a business bank account, read September 2026, for the 18 year minimum, which no bank publishes as a rule of its own. No accelerator’s policy on founders under 18 is claimed and none was sourced. Dated September 2026.