[ken]

But that doesn't mean 9/10 of startup founders fail. Most of the successful startups I know today are not the founder's first startup. Everybody says doing a startup, even (especially?) if it fails, is extremely educational.

The most common pattern I see is doing a startup, failing, but learning enough about how to do it right, and then trying again and having moderate success with #2 or #3.

9/10 of startups failing could be explained by "virtually all first-time startups fail, and 9/10 founders give up after their first failure, and those that stick with it, succeed". That would actually be rather encouraging.

Almost nobody I know working for a big company is working for their first big company, so you could also say "9/10 of all employments fail", but that's hardly an indictment of employment.

[sliverstorm]

Yes, but much as 9/10 employees won't ever make 7 figures, 9/10 startup founders won't ever cash out for 7 figures. Plus, in a cycle of invest-boom-invest-bust, your previous successes can be wiped out, making stable growth more difficult.