Afford Anything · Friday, October 23, 2026
Using comprehensive data tracking 10 million entrepreneurs starting back to 2000, researchers found that the majority of people who started a successful small business did not come from the top 10% of the income distribution. Most star founders emerged from the poor and middle classes, though children born to wealthy parents remain statistically more likely to start a business.
“the majority of people who started a small successful star business didn't come from the top 10% of the income distribution, in terms of how wealthy their parents, or how high income their parents were, They came from the poor and the middle class.”