The startup lifecycle: a challenging enterprise.

Abstract

Startups are innovative companies with a scalable and repeatable business model aiming to create and maintain their market. This type of activity has a high-risk rate: in fact, 90% of start-ups fail according to statistical analysis. Thanks to these data consideration this thesis attempts to understand the reasons often leading to the failure of innovative companies, both at the micro and macro level. The first chapter proposes a definition of Startup which is still open to discussion, together with the analysis of both fundamental aspects of an innovative enterprise and the Italian system. Trough the micro-level analysis, it compares researches made in the last twenty years, the American research delivered by CBS Insights and the interviews collected during the research with professionals in the sector. The chapter concludes with strategical suggestions to avoid the failure during the life cycle. The macro-level analysis is divided into two parts. The first part measures the distance between the Italian context and more developed countries. The second chapter, through a statistical model, shows the importance of the entrepreneur’s background. The thesis aims at demonstrating how the research is understandable both by subjective obstacles and some related to the Italian law issued in 2012. This law has led to an increase in the innovative ventures, but the present external conditions are not favorable yet.