Expert: Why do entrepreneurs fail? They choose the wrong idea.

Expert: Why do entrepreneurs fail? They choose the wrong idea.

February 15, 20192 min read

The importance of having a sound business idea for a startup is essential, but identifying the ideas most likely to go from concept to venture is challenging. Statistics show that about 34 percent of startups fail within the first two years and 56% within the first four years. Most failures are due, in part, to the pursuit of ideas that are poorly selected and/or tested.


“Inexperienced entrepreneurs have improved odds of succeeding over the long run if their first idea is sound,” says Dan Cohen, director of Wake Forest University’s Center for Entrepreneurship.



“A key to that success is to generate 100 ideas and then evaluate and select the best one. That first win builds confidence for the next.” - Dan Cohen


Cohen’s new teaching method, IDEATE, has been proven to help develop higher-quality, more innovative ideas. He is available to discuss ways fledgling entrepreneurs can refine their ideas — from product or service development to customer testing to securing investors to marketing and sales. He can also discuss why starting a business is easier today than it has ever been and what characteristics people share who are drawn to opportunities, innovation and entrepreneurship.


Dan Cohen and Wake Forest’s Center for Entrepreneurship were prominently featured in the Winston-Salem Journal’s Business & Innovation section Spotting valuable ideas.


IDEATE was one of four finalists for the 2018 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation Award from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers — winning recognition from among more than 100 submissions. Most recently, Wake Forest University was a finalist for the Model Emerging Entrepreneurship Program Award at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) Conference focused on entrepreneurship education.



Broadcast Television and Radio Studio Information


Wake Forest operates a fully-equipped, professional television and radio studio to connect experts with global news media. Video interviews can be coordinated through LTN Global Communications’ Smartcloud IP video transport service that provides regular high-quality video transport connections to most major broadcast networks. Audio interviews are coordinated through ipDTL, an IP codec used for remote radio broadcasts as well as voice-overs. ipDTL replaces classic ISDN audio codecs and has backward compatibility. Details available here.


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