Science™ Says One Key Warning Sign of a Low-Quality Startup Is Being Named After Its Founder

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I’m reading James Surowiecki’s piece about startup companies, and couldn’t help but laugh when I got to this:

New work by the MIT economists Scott Stern and Jorge Guzman shows that in 15 U.S. states between 1988 and 2014 there was no long-term decline in the formation of what they call “high-quality” startups. Stern and Guzman have figured out the characteristics of startups that are trying to become high-growth firms, which include being chartered in Delaware, registering for patents, and not being named after the company’s founder.

Hmmm. Can we all think of an entrepreneur who (a) names all of his startup companies after himself, and (b) runs about the lowest-quality businesses imaginable? Sure we can. In fact, I’d like Stern and Guzman to rerun their correlations after removing all Trump businesses from their dataset. They might find out that he’s personally responsible for the entire effect.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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