That makes sense given how hard it is to start a company and the harsh reality that most fail. Shikhar Ghosh, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, looks at startups that take in outside money and finds that an estimated 30% to 40% fail. Ghosh defines failure as liquidating all assets, with investors losing most or all the money they put into the company. If failure is defined as not realizing the projected return on investment, then the failure rate is 70% to 80%.

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