Start Ups Plan to Move Slow, Says The Economist

There are two basic forms of entrepreneurship: the life-style kind, where you have your safe source of income but don't want more, and the big-plans kind, where you want to conquer the world (or at least your country). Of course there are shadows in between. The latter kind is understandably in a minority, but they create the most jobs and wealth, of course. And entrepreneurs of this type is what angels look for!

Only 6.5% of new firms are likely to grow quickly enough to need more than 20 employees within the next five years, according to a report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and Mazars, an accounting firm. Entrepreneurs were asked how many people they expect to hire in their early years. Based on the responses, 90% of jobs will be created by less than a quarter of new firms. Nearly half of all start-ups do not expect to hire any staff at all. China has the highest number of entrepreneurs per head, with 17 per thousand. Russian start-ups are the most confident about creating jobs. America scores well on both counts: it has lots of entrepreneurs and many of these expect to employ at least 20 workers.

(From The Economist, http://www.economist.com/markets/indicators/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10180767)