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A comment on The Post-YC Slump. Parent comment

Re:The Post-YC Slump by sokoloff on Thursday August 20, 2015 @03:33PM (#10094099)
Many of those small businesses that survive are simply the founder buying themself a job of some sort.

It's no surprise that someone who starts a landscaping or property management company, where the prime thing being sold is hours of labor, would have a higher 5/10 year survival rate than a company selling bits, ads, or other types of digital engagement.

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Re:The Post-YC Slump by GrinningFool on Friday August 21, 2015 @07:48PM (#10100930)
Small businesses are defined as 1-500 employees - I suspect that includes a fair range of company types. Lumping them together as a single thing strikes me as a bit disingenuous.

A quick search turned this up:

http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/09/failure-rates-by-sector-th...

This shows all business types following roughly the same trend. 'services' [which would include software and property management] have the lowest 5 yr survival rate at 36% and mining the highest at > 50%.

This is data is from the 2010 census, examining businesses started in 2005 - likely a different methodology than the SBA used. This which probably accounts for the discrepancy from my SBA stats in the original post.

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