The Mall Bathroom Test to Identify Entrepreneurs

http://www.smallbiztrends.com/2008/06/the-mall-bathroom-test-to-identify-entrepreneurs.html/

by Mistone • 18 years ago

17 15 18 years ago

smallbiztrends.com

nloadholtes• 18 years ago

Ugh. I think the first sentence of the last paragraph sums up the article best:

"Maybe this just means that we’re not very good at predicting who will become an entrepreneur."

nirmal2• 18 years ago

It is a stretch to call this an article. I also think the title should be "The Mall Bathroom JOKE for Identifying Entrepreneurs".

mrtron• 18 years ago

Joke would imply humour, which would not be appropriate either :)

nirmal2• 18 years ago

touche

dpapathanasiou• 18 years ago

This is a candidate for a downvote.

d0mine• 18 years ago

Remind me again, what is the male/female ratio among startup founders funded by Y Combinator? And does it contradict the article?

apathy• 18 years ago

A predictor in a poorly specified model can perform just fine until you look a bit closer and identify stronger predictors, or address confounding factors explicitly. eg.

IFF women are more risk-averse THEN less women entrepreneurs IFF time lost to childbirth is a factor THEN less " "

In the former case, risk aversion drives the predictor, and linkage with gender makes it appear as though gender is a strong predictor. After breaking the predictor in two, a much more informative fit is generated. Et cetera. I make no claims as to the correctness of the above. But I am dubious that vagina possession is the kiss of death for starting one's own business. Confounding seems likely.

Ratcheting up or down the sample size does not address confounding. Are women incapable of becoming successful entrepreneurs? Oprah would probably suggest not. Are there numerous factors working against them? Yes. Far more interesting is to probe which characteristics are overwhelmingly female and which are shared among sexes.

lpgauth• 18 years ago

lol, why would someone even write something like this?

everyone knows men is superior :)

(kidding!)

Actually, I find it surprising that there aren't more women as they are usually way more hard working then men but I guess they don't have the guts to take the risk.

Mistone• 18 years ago

like the comments in the post say, its one hell of a compelling title, author gets some props for that, even if the content lacks real substance, it was the first thing I clicked in my reader.

jkent• 18 years ago

It also assumes that entrepreneurs have time to go to the mall.

edw519• 18 years ago

It also assumes that entrepreneurs have time to go to the bathroom.

radu_floricica• 18 years ago

For all the blog posts twice the length and half the substance, this actually makes a point, and doesn't take a lot of time to do it. Good enough.

DaniFong• 18 years ago

I'm not sure this is accurate. The proportion of female founders must have changed over time, while the demand for an extroverted, independent, perspective, confident personality likely remains. And for example in third world countries, it's to a large extent the women starting their own home businesses. And there's really no data here, so all it is is the voicing of stereotypes. Unless some surprise is communicated, there really isn't much information here.

iloveyouocean• 18 years ago

If you are reading the comments before the article:

Summary - Men are twice as likely to start businesses as women. Other traits are (psychological) are not as good as gender at predicting who will be an entrepreneur.

Note: "The Mall Bathroom Test" is a gimmick. Men go into the men's bathroom, women into the women's. Thats it.

mynameishere• 18 years ago

There's a very strong correlation between "yes" responses to the question "Are you an entrepreneur?" and that person being an entrepreneur.

The Mall Bathroom Test to Identify Entrepreneurs

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