Entrepreneurship has the power to energise communities, fuel nations and, literally, change the world. Yet, 90% of entrepreneurial businesses will fail, wasting the millions invested and jeopardising founders’ mental health.   

It is time to think about success and failure differently. If we pool and interrogate the data of the failed 90% - just as they do in other industries - we can draw the patterns and learn the lessons. We can save and scale good businesses. We can equip and empower more entrepreneurs to succeed.  

The prize is huge.  If business success rates improved by just 10%, back of the envelope calculations indicate it could be worth £19.6 billion to the UK economy, $850 billion to the US economy.  Most importantly, any economic benefit is coupled with the unquantifiable human benefit of preserving entrepreneurial wellbeing. 

In the first of a series of round table debates called 90/10 Switch, Louise Nicolson, entrepreneur and author of The Entrepreneurial Myth, and Maryam Mazraei, founder of Autopsy, call for entrepreneurs and investors to join together to recalibrate entrepreneurship for the health and wealth of all.  

Find out more here about the round table series: Rethink failure to redesign success