In today's Wall Street Journal: Three out of four start-up companies backed by venture capital fail.
Venture capitalists "bury their dead very quietly," Mr. [Shikhar] Ghosh[, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School who researched the subject,] says. "They emphasize the successes but they don't talk about the failures at all."
There are also different definitions of failure. If failure means liquidating all assets, with investors losing all their money, an estimated 30% to 40% of high potential U.S. start-ups fail, he says. If failure is defined as failing to see the projected return on investment—say, a specific revenue growth rate or date to break even on cash flow—then more than 95% of start-ups fail, based on Mr. Ghosh's research.
Failure often is harder on entrepreneurs who lose money that they've borrowed on credit cards or from friends and relatives than it is on those who raised venture capital.
Just making the point that venture capital isn't the golden ticket some people who liken it to traditional publishing would like you to think it is. Big expectations + tight deadlines = high likelihood of failure. Doesn't matter what industry.