Amar BhidéI studied 100 founders of Inc. Magazine’s 1989 list of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the U.S. Virtually all of them had started between 1981-83 in the midst of an awful recession.

But that didn’t prevent those founders from starting a new venture — in fact, in many ways it may have helped. Several had lost their jobs, so they weren’t risking steady employment — and they were able to hire employees who didn’t have great job prospects on the cheap. Landlords offered leases without asking too many questions about credit histories. Suppliers were willing to wait to be paid.


Amar Bhidé
Columbia Business School
“The Venturesome Economy.”
Why Bad Times Nurture New Inventions
NYTimes.com