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M$50 June 19, 2009 11:19 AM

Can you create a data visualization of startup founder BMI (body mass index) plotted against startup outcome?

I am curious if the physical health/habits of startup founders is correlated with their success. I want to see a data visualization of startup founders with the following information: 1) body mass index, 2) startup outcome, 3) capital raised, 4) time to startup success. I want your research to be at least mostly scientifically sound.

Use CrunchBase or some other quasi-scientific source to find a decent sample of startups that includes the following possibilities: a) failure, b) long-term stagnation, c) mild success/quick acquisition, d) huge success/gigantic acquisition. Please use at least 70 startups and include the following startups in your data: TechCrunch, Mahalo, Tesla, PayPal, eBay, WebVan.

Collect (at least) the following information (in a spreadsheet) about each startup founder:
1) Founder name, age, and other info
2) Founder weight
3) Founder height
4) Startup name, business model
5) Startup outcome
6) Capital raised
7) Time to startup exit (either abcd above)
8) Type of exit
9-n) Other relevant information you find necessary/interesting

Most companies will have multiple founders. Create a distribution to show the founder BMIs for each company, and then create an average for that company to plot on the master graph.

This will require original research. Pick the sample of startups, then contact the founders and get the information personally, if you can, via any means necessary. (You can also potentially estimate and provide pictures as evidence for up to 25 startups, but this is less interesting and you will not meet as many people).

Bonus: I will pay 25 extra Mahalo dollars if you actually contact every single startup founder, tell him/her that Dustin Curtis (from dustincurtis.com) is asking for the information, and get valid personal contact information for me (so I can tell them of the outcome).
Interesting Question?  Yes (6)   No (2)   

Interesting: lesliec, jasoncalacanis, mikeydangerous, demanda, nadiraziz, setatimaier

Uninteresting: nushka, ascrivner

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June 20, 2009 02:42 PM
LOL, no answers yet? I guess the "use at least 70 startups" clause is a hindrance, even if the other points can be achieved.

I'm sure that at least one person can answer all the relevant questions for one instance - Jason Calacanis himself...!

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June 20, 2009 06:15 PM
This is a little more of a "study" than a question and answer since it require a LOT of primary research. I think it would take at least two or three weeks to do this project as it's VERY hard to get entrepreneurs to give this information--if they would give it.

I mean, I'm not putting my height and weight in a spreadsheet. I was thinking the best thing you could do is get folks to do this by marketing the study, but then i think the folks who are fit would optin to show off and the folks who are fat would run and hide from the study.

Of course, it is an interesting study to work on. I wonder if there is a correlation between startup founders/CEOs and their startups.

What would be even more interesting is to track startup founders weights over the course of a startup. When people feel stress and sleep less they retain weight.... which is life at many startups. I know I gained like 25 pounds when I was running Weblogs, Inc. and through the sale especially (was under a lot of stress). I dropped 20 of those pounds when I got out of the fog fairly quickly (6-9 months).

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June 20, 2009 06:47 PM
Yeah, it does require a huge amount of primary research. I wasn't sure if anyone would bite and attempt it. I hope someone does.

Recording weight over time for founders in a startup would be interesting, but I am more focused on finding the correlation between body health and startup health. The idea is that if you have a high BMI that you don't take as much care of your body, which is indicative of laziness, and might reflect on the startup's chances for success.

If there is a decently sized connection between the two, it could possibly be used as a factor in deciding investment.

Based on your experience, do you think there's anything to this idea?

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June 22, 2009 10:45 AM
Dustin, what if you made this into a game?

Form some sort of game and take out a booth at a popular trade show. Scan the badges of people "playing", ask them if they are a startup founder and take their BMI.

The game and prize would have to be very compelling. Most folks don't necessarily want to step on a scale in public.

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June 22, 2009 02:40 AM
It would be easy enough to do in excel but it is way to much work for $50. Plus I don't think you would find the correlation that you are looking for.

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