A conversation with 590 Nascent Entrepreneurs

This paper summarizes interviews from 1998 with 590 individuals trying to create a business centered around five questions: "Who are you?", "What are you trying to accomplish?", "What have you and others put into the business?", "What have you accomplished?", "What remains to be done?" These Nascent Entrepreneurs are remarkably similar to the general population. Most have already made personally significant investments of time and money in their firms. For about half of them, these investments have yielded a fully specified product. Their most substantial sources of seed money are their own savings and loans from family and friends. A small minority of Nascent Entrepreneurs have applied for formal business loans, and only half of those applications have been approved.