Does anyone know of data that goes into the general political leanings of startups and new business creators?
Is there a disproportionate number of conservatives? Libertarians? Liberals?
I don’t know about data, but we don’t need it. This is a question that can be answered by simple logic.
When somebody starts a business, they find that there are various regulations they have to follow (getting a sales tax license, liquor license, getting certified/registered, etc.) Many times, it takes a significant outlay of time, money, or both, to satisfy those requirements.
It is human nature to resent something that inconveniences you. The regulations are set up by the government. Therefore, any ire that any particular person would have about a given regulation would be aimed at the government. This, in turn, means that somebody who has been inconvenienced by regulations would turn a sympathetic ear to a political party and/or a philosophy that stands against such things.
If you are I know this one with my n>>1 experience. Very liberal based on two facts: 1. education and 2. many entrepreneurs are trying to make the world a better place- either as a pipe dream and sales pitch or else as how they think the market opportunity would be the biggest.
No entrepreneur dreams of making a less fuel efficient car- there isn’t a market for investors looking for such an opportunity. Similarly, pharma start-ups are filled by people who lost their grandparents or parents to awful diseases, who wants bad healthcare for others.
Interesting that Flyer and I had such absolutely different responses- both focusing on extreme ends of the entrepreneur spectrum. I was talking more on the biotech and high tech entrepreneurs to be clear.
Flyer, you neglect to mention that many governmental regulations greatly convenience entrepreneurs, too.
I don’t have data to contradict you, but simple logic tells me that your approach is simplistic and almost certainly not accurate. People are complex, and many are able to hold more than one idea in their head at one time. Especially people who are smart enough and driven enough to be entrepreneurs. They may have conscious thoughts that over-ride their “natural” resentment of regulations.
That’s why actual data is probably useful, if any such exists. I tried a quick Google search but did not get anything conclusive either way.
I’m interested in this subject too, and since this is in General Questions I’d like to see some actual data, your “simple logic” notwithstanding.
Part of the reason I asked is because based off this clip on a tangential topic of liberals and conservatives
Peterson makes a case based on his own observations with some start up outfits and how the founders test psychologically that... at least in the tech space, the kinds of people who start those businesses tend to be overwhelmingly liberal. He goes on to say conservatives tend to be better managers, but that the initial spark of ideas tends to come from liberals more often. Is this true? How much does this vary via industry? Could it be that conservatives still start more businesses overall but less in areas like tech that might select for more out there ideas to stand out?And how do the libertarians fit into all of this? There are some prominent libertarians in the tech space so I wonder if they are actually over represented as well based on their population size.
This question is not entirely innocent, IF it turns out that it was generally true that it was the LIBERALS that were more likely to start companies, you better believe I would use that as a bludgeon against all the self righteous conservatives I encounter on the net that thing their way of looking at the world is gods gift to enterprise.
I just rewatched the relevant section in that video I posted and Peterson did make a distinction between business owners and entrepreneurs, and so I looked up articles on distinctions and here is what I found.
So with those descriptions, I suppose it does make more sense that a liberal kind of person would be more represented among entrepreneurs compared to standard business owners.
Based upon your link, I think your conclusion is a leap.
Small business owners trend heavily (though not overwhelmingly or even largely) Republican. However, small business owners are not necessarily entrepreneurs; some portion of them will have inherited a family business, and others will have bought in to a going concern.
How does one count a one-person business? What about a one-person business that later expands to hire others?
I started a business with a few other people, we grew to about 20 employees and prospered, then failed.
“Government regulation” had nothing to do with any of it. It just wasn’t that big of a deal.
That is awesome data. And…talk more accounting 
I know a handful of entrepreneurs (in the sense of self-employed individuals who started their own business and are successful in it). Most strike me as apolitical, in that we rarely talk politics and in most cases looking in from the outside a typical observer couldn’t even guess what their politics was, but the ones of which I have some knowledge tend to be liberal/centrist with what I regard as an enlightened sense of social responsibility.
So my experience, at least, differs from your assumptions, which maybe makes it unwise to assume that “we don’t need no steenkin’ data, we already know the answer.” Innovators like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or Tim Cook all seem to have commitments to social progress that transcend simple profiteering.
Agreed. Entrepreneurs are just people, and while some can be totally shallow and self-serving like some people we all know, it shouldn’t be surprising that many are influenced by their intellect and insights – and those of their family and friends – to see a big picture beyond pure business. But as you note, a lot depends on the kind of business, because different occupations attract very different personalities.
Business owner here. I have almost always voted Libertarian or Republican.
It would be an interesting study. Difficult to do - how you get a proper selection of people to sample is not clear.
My experience is that it varies right across the board. I know a few proper entrepreneurs (20 to 80 employees - high tech companies), one of which is so far to the right he considers most conservatives weak. Another is a mix of attitudes, but generally conservative. The most successful I know is very liberal in his views.
Attitudes are often founded on the difficulties in running the business, and for start-ups the source of the difficulties that bring the fledgling business to the brink. If your business is brought to the brink by a very unwelcome tax, you tend to develop certain attitudes to the tax regime. If it is problems with employee laws, similarly. Running a business involves levels of stress and problems of a scale that most people don’t see in ordinary life. Sleepless nights worrying about how the next week’s pay is going to be met are quite common.
A big difference is going to be seen between start-ups with venture capital and start-ups that are scratch start self funded. All of the companies I know are self funded. The owner’s house is on the line. VC funded is a very different matter. When it is other people’s money at stake attitudes can be very different.
Comments so far, especially the distinction between small-business owner and entrepreneur, seem in accord with the well-known correlations between political leaning and mental modes or brain structures.
I work with entrepreneurs everyday. I help them get their business going, I help them with funding and I work with people in every stage of development. I have quite the anecdotal experience with entrepreneurs, albeit in a limited geographic area and high tech fields. My experience tells me that:
I don’t know the answer to this question and wouldn’t venture a guess.
Really though, what little they reveal about their political leanings, I would say it is mixed with slightly more of them being liberalish. But that could be a function of my location and the fields I work in. To suggest there is a strong bias one way or the other without any real data is just a stupid thing to do.
I started a new business last year on the side from my full time corporate drone job. I agree with those here who said that beliefs are across the board. In general, given my perspective of a long career with corporations and one startup and then starting my own gig, I would say that strong feelings on things like regulations, the EPA and such don’t arise until you get into medium-sized or large companies. Entrepeneurs can have strong thoughts about sales and income taxes and employment law because they’re most impacted by those. Once you start getting big, then you get more cost conscious and the other regulations and business laws have more impact. And then another step up from that, once you go public the stock market has it’s own intense pressures that will affect management attitudes.