A cursory glance at that data tells me it makes no sense. They cite several industries with failure rates substantially below 90%, don't give a single instance of a failure rate greater than 90%, but tell us it averages out that way.

Also real estate businesses only have a 42% failure? So I have a greater than 50% chance of becoming a real estate mogul? I just don't buy it, and I don't believe those other numbers either.

And the only source they cite on the website, http://www.moyak.com/papers/business-startups-entrepreneurs...., doesn't really lend any explanation to their numbers.

I think their data is wildly skewed by sampling bias, as they claim to get their data from interviewing failed founders. Welp, they never interviewed me - how many other people have they never interviewed because they simply never knew the company existed? How many founders, after failing, go out of their way to talk about their failure?

VCs have a strong incentive to create a story that starting a company has a greater chance of success than it does, because it's low-risk for them and they want a churn of potential investment prospects.

I think 1% is a much more realistic number than 10%, unless we're limiting ourselves to Sequoia-backed post-Series A companies.