The Myth of the Garage

by Chip Heath

Two researchers from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, Pino Audia and Chris Rider, have debunked the Myth of the Garage in a recent paper. The garage, they say, “evokes the image of the lone individual who relies primarily on his or her extraordinary efforts and talent” to triumph. The reality is that successful founders are usually “organizational products.” A separate study of VC-backed companies found that 91% were related to the founders’ prior job experience. Audia and Rider say entrepreneurial triumphs aren’t due to lonely, iconoclastic work–they’re “eminently social.” Wait a minute: Entrepreneurs aren’t rebels, then, so much as recently departed organization men.