Startup hits are always viewed as phenomenons but what factors are the ACTUALLY the most important to success? There was a study attempted a few years ago to list [6] key factors below , across a broad longitudinal study of X companies, and to rank them in terms of predictive success:

• Founding team quality
• Novelty/ ingenuity of idea
• Market Opportunity
• Market timing
• Capital Raised
• C-level Management effectiveness

What do you think the results showed?

It turns out that Market Timing is #1 as most important.  There were 16 businesses with AirBnB’s business model before it came along.  However 2 years post-financial crisis, many Americans were looking for ways to generate income and that facilitated the rapid growth of the Homesharing marketplace (and sharing economy).  Founding team quality was #2 and the others were a wash.  The market timing allowed AirBnB to generate outsize returns on their good execution.