Introduction

The majority of software start-ups between 50 and 80 percent fail during the first five years of their existence (Busenitz, 1999; Nowak & Grantham, 2000). So what is it that these companies neglect doing on such a massive scale that the few successful companies distinguish themselves with? This question is more important now than it has ever been, due to the large number of competitors in the software market, facilitated by the low threshold that the emergence of the internet and related technologies bring (Nowak & Grantham, 2000). Together with the economic downturn, this has resulted in a growing popularity of entrepreneurship. The lack of experience of these entrepreneurs only increases the number of businesses that do not even survive their start-up period.