Also called: Founder, Co-founder
Starts a new tech company from an idea, raises money, builds a team, and tries to grow it into a real business.
You might code the product in the morning, pitch investors at lunch, and answer customer emails at night. Most startups fail, but founders learn more in a year than many do in ten.
Extremely variable: many founders pay themselves little; a few become very wealthy.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
No formal education, about 0 years after high school. No degree required; many founders have CS or business degrees, some dropped out.
Ways in: Self-taught, 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Computer Science, Business, Any.
Growing faster than average. AI tools let tiny teams build products, increasing the number of startups.
Low risk for 10 years. AI lets tiny teams build products fast, raising competition; founding, selling and leading a company stays human.
Classes: Business, AP Computer Science Principles, Speech or debate.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-1021.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.