The World's Largest Longitudinal Survey of New Businesses
To fill a void in data collection on young businesses in the United States and to catalyze new understandings of how various factors influence entrepreneurial outcomes, the Kauffman Foundation created the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS)—the largest longitudinal survey of new businesses in the world.
The KFS started with a cohort of nearly 5,000 firms that began operations in 2004. This cohort is tracked annually and asked an extensive set of detailed questions that cover a range of topics such as the background of the founders, the sources and amounts of financing, firm strategies and innovations, and outcomes such as sales, profits, and survival.
The KFS is currently in its fifth collection period with data available for analysis by scholars on the first four years of operations covering calendar year 2004-2007 business activities.
"The Kauffman Firm Survey is a pivotal part of the Foundation’s overall commitment to improving the quality of data available for research and policy work in entrepreneurship,” said E.J. Reedy, manager, Research & Policy at the Kauffman Foundation. “The early years of a business can be chaotic. Now we will have eight full years of data to tease out information on what contributes to different entrepreneurial outcomes."
Reports using data from the Kauffman Firm Survey
Learn more about the Kauffman Firm Survey. 