Starting Your Own Business Is All the Rage --- Opportunities presented by AI are driving people to bet on themselves

“American workers are in founder mode.

 

Nationally there were 532,319 new-business applications in January, according to the Census Bureau, 36.8% more than a year earlier. On LinkedIn, the number of people listing themselves as founders is 69% higher than a year ago.

 

This growing embrace of entrepreneurship indicates a mental shift toward self-reliance. Many new founders feel they are better off on their own -- or have no other choice after a fruitless job search.

 

This is also a bright spot in a job market racked by fears of AI-induced cuts, including the 40% head-count reduction announced last week by Jack Dorsey's Block. Even as artificial intelligence erodes job security, it also helps those who dream of being their own bosses to get startups off the ground.

 

Scott Cohen had the idea for his news-aggregation app, Fishwrap, for years. He just didn't have the engineering know-how to create it until now.

 

On nights and weekends, he used Lovable, an AI app-building tool, to make a version of what he imagined. He spent about $400 on Lovable's full suite of features, a sliver of what he would have shelled out to hire a coder. "We're seeing the democratization of invention," he says.

 

Cohen bills Fishwrap, for which he charges $4.99 a month, as a better version of Google Alerts. If it takes off, he might hire a team to expand the business. But he is tempering his excitement.

 

That's because he has co-founded five other companies and is a partner at Aviv Growth Partners, a venture-capital firm.

 

On one hand, AI assistants knock down barriers to entry. They can perform tasks that founders don't know how to do relatively cheaply.

 

On the other hand, whatever AI does for one founder it can also do for the rest. That likely means increased competition and higher expectations from investors demanding to see more than a concept or minimum viable product before opening their wallets.

 

Linda A. Hill, co-author of "Genius at Scale," adds that AI can't save founders from certain pitfalls. These include neglecting company culture and falling in love with cool solutions to problems that might or might not exist.

 

Entrepreneurs now have readily accessible help with "hard" skills like writing code, drafting marketing materials and keeping the books, but "many of them find the so-called 'soft' stuff is actually harder," says Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School.

 

Let's also acknowledge that some new entrepreneurs didn't become founders entirely by choice.

 

Blessing Kwiyup says a layoff shattered her faith in the promise of a steady job and sparked a commitment to saving, investing and building a second income stream. Though she has a 9-to-5 again, she started a personal-finance coaching business for women last month.

 

Kwiyup typifies a new class of self-styled entrepreneurs who might traditionally be called freelancers and side hustlers. They are betting on themselves instead of, or in addition to, a corporate paycheck. Rather than simply identify as a consultant or independent contractor, the trendy thing is to think of yourself as the boss of You Inc.

 

"It makes things even more real," says Kwiyup, who dubbed her one-woman venture the Sovereignty Collective. "If I just went by 'independent consultant,' I don't think that would really speak to who I am and what I aspire to do."

 

Business-formation applications in recent months have nearly matched the pandemic peak of 546,719 in July 2020. Back then, widespread layoffs and furloughs pushed some people to go into business for themselves, while others were emboldened to quit working for The Man during an office hiatus.

 

For a high-achieving few, the breakaway spirit of the Great Resignation is still alive.

 

Jawad Mourabet says he didn't feel threatened by AI when he quit his consulting job at McKinsey in January. Nor did he suddenly have the tools to build something that was stuck in his head. Having survived the up-or-out early years at the firm, he saw a path to advancement and balked.

 

"As soon as you become a partner, that's it, you sign your life away. You're never off," he says. "I was like, Is this what I want to be doing with the rest of my life?"

 

Mourabet decided he would rather turn one of his favorite hobbies into his full-time job. He opened Velto Pickleball Club in Brooklyn as a high-tech, high-end version of the fast-growing sport.

 

We're talking cameras and sensors that automate line calls, as if your clash of the dad bods were the Wimbledon final. If you prefer to argue ins and outs like John McEnroe -- "You cannot be serious!" -- then prepare to be disappointed. But Velto's bougie vending machines stocked with caviar are sure to cheer you up.

 

The 14,000-square-foot facility has just four courts because much of it is lounge and co-working space. He saved up for this venture and is giving himself two years of runway.

 

The harsh truth is that many of the businesses launching today won't last that long. But we're in a moment when a lot of people figure it might be even riskier to depend solely on a paycheck from someone else.” [1]

 

1. On the Clock: Starting Your Own Business Is All the Rage --- Opportunities presented by AI are driving people to bet on themselves. Borchers, Callum.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 09 Mar 2026: A13.