‘I Want to be Founder!’ ‘No, I Do!’

The firm lets you go. You hunt for a new job, but no one is returning your calls. Thankfully, you think, the next step is easy: Start a company and call yourself a founder.

The number of people leaving the corporate world to start their own businesses is growing, but experts see this as both a blessing and a curse. More than half a million people filed papers to start a new business in January, a 37% increase from 2025, while people calling themselves “founders” on LinkedIn have increased by nearly 70%. The data reads like a celebration of economic growth and innovation—except it doesn’t feel like that to many. “Right now, it’s just ease and necessity that are driving people to become founders,” says Jerry Collier, leader of Korn Ferry’s Assessment and Succession practice across EMEA. 

To be sure, there are also some positive forces driving the growth in new businesses. AI has obliterated barriers to entry, especially for independent contractors and “solopreneurs,” making it easier than ever to go direct to customers or clients. David Farris, sector leader Korn Ferry’s Professional Services practice, says these people seek to create “a native AI-first model to deliver their goods and services.” Using AI to create pitch decks, business plans, financial models, marketing content, and more, people are betting on themselves, not corporations, for job security. “Some fast movers with the right blend of skills will come out ahead,” says Farris. That’s the start-up dream, after all, he adds: to build a durable company that can provide self-sufficiency or be sold for a payout. 

But Collier worries that beneath the surface, the combination of layoffs, dim employment prospects, and AI is leading to an era of entrepreneurship only in name—“where it is easier to look like an entrepreneur than to build a durable company.” He worries that all the new AI tools are “lowering the boundaries to business, but not the boundaries to success.”

Undoubtedly, much of the growth in new businesses is a consequence of people feeling they have no other option. It’s right there in the numbers—1.2 million people were laid off last year, hiring in 2025 was the lowest in more than two decades, entry-level jobs are down 16%, and the list goes on. A corporate ladder doesn’t exist anymore, and even if it did, studies show that younger workers aren’t interested in climbing it. As a result, many people have been forced to turn their side hustle into a full-time job, says Renee Whalen, a Korn Ferry senior client partner.

Social media is filled with memes of people offering tips: how to start your business and get rich quick, or how to use AI to grow your side gig into a full-time job. Collier’s concern is that these messages are communicating a “false sense of security” that could create real problems for people on both sides. Starting a business comes with financial and legal liabilities, of course, and AI only heightens those risks. Put another way, while many people are starting businesses with the goal of adding another revenue stream, possibly to keep their financial heads above water, they could be creating another source of debt instead. “The risk is that many people are starting AI businesses without AI or founder competence,” says Collier.  

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