Entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching and running a new business, i.e. a startup company offering a product, process or service.[1] It has been defined as the "...capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit." [2] The entrepreneur is "a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk." [3]"[R]ather than working as an employee, [an entrepreneur] runs a small business and assumes all the risk and reward of a given business venture, idea, or good or service offered for sale. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes."[4] Entrepreneurs perceive new business opportunities and they often exhibit positive biases in their perception (i.e., a bias towards finding new possibilities and unmet market needs) and a pro-risk-taking attitude that makes them more likely to exploit the opportunity.[5]"Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk-taking." [6]

The exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities may include actions such as developing a business plan, hiring the human resources, acquiring financial and other required resources, providing leadership and being responsible for the venture's success or failure.[7]Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) stated that the role of the entrepreneur is “creative destruction” and the changes and “dynamic disequilibrium brought on by the innovating entrepreneur ... is the ‘norm’ of a healthy economy.”[8]

Entrepreneurship typically operates within an entrepreneurship ecosystem which includes government programs and services that promote and support entrepreneurs non-government organizations such as small business associations or organizations that offer advice and mentoring to entrepreneurs (e.g., through entrepreneurship centres or websites), entrepreneurship resources (e.g., business incubators and seed accelerators), entrepreneurship education programs, training and financing (e.g., loans, venture capital financing, angel investing and grants). The best entrepreneurship ecosystems are those found in top entrepreneurship hubs such as Silicon Valley, where there is a cluster of high-tech firms, top research universities (in this case Stanford University) and venture capitalists.