 Why do some small businesses succeed when other ones fail? A big factor is what kind of people are working at them and what they know over other factors like educational background or even their occupational history. In fact, if a new business wants to be successful, it should be choosing its workers with similar industry experience over other factors like educational background or even their occupational history. Business at the MIT Media Lab studied the work history of over 40 million people in Brazil to identify the knowledge that matters most for the growth and survival of new businesses. A job involves both an occupation, which is what the worker does, and an industry, which is what the company produces. A database worker at a bank has knowledge about both database engineering, her occupation, and about banking, her industry. If that engineer switches jobs and becomes a database engineer in a hospital, she will bring her occupation specific knowledge, but not her industry specific knowledge. Using techniques to categorize how new companies choose their workforces, the researchers found that companies are more likely to survive when their first hire is worked in a similar industry and when they have experience in the same location. Surprisingly, their industry knowledge turns out to be more important than experience in a related occupation or even the level of education the worker has. This is especially true for companies operating in an industry that is new to a location. Imagine an entrepreneur starting her town's first web design company. As she searches through applications for a new receptionist position, two applicants rose to the top of the pile. The first is a receptionist from a car dealership, with decades of experience in that occupation. The second applicant is a design assistant from a different web company. Conventional wisdom suggests hiring the receptionist from the car dealership, but data shows that the person with experience in web design, even while performing a different job, is a smarter bet. We live in a dynamic world where entrepreneurship is essential for economic growth. To succeed, entrepreneurs need to create teams with the right knowledge and interests. By looking at people's work history, we are getting a clearer picture about what makes new businesses grow.