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Many individuals start a new firm each year, mainly intending to become independent or improve their financial situation. For most of them, the first years of operations mean a substantial investment of time, effort and money with highly insecure outcomes. This study aims to explore how entrepreneurs running new firms perform financially compared with the established ones and how this situation influences their well-being.

A questionnaire survey was completed in 2021 and 2022 by a representative sample of N = 1136 solo self-employed and microentrepreneurs in the Czech Republic, with dependent self-employed excluded. This study used multiple regressions for data analysis.

Early-stage entrepreneurs are less satisfied with their financial situation, have lower disposable income and report more significant financial problems than their established counterparts. The situation is even worse for the subsample of startups. However, this study also finds they do not have lower well-being than established entrepreneurs. While a worse financial situation is generally negatively related to well-being, being a startup founder moderates this link. Startup founders can maintain a good level of well-being even in financial struggles.

The results suggest that policies should focus on reducing the costs related to start-up activities. Further, policy support should not be restricted to new technological firms. Startups from all fields should be eligible to receive support, provided that they meet the milestones of their development. For entrepreneurship education, this study‘s results support action-oriented approaches that help build entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy while making them aware of cognitive biases common in entrepreneurship. This study also underscores that effectuation or lean startup approaches help entrepreneurs develop their startups efficiently and not deprive themselves of resources because of their unjustified overconfidence.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the financial situation and well-being of founders of new firms and, specifically, startups. The personal financial situation of startup founders has been a largely underexplored issue. Compared with other entrepreneurs, this study finds that startup founders are, as individuals, in the worst financial situation. Their well-being remains, however, on a comparable level with that of other entrepreneurs.

This paper explores the phenomenon of organizational maverickism, proposing that mavericks, alongside innovators and entrepreneurs, play a crucial role in driving transformational change. While the actions of innovators and entrepreneurs as change agents are well understood, this paper focuses predominantly on how the practices of mavericks also provide significant contributions to achieving game-changing organizational outcomes.

A literature review and conceptual paper highlighting the beneficial nature of maverickism to organizational change efforts, positioning maverickism as a valid change agent role alongside entrepreneurship and innovation.

The positively deviant nature of mavericks has high potential for creating radical organizational change strategies. Organizational change is more likely to be successful when the entrepreneurial, innovator and maverick mindsets are used to their optimum advantage.

From this conceptual paper and its arguments, new research directions to guide theory building and organizational practice are identified.

When organizational managers and leaders more fully understand the beneficial practices of mavericks, they are more likely to actively employ them in more meaningful roles as organizational change agents, together with innovators and entrepreneurs.

This paper closes the knowledge gap in understanding maverickism that is an under-researched and under-theorized phenomenon. The arguments in this paper identify a number of areas for future research.