Entrepreneur Personality Types

Determine the type of business that's bested suited for your personality using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

A personality test can't capture everything that makes you unique. However, anyone who is thinking of starting a business should have a good grasp of the strengths and weaknesses inherent in their personality. 

What is a Personality Type?

Based on research first developed by Carl Jung, your Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) identifies where you stand on four attributes, dividing each into two possible outcomes, resulting in 16 possible combinations, or personality types.

The four parameters are:

  • Extroversion vs. Introversion (I vs E)
  • Sensing vs. Intuiting (S vs N)
  • Thinking vs. Feeling (T vs F)
  • Judging vs. Perceiving (J vs P)

Before you continue reading, if you don't know your MBTI personality type, visit 16personalities.com and take their five-minute quiz to find out!
What is Your Entrepreneur Personality Type?

Choose your personality type

INTJ | INTP | ENTJ | ENTP | INFJ | INFP | ENFJ | ENFP | ISTJ | ISFJ | ESTJ | ESFJ | ISTP | ISFP | ESTP | ESFP
Entrepreneur INTJ: The Engineer
The Engineer

INTJ

You’ve always been top of the class when it comes to the STEM fields, so you likely pursued an advanced degree in a field with a professional certification, giving you strong job prospects. People with your background typically work at someone else’s firm and find good pay and benefits, making it hard to risk it all to hang your own shingle. But, INTJs often work better on their own or in a small group of like-minded people. You may be struggling with the challenges that come with working for a boss who can’t appreciate your unique outlook and approach, or who values extraversion more than your thoughtful introverted approach. If this is your situation, you’re better off striking out on your own, comforted by the fact that INTJs tend to make more money when they’re self-employed. You can also rest easy knowing that your ability to avoid micromanaging your employees will help them blossom and earn the kind of loyalty that inspires them to give you their very best every day.

Famous INTJ Entrepreneurs:
  • Bill Gates
  • Andrew Yang
  • Tim Cook
  • Michelle Obama

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The Learner

INTP

Like the INTJ, you’ve always excelled in math and logic, and you’ve probably pursued a degree with a professional certificate, making it easy for you to transition away from working for someone else and into opening your own firm. But, you haven’t always thrived in highly interpersonal activities, so you may want to join forces with a trusted friend who has strong people skills. INTPs are well-suited for starting businesses in a B2B setting, like opening your own software development company, but you’re going to need someone who can guide your business development activities, schmoozing prospective clients. You may also benefit from having a partner on your team who can manage the employees day-to-day, so that you can focus on the high-level problem solving and innovating that gives your company its edge. Larry Page and Paul Allen are examples of entrepreneurial INTPs, so you have what it takes to reach the highest of heights in entrepreneurship.

Famous INTP Entrepreneurs:
  • Albert Einstein
  • Isaac Newton
  • Abraham Lincoln

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Entrepreneur INTP: The Learner
Entrepreneur ENTJ: The Stratego
The Stratego

ENTJ

As an ENTJ, you combine the best of both worlds, with your strong extraversion and your analytical mind. As such, you’re a natural leader in whichever field your interests lie. Your social nature, combined with your in-depth knowledge of technological fields means you’re well suited to things like selling technical parts and equipment, but you would be just as adept at founding your own branding agency if you’re more interested in management and marketing. This personality type has a broad array of potential career interests, many of which can lead to founding your own independent consultancy serving businesses, but your management skills and your drive to lead large teams may mean that you’d be happier in a bigger company than as a solo consultant. Once you start your business, remember that you need to avoid alienating your team with your commanding (or demanding) nature, so find a way to strike a balance between your strong drive and perfectionism and your employees’ need for approval, mentorship, and support. If you drive them away with your insistence on perfection, you may end up creating your own competition as they go out on their own. They may even take your operational secrets to a new employer, so try to temper your hard edge in order to create a positive work environment and foster employee retention.

Famous ENTJ Entrepreneurs:
  • Michael Bloomberg
  • Gordon Ramsey
  • Steve Jobs 
  • Bob Iger

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The Debater

ENTP

You probably already know this, but you were born to start your own business, with your innate helpfulness, productivity, and drive to solve problems. In fact, famous entrepreneur Thomas Edison was an ENTP, using his skill to build teams of scientists and to bring their developments to market. Your personality type is the most likely of all to be self-employed, and tends to make more money when self-employed than when working for others. Your skills can be applied to virtually any field, but you may find that you gravitate more toward starting your own marketing agency or tech consultancy. If you have a background in law or medicine, like many other ENTPs, you may just hang your shingle and start your own practice. 

Famous ENTP Entrepreneurs:
  • Adam Neumann
  • Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
  • Mark Cuban

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Entrepreneur ENTP: The Debater
Entrepreneur INFJ & INFP: The Advocate
The Advocate

INFJ & INFP

These personality types are highly similar in the types of careers they choose and in what drives them, so it makes sense to lump them together, though they are of course distinct in the way they take in information (judging vs. perceiving). Like the ENTP, you’re a natural entrepreneur, but unlike the ENTP, your introverted nature means you do better in a solo practice or small consultancy than you do managing a large team. Because of your drive to help others and find meaning in your professional life, you may have pursued an education in a creative/artistic field or in a field where you can pour your heart into an underserved population and their needs. This makes you ideal for starting a small daycare or after-school tutoring program, working as a copywriter for non-profits, offering one-on-one nutrition coaching, or opening a massage therapy clinic. Or you may apply your passion for creativity into a digital design company, a hand-made jewelry business, or a music studio. You’re guided by your heart more than by sheer profits, but don’t let that stop you from knowing your true value and charging clients appropriately. Introverts tend to underestimate the monetary value of the work they do, but the quiet thoughtfulness these two personality types bring to any situation, and their ability to connect with people on a deeper level deserve fair compensation. INFPs in particular, though they may not be the one planning community-building events, will find themselves highly adept at managing the interpersonal conflicts that can arise when employing more than one person, helping find practical solutions and common ground with their diplomatic nature. What we’re trying to say is, know your worth and price your services accordingly (i.e., go make that skrilla).

Famous INFJ & INFP Entrepreneurs:
  • Marie Kondo
  • Pete Buttigieg
  • Nelson Mandela
  • Stephen Colbert
  • The Dalai Lama

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The Adventurer

ENFJ

Your drive, determination, high EQ, and social skills are a powerful mix that makes you a high achiever. When you set your sights on something, you typically attain your goal and pursue it to a high standard. And what’s even better, you’re guided by your moral compass to give back, making you exactly what the business landscape needs. Because you’re a good listener who wants to help people, you make an excellent salesperson, which is a key attribute for most entrepreneurs, and your passion for your business tends to earn buy-in from customers and employees. Because you’re social and dedicated to service, people like you are just as welcome behind the bar at a coffee shop as they are as a member of the bar as an attorney. This opens up your entrepreneurial possibilities to a wide degree. You’d be an excellent car dealership owner, you could open a hotel, start a restaurant, or if you have the background, you would do great at starting a drug rehab center.

Famous ENFJ Entrepreneurs:
  • Barack Obama
  • Staya Natella
  • Oprah Winfrey

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Entrepreneur ENFJ: The Aventurer
Entrepreneur ENFP: The Virtuoso
The Virtuoso

ENFP

A true polymath, with endless curiosity and a passion for people, the doors of entrepreneurship are wide open for you. Your creative nature and keen interest in others make you the cornerstone of whatever organization you work for. Though your past employers may not have fully grasped the impact you have in the workplace, your absence is felt keenly when you leave, as both colleagues and clients miss the joy of working with an easy personality like yours. You have a way of making people feel seen, heard, and understood, and you bring their visions to life with your creative flair. The branding and marketing field is filled with your type, which may mean that this is your automatic go-to when it comes to starting a business. Your ability to connect with people on an emotional level makes you excellent at social media marketing, helping brands connect with the customer base. But that’s not the only thing open to a person with your broad interests and strong creative thinking skills. Sales-oriented jobs like starting an insurance agency would be a good fit for you; corporate fundraising consulting or outsourcing are other areas where you can shine and make a strong impact on your clients’ lives. Your joyous and fun personality also lends itself well to every level of education, whether starting a daycare or acting as a corporate trainer. Your fun streak means you could find success starting businesses that simply bring people frivolous joy, like creating a new brand of popsicles, children’s toys, candy, or throw pillows with clever sayings cross-stitched on them.

Famous ENFP Entrepreneurs:
  • Walt Disney
  • Tony Robbins
  • Arianna Huffington

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The Logistician

ISTJ

Because of this personality type’s introverted nature, preference for honesty, and disdain for boasting and showiness, sales and marketing careers are not the best fit, nor is anything that involves connecting with others on a fun or frivolous level. With that out of the way, there’s not much else that an ISTJ isn’t suited for, especially if it requires a sharp intellect and technical prowess. If it involves analytical thinking, you’re the right person for the job, so you’re especially valuable in technical consulting roles. As such, higher education is pretty much a must for you, and once that’s out of the way, you make an excellent leader of your organization, guiding your company’s culture to be humble, while always making sure to bring brutal honesty to your clients, often saving them money or helping them avoid making bad business decisions. Because of this, your business will quickly gain a reputation for being trustworthy, which helps retain clients over the long term and reduces your need to advertise, as your clients will happily praise your business far and wide.

Famous ISTJ Entrepreneurs:
  • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Henry Ford
  • Jeff Bezos
  • John D. Rockefeller

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Entrepreneur INTJ: The Logistician
Entrepreneur ISFJ: The Defender
The Defender

ISFJ

As a conventional realist who doesn’t seek out the limelight, ISFJs tend to prefer supporting roles rather than leadership positions, despite having some key strengths that make them good managers. As such, you may not have thought of yourself as an entrepreneur before, preferring to walk that steady path through a traditional occupation until retirement. But, if you’re ready to branch out from that walk and venture into the unknown, you’d be great at starting your own bookkeeping or accounting service, founding a career and technical education college, starting a nail salon, launching a business consultancy, or founding a mortgage lending company.

Famous ISFJ Entrepreneurs:
  • Clara Barton
  • Beyonce
  • Jim Henson

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The Executive

ESTJ

Your innate sense of loyalty means that you’re likely to walk the traditional employment route, staying with one employer as long as you can, but don’t let that hold back your strong leadership skills and incredible drive, which are key attributes for an entrepreneur. Your personality is so diligent and has such a keen strategic mind, doing the research is almost an afterthought: you instantly spotted the potential risks and pitfalls of your business idea before another personality type would have thought to conduct a poll. This can hold you back as well, if you’re too focused on staying the course to earn that corporate retirement that you never step out to see what you can achieve as the captain at the helm of your own business. And that’s a shame, because the ESTJ is organized, highly apt, and a decisive leader with excellent decision-making skills, technical skills, and probably a lot of cool hobbies that can be relayed into a successful business. The chess game that is your brain is well suited to operating just about any system and making sure that it’s well-oiled and running smoothly. You’d be great at management consulting, running an event planning business, operating a restaurant and bar, or managing a rental property portfolio: anything that involves herding cats and organizing a lot of disparate systems into one fully cohesive machine will keep you mentally stimulated and feeling rewarded. If you need more proof to convince you to jump out of the traditional job lifestyle and into starting your own business, just remember that American business magnate John D. Rockefeller was an ESTJ.

Famous ESTJ Entrepreneurs:
  • Steve Ballmer
  • Alan Sugar
  • Sam Walton

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Entrepreneur ESTJ: The Executive
Entrepreneur ESFJ: The Counselor
The Counselor

ESFJ

Your social intelligence and organized mind form a combination of key leadership skills that make for a great CEO. You also don’t shy away from taking responsibility, another key attribute of a natural leader. Many ESFJs work in medicine as a way to combine their analytical side with their need for human interaction, so starting your own medical or dental practice is a great fit for you. If you don’t have a medical background, ESFJs can start hotels, catering companies, salons, gyms, insurance agencies, funeral homes, and churches.

Famous ESFJ Entrepreneurs:
  • Warren Buffet
  • Jennifer Lopez
  • Bill Clinton

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The Maker

ISTP

Your practical problem-solving nature holds the key to a great business idea, because solving a real-life problem is often the basis for the most successful businesses. ISTPs tend to like mechanics and engineering, as well as other STEM fields, as long as they’re not theoretical in nature, because this personality type is firmly grounded in reality and likes a little bit of adventure and variety in their life. ISTPs love starting businesses because entrepreneurship gives them the freedom to explore and experience variety, while also finding new ways to solve people’s problems. In this way, an entrepreneurial ISTP is always on-task. ISTPs make great restauranteurs, farmers, mechanic shop owners, and fabricating facility operators.

Famous ISTP Entrepreneurs:
  • Shaquille O’Neal
  • Jack Dorsey
  • Amelia Earhart

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Entrepreneur ESTP: The Maker
Entrepreneur ISFP: The Performer
The Performer

ISFP

The ISFP’s high creative drive and reluctance to hold down a traditional 9-5 job make them an ideal candidate for starting a business – or several! This personality has Etsy side-hustler written all over it. Your artistic nature and your ability to apply it to crafting something worth looking at, listening to, or eating makes you perfect for starting your own custom jewelry business, restaurant, florist company, or interior design business. ISFPs just as readily channel their creative and hands-on nature into starting a mechanic shop or a massage therapy business – it just depends on where your passion leads you.

Famous ISFP Entrepreneurs:
  • Steven Spielberg
  • Ashton Kutcher
  • Lady Gaga

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The Entrepreneur

ESTP

16personalities.com has dubbed this personality “The Entrepreneur,” and for good reason. This type never hesitates to take action when a good idea strikes them, which is a key trait of a successful entrepreneur. It is critical to avoid paralysis by analysis, and this is something the ESTP knows intuitively. A natural extrovert, the ESTP has been building connections all their life, and those connections can come in handy when starting a business and getting the word out about it. However, the ESTP needs a good partner with some complementary skills, as they can be flighty, prone to risk, and disorganized. A good partner will temper their instinct to look without leaping, while still honoring their innate drive to take a good idea to market quickly. ESTPs can see a lot of success with launching a general contracting business, founding a real estate brokerage, opening a restaurant or bar, or starting a gym.

Famous ESTP Entrepreneurs:
  • Steven Covey
  • Madonna
  • Anna Wintour

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ESTP: The Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur ESTP: The Entertainer
The Entertainer

ESFP

In a situation where everyone’s hair is on fire, the ESFP is in their element, keeping cool and getting the important work done. This makes them great entrepreneurs, because in the life of any business, there will always be moments of crisis. They are great in the medical professions but they are also known to have an entertaining flair, and would be naturals at running an event space or live music venue. If you are an ESFP with a medical background, you can start a medical transport company,  medical clinic, or veterinary clinic.

Famous ESFP Entrepreneurs:
  • Martha Stewart
  • Ray Kroc
  • Earvin “Magic” Johnson
  • Serena Williams

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