Understanding the organization's life-cycle theory (hereinafter OLC) should allow different stakeholders to study and analyze differences in resources, investment levels, production capacities, etc. According to the concept of the life cycle, each stage of development is characterized by its organizational and financial characteristics, «crises», problems, tasks. Proceeding from this, it is advisable to consider the stages of the life cycle as a function that depends on a certain set of determinants. The goal of this research is - to identify the factors on the basis of which it becomes possible to understand the company's movement through the stages of the life cycle, using the model of ordered choice. With the help of the results obtained, investors and other interested persons will be able to estimate the probability of finding an organization at a certain stage of development on the basis of publicly available information and take a more reasonable management decision, since there are significant differences in the characteristics of companies for each stage.