How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu
How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
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Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
#2[deleted]
Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
#3Link to the paper: https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/jones-ben/htm/A...
The abstract: Many observers, and many investors, believe that young people are especially likely to produce the most successful new firms. We use administrative data at the U.S. Census Bureau to study the ages of founders of growth-oriented start-ups in the past decade. Our primary finding is that successful entrepreneurs are middle-aged, not young. The mean founder age for the 1 in 1,000 fastest growing new ventures is 45.0. The findings are broadly similar when considering high-technology sectors, entrepreneurial hubs, and successful firm exits. Prior experience in the specific industry predicts much greater rates of entrepreneurial success. These findings strongly reject common hypotheses that emphasize youth as a key trait of successful entrepreneurs.
Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
#4You spend half your career being told that you are too young by prospective clients and investors (I was rather astounded when we were turned down on this ground at first, rather than anything to do with the product or service, but eventually grew to accept it), and then the next half being told you are too old by the same.
Ah, to be forever 34 and eight months.
Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
#5Link to the paper: https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/jones-ben/htm/A... The abstract: Many observers, and many investors, believe that young people are especially likely to produce the most successful new firms. We use administrative data at the U.S. Census Bureau to study the ages of founders of growth-oriented start-ups in the past decade. Our primary finding is that successful entrepreneurs are middle-a…
[deleted]
Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
#6You spend half your career being told that you are too young by prospective clients and investors (I was rather astounded when we were turned down on this ground at first, rather than anything to do with the product or service, but eventually grew to accept it), and then the next half being told you are too old by the same. Ah, to be forever 34 and eight months.
This might not be the case going forward for cloud, SaaS models with zero touch sales. Most software would move to this category sooner than we think as there is high vendor motive. It is hindered only by regulatory or compliance needs in certain industries/countries
Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
#7The article talks of old and the young as if they were different people.
All of the old people were young people once.
If you consistently try to build businesses through side projects, or other means, there's a good chance you're getting better at it as the years go by.
So it shouldn't come as a surprise to find you may eventually succeed.
Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
#8The article talks of old and the young as if they were different people. All of the old people were young people once. If you consistently try to build businesses through side projects, or other means, there's a good chance you're getting better at it as the years go by. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to find you may eventually succeed.
> The article talks of old and young people as if they were different people.
They are different people.
> All of the old people were young people once.
All ex-Communists were once Communists, yet Communists and ex-Communists are still different people.
Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
#9The article talks of old and the young as if they were different people. All of the old people were young people once. If you consistently try to build businesses through side projects, or other means, there's a good chance you're getting better at it as the years go by. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to find you may eventually succeed.
Right. It would be more instructive to see what percentage of old entrepreneurs are first-timers.
Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?
#10You spend half your career being told that you are too young by prospective clients and investors (I was rather astounded when we were turned down on this ground at first, rather than anything to do with the product or service, but eventually grew to accept it), and then the next half being told you are too old by the same. Ah, to be forever 34 and eight months.
Whatever reason an investor gives for turning your investment down, it's actually code for "I don't think you can pull this off."