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How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu

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Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

#21

Post by pembrook »

onion2k wrote: post #10
madaxe_again wrote: post #4

You 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."

While I tend to agree (My experience has been that the desire to make money is stronger than the desire to be ageist)...it's still an area that is highly subjective.

I would think bias is more likely to get eliminated the further up the funding ladder you go (i.e. sure this person might not look like me, but the numbers prove he knows what he/she knows what their doing).

However at the angel stage, there's so much room for subjectivity that I can't believe bias doesn't play a role.

Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

#23

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

sumedh wrote: post #19
ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I absolutely hate about VCs. The reasons are garbage and they are actually harming by trying to be polite. There is no such thing as too young or old for startups. Why do they even care if they think your startup is going to make it? I got turned down by one VC because "they don't invest in India". My startup is registered in Delaware, I pitched him in US and I am not even Indian citizen

but was your target market Indians?

No it wasn't. Target market was North America. We are still focused on NA

Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

#24

Post by mianos »

bitL wrote: post #22

Could this be a result of wide-spread ageism? People >40 are basically forced to be entrepreneurial and can't afford to waste time on unimportant stuff like they did in their 20s.

Similarly they could be forced to be entrepreneurial because they can't get a job at Amazon/Google/Facebook etc.

Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

#25

Post by TekMol »

jath wrote: post #13

I presume one reason could be at 40 you dont make the mistakes you made at 20. I was 20 once and when i built a product i tried to load it with features/options. Now at 30 i make things as simple as possible. I don’t discuss which DB to use. I straight away use SQL. I don’t discuss scaling issues. I dont bother about 80% of the issues i used to discuss when i was 20. I’m better of now.

    I don’t discuss which DB to use. I straight away use SQL.
That is a language though, not a DB.

Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

#26

Post by sumedh »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #23
sumedh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but was your target market Indians?

No it wasn't. Target market was North America. We are still focused on NA

well in that case I am assuming he wanted to say no but not to hurt your feeling he accidentally said "they don't invest in India" since you look Indian (I am assuming that based on your name)

Or he could just be a jerk.

Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

#27

Post by jiveturkey »

dragonwriter wrote: post #8
1ba9115454 wrote: post #7

The 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.

yes.

every 10-15 yrs or so, you are a different person entirely.

search for dan gilbert. here’s his ted talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_you_are_always_changin...

Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

#28

Post by corobo »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #16
madaxe_again wrote: post #4

You 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 is what I absolutely hate about VCs. The reasons are garbage and they are actually harming by trying to be polite. There is no such thing as too young or old for startups. Why do they even care if they think your startup is going to make it? I got turned down by one VC because "they don't invest in India". My startup is registered in Delaware, I pitched him in US and I am not even Indian citizen

What was/is the startup? Reading between the snark lines it sounds like the VC thought you'd struggle to achieve your goals without resorting to cheap outsourcing

Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

#29

Post by kiloreux »

TekMol wrote: post #25
jath wrote: post #13

I presume one reason could be at 40 you dont make the mistakes you made at 20. I was 20 once and when i built a product i tried to load it with features/options. Now at 30 i make things as simple as possible. I don’t discuss which DB to use. I straight away use SQL. I don’t discuss scaling issues. I dont bother about 80% of the issues i used to discuss when i was 20. I’m better of now.

I don’t discuss which DB to use. I straight away use SQL. That is a language though, not a DB.

Did you really have to be that guy ? What he meant basically is using a relational database. Please refer to the HN guidelines before commenting. It strongly encourages to have comments that add value to the discussion.

Re: How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs?

#30

Post by ddebernardy »

bitL wrote: post #22

Could this be a result of wide-spread ageism? People >40 are basically forced to be entrepreneurial and can't afford to waste time on unimportant stuff like they did in their 20s.

Maybe, but don't discount experience too. As one on the wrong side of 40, I'd humbly put forward that many things I simply "knew" or had to try as a youngster were just ... crazy. :D
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