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Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

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Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#21

Post by bonestamp2 »

rafiki6 wrote: post #16

I can tie this back to my own experience as well. Humility generally comes with age, and it's important in running a successful and socially responsible business. It's easy to get caught up in the young successful founder myth because that's what gets the most press. But look at a guy like Bill Gates. I'm sure had he started Microsoft 20 years later (assuming all conditions were ripe for it), he would have done it qu…

In some ways, it's also easier to run a startup when you're younger. Most younger people have more energy and fewer family obligations. But, that also explains why 45 makes a lot of sense... if you have kids they're probably old enough that they're doing a lot of their own things so you've got the wisdom from age (experience) and you've shed some of the family responsibilities that you might have at, say, age 35.

Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#22

Post by tomrod »

tucaz wrote: post #6

Honest and possibly ignorant question here. Wouldn’t the median be more representative of how old the common founder would be? In a very simplistic example with a data set of two people aged 20 and 70 you would get 45 as the average age when in fact that doesn’t reflect the reality. I always struggle when thinking about average vs median.

That, and a view into whether the distribution is bi-modal.

Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#23

Post by akarma »

adventured wrote: post #17

I've compiled and added to this list over time. When you go digging for how old the founders of major tech companies have been, you'll find they're overwhelmingly closer to their mid 30s, nearly all are over ~27, with plenty in their 40s. Exceptionally few have been like Gates, Jobs and Zuckerberg. If you're 30 and you think it's too late, it's not, you may not have even hit your prime yet. Ages of founders: Paul Gra…

Looking at the first row, I'd just point out that some of these are repeat founders at the ages listed:

Elon founded Zip2 right out of undergrad, Garrett Camp founded StumbleUpon while in grad school, and Kalanick left UCLA undergrad to found Scour and then kind of expanded on that with Red Swoosh right after.

Most of these are still accurate and it's really cool data, so thank you for posting; just figured it was worth commenting on nonetheless. :)

Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#24

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

adventured wrote: post #12
ttul wrote: post #4

I have been an entrepreneur for 17 years and am now “middle aged”. In my early years, I made many, many mistakes that could probably be pegged to youthful hubris. I also had no idea how to run a real business because I had scant experience even working for one let alone crafting anything approaching a “go to market plan”. If I were to start a new company today, I would probably lack the carefree creativity of a 23-ye…

I'm in my late 30s now, after two decades as an entrepreneur. My brain was quicker at 21, memory was slightly stronger (slightly faster, easier recall), and I had greater endurance at working productively in very long stretches. And despite that, due to learning how to work more effectively, how to be far more productive with my use of time, understanding what mistakes to avoid, I'm a dramatically better entrepreneur…

>My 21 year old self just loved to build unnecessary, complex shit

When time and energy feel infinite, the perceived cost of wasting either feels low; the real cost remains the same.

Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#25

Post by bonestamp2 »

adventured wrote: post #12
ttul wrote: post #4

I have been an entrepreneur for 17 years and am now “middle aged”. In my early years, I made many, many mistakes that could probably be pegged to youthful hubris. I also had no idea how to run a real business because I had scant experience even working for one let alone crafting anything approaching a “go to market plan”. If I were to start a new company today, I would probably lack the carefree creativity of a 23-ye…

I'm in my late 30s now, after two decades as an entrepreneur. My brain was quicker at 21, memory was slightly stronger (slightly faster, easier recall), and I had greater endurance at working productively in very long stretches. And despite that, due to learning how to work more effectively, how to be far more productive with my use of time, understanding what mistakes to avoid, I'm a dramatically better entrepreneur…

I met with a non-technical cofounder a few months ago who is in his early 20s. He had a great idea for a product and was looking for a technical co-founder (he also had an investor who already put up some money and he was already deeply involved in the sales channel and had two customers already sold). I have no doubt this product would very successful. Probably not a unicorn, but could make a few people quite wealthy.

But, from our two hour meeting I could tell that he wanted to make all of those same mistakes I now know not to make.

Your point about building complex shit is exactly his main problem, and I problem I suffered from at that age too. Yes, it might be complex one day if that's what the market needs, but simple can be so much more and it's especially the right move for an MVP.

To some degree, I don't blame him and he doesn't know me well enough to trust me to guide him away from those pitfalls, but man I wish he had a little more humility -- we'd be a couple months away from an MVP at this point.

Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#26

Post by simonebrunozzi »

replicatorblog wrote: post #20

Who is the most famous tech founder who was 45 or older when they founded their first company? There were more in the 70s, 80s, or 90s (E.g. Jim Clark) because the industry was still forming, but even then the wunderkind college dropout drove most of the value creation. In the modern era, Peter Gassner, founder of Veeva was 42. Diane Greene founded VMWare at 43. Brian Acton was 38. You start falling into the 30s fair…

I am 41, startup CEO for ~14 months, and currently having one of the worst days since the company started. (edit: actually, the worst day period).

Although you might be right on statistics, I am 100% sure 10 years ago I wouldn't have had the maturity or the experience or the grit to face this day, the way I do right now.

Also, don't forget that today's returns are huge, compared to 10-20 years ago, and that today's entrepreneurs start earlier than their equivalent of 20 years ago.

It's hard to make sense of these numbers without bias or without any risk of misinterpreting things.

Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#27

Post by themagician »

replicatorblog wrote: post #20

Who is the most famous tech founder who was 45 or older when they founded their first company? There were more in the 70s, 80s, or 90s (E.g. Jim Clark) because the industry was still forming, but even then the wunderkind college dropout drove most of the value creation. In the modern era, Peter Gassner, founder of Veeva was 42. Diane Greene founded VMWare at 43. Brian Acton was 38. You start falling into the 30s fair…

Being successful and being famous are two completely different things only tangentially related.

The 30 companies that have famous founders are far outweighed by the ten thousand that you don't know of. On more than one occasion I’ve found myself working for absolutely massive companies (public in many cases) that I’d never previously even heard of. I’ve definitely had a lot of those, “Holy shit, how is this the biggest company I’ve never heard of,” experiences. There are a lot of companies in finance, telecom, and infrastructure that you don’t think about because they don’t have an app that sits on your home screen.

Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#28

Post by bonestamp2 »

mgkimsal wrote: post #11
purplezooey wrote: post #7

And yet, the first thing companies do when there's any hint of trouble on the horizon is layoff anyone over 40-45.

> the first thing companies do when there's any hint of trouble on the horizon is layoff anyone over 40-45. well, they're not the 'founders' in most cases.

No, but the point is that those people have valuable experience. But they're probably laid off purely from a numbers standpoint, they likely have a higher salary than the junior people. The decision likely isn't based on the merit of the candidates when a company is in trouble; however, that seems like OP's point... that maybe it should be.

Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#29

Post by formalsystem »

I always find it interesting when these sorts of threads are posted. I for one look at them as am I too old to be starting my own company or should I chill out because I still have time.

Fundamentally I think there's limited value in drawing lessons from these stories because you're probably your own best judge of whether you should quit your job or not. Your risk tolerance lowers as you get older but your skills will improve so it's up to you to decide what's the sweet spot. That said there is an age threshold where you'll be treated like an old man at a big company so may as well demonstrate your expertise on your own company before that happens.

Re: Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

#30

Post by coldtea »

replicatorblog wrote: post #20

Who is the most famous tech founder who was 45 or older when they founded their first company? There were more in the 70s, 80s, or 90s (E.g. Jim Clark) because the industry was still forming, but even then the wunderkind college dropout drove most of the value creation. In the modern era, Peter Gassner, founder of Veeva was 42. Diane Greene founded VMWare at 43. Brian Acton was 38. You start falling into the 30s fair…

>(This study, like most of the Kauffman Foundation studies, tend to rely on obscure methods to reach these counterintuitive results*

The article seems to make a fairly solid case:

"Our team analyzed the age of all business founders in the U.S. in recent years by leveraging confidential administrative data sets from the U.S. Census Bureau. We found that the average age of entrepreneurs at the time they founded their companies is 42. But the vast majority of these new businesses are likely small businesses with no intentions to grow large (for example, dry cleaners and restaurants). To focus on businesses that are closer in spirit to the prototypical high-tech startup, we used a variety of indicators: whether the firm was granted a patent, received VC investment, or operated in an industry that employs a high fraction of STEM workers. We also focused on the location of the firm, in particular whether it was in an entrepreneurial hub such as Silicon Valley. In general, these finer-grained analyses do not modify the main conclusion: The average age of high-tech founders falls in the early forties."

What's the counter-argument? That the famous founders of the 20-so most known companies are young?

There are thousands of tech companies founded, even on SV, not just the household names (and the household names are a tiny sample anyway).

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