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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

#31

Post by hacker_user »

akarma wrote: post #23
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 wo…

Exactly. The list consists of the successful startups that they founded, but not the ones that they tried and failed at before finding success.

I'd like to think that most successful founders fail at their first few not so noteworthy "side-projects" before finding success and sticking to it. Just building a crappy version of something not-so-cool can teach you a lot about tech, business and design, which then helps you build better products in the future.

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

#32

Post by Alex3917 »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #24
adventured wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> the real cost remains the same.

The cost is actually much higher when you’re younger because of the time-value of money. It just doesn’t feel that way because the immediate consequences are lower.

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

#33

Post by tzm »

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…

> Who is the most famous tech founder who was 45 or older when they founded their first company?

This is a straw man fallacy. I think you're conflating the definition of "successful startup" with a cohort of "famous tech" founders, which has some merit (lower age yields higher risk).

The broader definition of "successful startup" is more about "fast growing" or "economic impact". The emphasis is on founders of “growth oriented” firms that can have large economic impacts and are often associated with driving increasing standard of living.

An MIT Sloan study found the mean founder age for the 1 in 1,000 fastest growing companies is 45.0.

http://mitsloan.mit.edu/uploadedFilesV9/180325%20Age%20and%2...

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

#34

Post by replicatorblog »

coldtea wrote: post #30
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 c…

Not the 20 best known, the 150 best known. I'd wager if you went 500 deep, you'd see the age being much closer to 30 than 45.

The criteria of this study isn't bad, but I'd much rather just see a list of companies they're defining as startups. Is there a big biotech contingent? Are consulting companies included? B2B vs. B2C? Inc. Magazine published a list of the 500 fastest growing companies every year, and there's very little overlap between that list and what we'd consider the world of tech startups. This methodology feels more like Inc.

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

#35

Post by Joe-Z »

formalsystem wrote: post #29

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 wil…

I don‘t think people will use this research to „optimize“ their time to fund. If you have an idea and things align you will do that regardless of your age.

I think it provides an interesting contrast to the idea of young-genius unicorn-startups in that it underlines that yes, these companies exist and get a lot of coverage but most innovation still comes from people experienced in their field who had time to learn the appropriate skills for leading a company.

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

#36

Post by lazyjones »

I only skimmed over the article, but it seems to me that their data doesn‘t take into account that Angel/VC investors might be mistaken for actual founders in case they held shares since incorporation. This would of course largely invalidate their main claim. Can anyone confirm/deny?

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

#37

Post by replicatorblog »

tzm wrote: post #33
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…

> Who is the most famous tech founder who was 45 or older when they founded their first company? This is a straw man fallacy. I think you're conflating the definition of "successful startup" with a cohort of "famous tech" founders, which has some merit (lower age yields higher risk). The broader definition of "successful startup" is more about "fast growing" or "economic impact". The emphasis is on founders of “growt…

I've seen a lot of studies that make this assertation, but the fact that it's hard to think of many examples in the world of tech startups makes me skeptical.

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

#38

Post by replicatorblog »

akarma wrote: post #23
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 wo…

This is important. There's a big difference between getting started at 45 and founding your third company at 45.

I don't think there is something biological, or even social that makes it hard to be a late-bloomer in tech entrepreneurship. It's just hard to develop an entirely new skillset and network in later-middle age. I think we'd mostly be skeptical of a doctor who started medical school at 45, and while the stakes for founders aren't as severe, the same principle applies.

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

#39

Post by Retric »

Joe-Z wrote: post #35
formalsystem wrote: post #29

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 wil…

I don‘t think people will use this research to „optimize“ their time to fund. If you have an idea and things align you will do that regardless of your age. I think it provides an interesting contrast to the idea of young-genius unicorn-startups in that it underlines that yes, these companies exist and get a lot of coverage but most innovation still comes from people experienced in their field who had time to learn th…

Young founder ages are mentioned specifically because they are unusual. Unfortunately, because many people only see ‘newsworthy’ information they get a very distorted view of reality.

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

#40

Post by aswanson »

replicatorblog wrote: post #37
tzm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who is the most famous tech founder who was 45 or older when they founded their first company? This is a straw man fallacy. I think you're conflating the definition of "successful startup" with a cohort of "famous tech" founders, which has some merit (lower age yields higher risk). The broader definition of "successful startup" is more about "fast growing" or "economic impact". The emphasis is on founders of “growt…

I've seen a lot of studies that make this assertation, but the fact that it's hard to think of many examples in the world of tech startups makes me skeptical.

Your sample size is low. How many tech startups can you rattle off in total, period?. I assure you it's insignificant compared to the complete sum.
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