The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
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Re: The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
#2Does anyone have stats for the silicon valley specifically?
Re: The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
#3VCs tend to break investments into two classes: "Better, faster, cheaper" and "Brave New World"
The "Brave New World" ideas put 25 year olds on equal/better footing than 50 year olds, since they tend to be everything new.
The "Better Faster Cheaper" ideas leave the 50 year-olds with the advantage: They have a better sense of what the market wants, and what features are important/not important, since they've been working in the field about 6 times as long.
There's difference which is much bigger though: VC's can take much bigger advantage of a 25 year old than a 50 year old.
Edit: Notice the article was about an iPhone EKG (better, faster, cheaper) + 50 yo who used his own money.
Re: The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
#4Wadhwa must be taken with very large grains of salt as he is relentlessly pushing an agenda which is probably not completely accurate. How are they defining entrepreneur here? Including dry cleaning shops and law practices? And are they having the kind of success as Zuckerberg, Gates, Jobs, Page/Brin, Yang/Filo, Omidyar, Musk, and on and and on and on?
Re: The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
#5Does anyone have stats for the silicon valley specifically?
Not exactly what you're looking for, but here is some recent sample data featuring Y Combinator - Age Rises for Some Tech-Firm Founders: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732400070457838...
Re: The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
#6My first reaction is that this makes sense if you're counting restaurant owners, etc. Also, the media isn't going to draw attention to someone of average age doing something average, so the misconception seems expected, although I've met very few 50 year olds hacking away on their Web 2.0 startup.
Re: The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
#7does that not mean in other words that the utmost part of entrepreneurs is between 25 and 50 years old?
Re: The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
#8Wadhwa must be taken with very large grains of salt as he is relentlessly pushing an agenda which is probably not completely accurate. How are they defining entrepreneur here? Including dry cleaning shops and law practices? And are they having the kind of success as Zuckerberg, Gates, Jobs, Page/Brin, Yang/Filo, Omidyar, Musk, and on and and on and on?
Wadhwa must be taken with very large grains of salt as he is relentlessly pushing an agenda
I always take Wadhwa with a grain of salt... as you say, he definitely has some sort of agenda / ideology thing that he's constantly promoting.
How are they defining entrepreneur here?
Well, IF you assume that the rest of this paragraph applies to the same research mentioned in the first sentence, then no, they aren't talking dry-cleaning shops, laywers, etc.
I'm not sure that's a safe assumption, but it is the way I initially read it.
Research that my team completed in 2009 determined that the average age of a successful entrepreneur in high-growth industries such as computers, health care, and aerospace is 40. Twice as many successful entrepreneurs are over 50 as under 25; and twice as many, over 60 as under 20. The vast majority -- 75 percent -- have more than six years of industry experience and half have more than 10 years when they create their startup. Nearly 70 percent start their companies to capitalize on business ideas that they have -- which they see as a way to build wealth.
And are they having the kind of success as Zuckerberg, Gates, Jobs, Page/Brin, Yang/Filo, Omidyar, Musk, and on and and on and on?
You sound skeptical... any particular reason so? Do you find it improbable that more successful entrepreneurs actually are older?
Re: The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
#9VCs tend to break investments into two classes: "Better, faster, cheaper" and "Brave New World" The "Brave New World" ideas put 25 year olds on equal/better footing than 50 year olds, since they tend to be everything new. The "Better Faster Cheaper" ideas leave the 50 year-olds with the advantage: They have a better sense of what the market wants, and what features are important/not important, since they've been work…
> There's difference which is much bigger though: VC's can take much bigger advantage of a 25 year old than a 50 year old.
This deserves more attention, in light of ageism concerns.
If a 50 yo founder has used his time wisely, built up connections, deep domain knowledge, general know-how, decent bank account, there is little reason for him to take external investments. Even in the rare occasions he does, he is well aware of his value, and demand favorable term sheets.
On the other hand, if a 50 yo founder doesn't have the confidence, connection or personal wealth to fund his own venture without a good reason. He is looked much less favorable than a 20 yo in the same state.
In short, the older you are, the more is expected of you.
Re: The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25
#10does that not mean in other words that the utmost part of entrepreneurs is between 25 and 50 years old?
Statistically, one cannot locate a mean or establish a standard deviation using only the provided remark -- the values could be nearly anywhere, with some broad limitations.