Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#21

Post by SwellJoe » Tue, Jun 02, 2009, 10:17 PM UTC

SamAtt wrote: post #15

pg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you were reading a lot into what we said. Jessica's remark was obviously a joke. And all I meant was that when you're trying to judge someone's achievements, you need to know how long they've had to achieve them. Would you hold a 20 year old to the same standard as a 30 year old?

I'd think there would be more of a drop off with opportunities like Y Combinator than there would be with other Angel investors. I'm surprised there are any at all. I guess it's still an excellent opportunity to meet people so I mean no offense to those over 30 who did sign up but I'm a 25 year old and I wouldn't pick up and move for $5,000 bucks. I always thought part of the lure of Y Combinator was that young folks…

"I mean no offense to those over 30 who did sign up but I'm a 25 year old and I wouldn't pick up and move for $5,000 bucks"

No offense taken (I was 32 when we accepted YC funding). But it wasn't for $5000. Nobody, at any age, (except for rdouble) is applying to YC for $5000. The reason to move is because you probably should be in the valley, if you're starting a technology startup that is going to need to raise money or build partnerships with existing tech companies.

Anyway, the money was not at all a motivating factor for us in applying for YC. If we could hire pg, tlb, rtm, and Jessica to work for us for some amount of money, I would happily give them money. But that's not the way they wanted to play it, so we took some money from them instead. You're entirely missing the point of YC, if you think the money is the primary motivation for anyone working with YC.

Edit: Parenthetical added to cover outlier.

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#22

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 02, 2009, 10:28 PM UTC

SamAtt wrote: post #15

pg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you were reading a lot into what we said. Jessica's remark was obviously a joke. And all I meant was that when you're trying to judge someone's achievements, you need to know how long they've had to achieve them. Would you hold a 20 year old to the same standard as a 30 year old?

I'd think there would be more of a drop off with opportunities like Y Combinator than there would be with other Angel investors. I'm surprised there are any at all. I guess it's still an excellent opportunity to meet people so I mean no offense to those over 30 who did sign up but I'm a 25 year old and I wouldn't pick up and move for $5,000 bucks. I always thought part of the lure of Y Combinator was that young folks…

[deleted]

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#23

Post by icey » Tue, Jun 02, 2009, 10:29 PM UTC

Mistone wrote: post #3

rescuetime is one example right off hand, also not sure how old Matt Moroon at draftMix is but def does not strike me as fresh out of college. sure there is a few more as well.

Someone posted a correction and I guess they've deleted it; but Matt's last name is "Maroon", not "Moroon".

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#24

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 02, 2009, 10:52 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #12

sanj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to recall at the YC meetup in Cambridge last summer ( http://anyvite.com/events/home/tmokjxuwai/ ) that there was a question asking why the application asked for age. I recall that you said "... age is a high bit in characterizing someone." And Jessica yelled from the cheap seats that "... we need it to know that you can sign stuff legally." I remember it vividly because it confirmed my decision not to apply t…

It sounds like you were reading a lot into what we said. Jessica's remark was obviously a joke. And all I meant was that when you're trying to judge someone's achievements, you need to know how long they've had to achieve them. Would you hold a 20 year old to the same standard as a 30 year old?

[deleted]

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#25

Post by sanj » Tue, Jun 02, 2009, 10:52 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #12

sanj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to recall at the YC meetup in Cambridge last summer ( http://anyvite.com/events/home/tmokjxuwai/ ) that there was a question asking why the application asked for age. I recall that you said "... age is a high bit in characterizing someone." And Jessica yelled from the cheap seats that "... we need it to know that you can sign stuff legally." I remember it vividly because it confirmed my decision not to apply t…

It sounds like you were reading a lot into what we said. Jessica's remark was obviously a joke. And all I meant was that when you're trying to judge someone's achievements, you need to know how long they've had to achieve them. Would you hold a 20 year old to the same standard as a 30 year old?

My main point was that the application appears to have requested it, so the data is there for the analysis.

I interpreted Jessica's remark as an attempt to head off concerns of any sort age-based discrimination rumblings.

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#26

Post by smakz » Tue, Jun 02, 2009, 11:04 PM UTC

Regardless of whether you go the YC path or not - you should know that there are many, many examples of extremely successful companies being founded by people in their 30's and later. Cisco, Qualcomm, Amazon.com, Bose Corporation, LinkedIn. etc.etc.etc.

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#27

Post by iamelgringo » Tue, Jun 02, 2009, 11:09 PM UTC

A common belief is that U.S.-born tech founders of technology companies tend to be young. We found that about 1 percent were teenagers when they started their firms. More than twice as many were older than age fifty than were younger than twenty-five. Many, in fact, were in their sixties when they founded their startups. The vast majority of U.S.-born tech founders were older than twenty-five. The average and median age of key tech founders was thirty-nine.

Source: http://sites.kauffman.org/pdf/Education_Tech_Ent_061108.pdf

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#28

Post by devin » Tue, Jun 02, 2009, 11:10 PM UTC

sanj wrote: post #9

pg wrote: post #4

There are quite a lot of founders over 30. I don't know exactly how many because we don't keep track of ages. The sharp falloff is around 35, but we've had a handful of founders over 40. None over 50 though. I think our age distribution is probably close to the age distribution for startups generally. We've funded more founders who are 27 than 20 or 35 because more people start startups at 27 than at 20 or 35.

I seem to recall at the YC meetup in Cambridge last summer ( http://anyvite.com/events/home/tmokjxuwai/ ) that there was a question asking why the application asked for age. I recall that you said "... age is a high bit in characterizing someone." And Jessica yelled from the cheap seats that "... we need it to know that you can sign stuff legally." I remember it vividly because it confirmed my decision not to apply t…

With all due respect that seems like an awfully sketchy reason to not apply.

Why wouldn't age be important for a YC applicant? If I'm ponying up some cash for your startup that is undoubtedly a factor I'd be crazy not to know. Furthermore, the comment from 'Jessica', whom I do not know, sounds tongue-in-cheek.

Are there other reasons, or is this the only factor you took into consideration?

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#29

Post by devin » Tue, Jun 02, 2009, 11:14 PM UTC

newsio wrote: post #16

This thread (and the link to the Gladwell essay that someone submitted to it earlier) are interesting. I'm 39 years old, and want to start my own company and change my career from journalist to news technologist/entrepreneur. Some readers might chuckle at that, but I am very serious. In my mind, the question of the age of YC founders has much to do with the threshold for risk. Age definitely plays a part. But age doe…

Thanks for that newsio. As a 24-year-old I can't relate to a lot of the challenges you're facing, but I draw a healthy amount of inspiration from your passion and drive. I wish you the best of luck.

Re: Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

#30

Post by webwright » Wed, Jun 03, 2009, 12:14 AM UTC

SamAtt wrote: post #15

pg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you were reading a lot into what we said. Jessica's remark was obviously a joke. And all I meant was that when you're trying to judge someone's achievements, you need to know how long they've had to achieve them. Would you hold a 20 year old to the same standard as a 30 year old?

I'd think there would be more of a drop off with opportunities like Y Combinator than there would be with other Angel investors. I'm surprised there are any at all. I guess it's still an excellent opportunity to meet people so I mean no offense to those over 30 who did sign up but I'm a 25 year old and I wouldn't pick up and move for $5,000 bucks. I always thought part of the lure of Y Combinator was that young folks…

In our class there were lots of people driving $50k+ cars as well as people who could afford to not work for years.

Investors want founders who care more about their startups success than their own personal wealth/comfort. YC does an excellent job of weeding our people like you who wouldn't trade their comfort for a measurably better shot at startup success (which YC offers).