Im 39 going on 20. The other two co-founders involved in this start up are 49. They are extremely intelligent and the experience they bring to the table is invaluable. I know there is something to be said about youthful exuberance but experience has to factor in somewhere.
"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." -- Mark Twain
Startup founders, how old are you?
51–56 of 56 posts
Re: Startup founders, how old are you?
#52I'm 31; tinkered with technology from a young age, did the University thing, backpacked around the world, now married with a kid. I think the age depends on what you want your startup to give you...fulfillment, enlightenment - its not just about acquisitions or IPOs. I think a rounded view on life would help some of the very guys not to end up like software's answer to Britney Spears!?
Re: Startup founders, how old are you?
#53I am by far, the oldest one here. 39. Perhaps I should forget about YC!
I'm 32 and my co-founder is the 33 year old mentioned by Paul. We're a YC this year. I didn't particularly feel like age would have played any role in acceptance (though I believe we have the most traditional business model and most traditional product in the bunch, and had Trevor and Robert not been interested it may have triggered a "no" from Paul). There are three PhD candidate founders who are probably much closer to 30 than 20, as well.
Anyway, I didn't notice any particular agenda for picking younger founders...younger folks are the ones that showed up (I met all, or nearly all, of the folks who got to the demo stage in Boston..including the majority that didn't get picked).
Re: Startup founders, how old are you?
#54So far, the approximate average age for a founder based on the responses is (27.8)
--
require 'hpricot'
sum = 0 count = 0.0
file = Hpricot(File.open("comments.htm","r"))
file.search("span.comment/font") do |line| if line.inner_html =~ /([^\s][0-9]+[.,\s])/ number = $1.strip.to_i if number gt 10 && number lt 70 sum += number count += 1 end end end
puts "average age of founder is: " + sprintf("%.1f",sum/count)
Re: Startup founders, how old are you?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paul, is the YC demographic a good representative of the average startup founder's age? Judging from your articles, I sense that there is a certain, though justified, bias towards funding younger startup founders. This is the excerpt I am referring to: "The other reason it's hard to start a company before 23 is that people won't take you seriously. VCs won't trust you, and will try to reduce you to a mascot as a cond…
I'm a current YC company founder and I'm 21. I see the points pg makes in that essay you quote but I can't say I've let them apply to me personally. I have someone working for our company at the moment who is 33, in fact I don't think I've ever worked with someone who is the same age or younger than me (my co founder is 23). I've never had a problem with it personally, in fact I probably prefer it as I can generally…
You're only 21? I would have guessed 26.
Re: Startup founders, how old are you?
#56The average YC founder is about 25. The range so far has been from 19 to (I think) 33.
Paul, is the YC demographic a good representative of the average startup founder's age? Judging from your articles, I sense that there is a certain, though justified, bias towards funding younger startup founders. This is the excerpt I am referring to: "The other reason it's hard to start a company before 23 is that people won't take you seriously. VCs won't trust you, and will try to reduce you to a mascot as a cond…
It's hard to say for sure, but I'd guess it's not off by more than a couple years.
YC founders probably differ from the average founder more in how hackerly they are than their age. We have a strong bias toward companies run by the people actually writing the software.