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Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

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Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#61

Post by CalRobert »

deepGem wrote: post #60
codazoda wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but ~45 may be a golden age again. By then your kids may be starting to becoming self sufficient, retirement is still 20 years off, and you've lived through a fair number of financial problems. Your retirement plans might be coming together and the world is starting to look more rosey. Plus, you find yourself feeling like you're nearing the end of your "youth"; you're aged but you still feel good. Perhaps you b…

I more or less left full time work when I was 39 to pursue startups. The reasoning was exactly on the lines of what you have described. It's been 2 years and the journey has been fraught with failures. One, it's become really hard for me to find a co-founder. Almost none of the guys in my friend circle are willing to take the risks associated with startups. I've attended a pre-accelerator to find a co-founders but ha…

Sorry to hear it, but thank you for sharing. It's likely people with your experience are less likely to share it than those who've been successful and I worry it gives a skewed view of the likelihood that a startup will make you happier.

One question - have you only looked at "exponential ideas"? Maybe there's a small but reasonably profitable endeavour out there - a lifestyle business?

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#62

Post by watwut »

sleet wrote: post #26
jknoepfler wrote: post #24

I honestly can't understand why this would shock anyone with experience in engineering. As a senior developer, I'm vastly more able to realize ideas than I was even three years ago. I also know vastly more. I'm able to understand cutting-edge systems and language research that I couldn't before. I'm able to design systems quickly and more reliably. I'm able to separate good ideas from bad ideas more reliably. I'm bet…

I agree but there's probably a limit on that sentiment. If you start a family you are likely to become more risk adverse, this would increase again as you approach retirement.

Maybe the young risk too much. In that case, being more risk averse could be statistical advantage. There seems to be persistent underlying assumption that more risk taking is always better, that is unlikely to be true. Optimal risk taking amount is not necessary "highest possible".

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#63

Post by shaqbert »

deepGem wrote: post #60
codazoda wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but ~45 may be a golden age again. By then your kids may be starting to becoming self sufficient, retirement is still 20 years off, and you've lived through a fair number of financial problems. Your retirement plans might be coming together and the world is starting to look more rosey. Plus, you find yourself feeling like you're nearing the end of your "youth"; you're aged but you still feel good. Perhaps you b…

I more or less left full time work when I was 39 to pursue startups. The reasoning was exactly on the lines of what you have described. It's been 2 years and the journey has been fraught with failures. One, it's become really hard for me to find a co-founder. Almost none of the guys in my friend circle are willing to take the risks associated with startups. I've attended a pre-accelerator to find a co-founders but ha…

Sounds like you need a young gun co-founder to complement your expertise with the energy and enthusiasm of youth.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#64

Post by deepGem »

CalRobert wrote: post #61
deepGem wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I more or less left full time work when I was 39 to pursue startups. The reasoning was exactly on the lines of what you have described. It's been 2 years and the journey has been fraught with failures. One, it's become really hard for me to find a co-founder. Almost none of the guys in my friend circle are willing to take the risks associated with startups. I've attended a pre-accelerator to find a co-founders but ha…

Sorry to hear it, but thank you for sharing. It's likely people with your experience are less likely to share it than those who've been successful and I worry it gives a skewed view of the likelihood that a startup will make you happier. One question - have you only looked at "exponential ideas"? Maybe there's a small but reasonably profitable endeavour out there - a lifestyle business?

"Maybe there's a small but reasonably profitable endeavour out there" I am actually thinking about just this. Let's see.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#65

Post by AstralStorm »

kozikow wrote: post #46

I would like to see the data broken down by startup profile. I suspect that the ideal age differs between B2B and B2C startups. B2C have smaller chance of success, but the success is bigger. Ideal B2C founder is young. Most of enormous tech successes (e.g. Facebook, Google) are B2C companies founded by founders before 30. B2B have higher chance of success, but the success is smaller. Ideal B2B founder is middle-aged.…

Please provide examples of B2C success that are other than Apple, Google or Facebook founded by people under 30. (No, Microsoft is B2B.)

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#66

Post by tixocloud »

deepGem wrote: post #60
codazoda wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but ~45 may be a golden age again. By then your kids may be starting to becoming self sufficient, retirement is still 20 years off, and you've lived through a fair number of financial problems. Your retirement plans might be coming together and the world is starting to look more rosey. Plus, you find yourself feeling like you're nearing the end of your "youth"; you're aged but you still feel good. Perhaps you b…

I more or less left full time work when I was 39 to pursue startups. The reasoning was exactly on the lines of what you have described. It's been 2 years and the journey has been fraught with failures. One, it's become really hard for me to find a co-founder. Almost none of the guys in my friend circle are willing to take the risks associated with startups. I've attended a pre-accelerator to find a co-founders but ha…

I'm curious to know what are the things you've been thinking about working on? I've experienced the challenge of finding a co-founder in my immediate circle but looking beyond that, there are plenty of potentials.

I know a startup called Wagepoint that started with a co-founders from vastly different age groups.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#67

Post by Dibbles »

AstralStorm wrote: post #65
kozikow wrote: post #46

I would like to see the data broken down by startup profile. I suspect that the ideal age differs between B2B and B2C startups. B2C have smaller chance of success, but the success is bigger. Ideal B2C founder is young. Most of enormous tech successes (e.g. Facebook, Google) are B2C companies founded by founders before 30. B2B have higher chance of success, but the success is smaller. Ideal B2B founder is middle-aged.…

Please provide examples of B2C success that are other than Apple, Google or Facebook founded by people under 30. (No, Microsoft is B2B.)

A lot of media companies (videos, games, music) are essentially B2C and often founded by younger people.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#68

Post by Horrabin »

tixocloud wrote: post #66
deepGem wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I more or less left full time work when I was 39 to pursue startups. The reasoning was exactly on the lines of what you have described. It's been 2 years and the journey has been fraught with failures. One, it's become really hard for me to find a co-founder. Almost none of the guys in my friend circle are willing to take the risks associated with startups. I've attended a pre-accelerator to find a co-founders but ha…

I'm curious to know what are the things you've been thinking about working on? I've experienced the challenge of finding a co-founder in my immediate circle but looking beyond that, there are plenty of potentials. I know a startup called Wagepoint that started with a co-founders from vastly different age groups.

Hmm, Wagepoint. I was involved in vetting the younger of the two to the older. They both had similar interests and the experience of the older complemented the energy and enthusiasm of the younger.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#69

Post by rimliu »

thisrod wrote: post #16
redm wrote: post #3

As I've gotten older (ironically) I've felt this should be the case; key decisions have such an impact on the success or failure of a startup, it's much more likely you make the right key decisions the more experience and wisdom you have.

PG has written about that. He made the point that, in 1998, the people with experience and wisdom all agreed that the world had enough search engines already.

I have an issue with "all". Unless he did interview all the people with experience and wisdom. Otherwise it is just a soundbite.

Re: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

#70

Post by imgabe »

s2g wrote: post #40
mcbreezy wrote: post #17

I'm 37. I constantly remind myself that Craigslist, Wikipedia, Salesforces, Intel, etc. were founded by someone >=35 years of age[0], and that, since I live a healthy lifestyle have at least 30 great years ahead of me (on average). https://readwrite.com/2013/09/27/jimmy-wales-to-silicon-vall...

If you want to waste it working.

If you consider starting your own company a waste, you definitely shouldn't start one.
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