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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

#61

Post by conductr »

opportune wrote: post #46
bonestamp2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I met with a non-technical cofounder a few months ago who is in his early 20s. He had a great idea for a product and was looking for a technical co-founder (he also had an investor who already put up some money and he was already deeply involved in the sales channel and had two customers already sold). I have no doubt this product would very successful. Probably not a unicorn, but could make a few people quite wealth…

“Non-technical cofounder in early 20s” sounds like a massive red flag to me. Ideas are cheap, execution is what matters

This is common sentiment but I disagree. As a tech person, I’d much rather partner with a non-tech person already selling and raising funds. Sounds like a winning combo but the parent just didn’t want to go on the path this specific person was heading down.

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

#62

Post by bendoernberg »

Alex3917 wrote: post #32
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

I don't think the poster was just talking about money, although there may also be a time-value factor for other things (health, neural plasticity, etc).

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

#63

Post by Jedd »

It's probably not really feasible (problems of definition) but I'd love to see some statistics on average age of unsuccessful startup founders, preferably correlated with industry sector, as they've done here, and perhaps with some context of previous / subsequent success by the individual.

As noted in TFA, it seems likely the IT industry would heavily skew the results.

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

#65

Post by sgustard »

dahart wrote: post #3

> there is a more benign possibility: VCs are not simply looking to identify the firms with the highest growth potential. Rather, they may seek investments that will yield the highest returns, and it is possible that young founders are more financially constrained than more experienced ones, leading them to cede upside to investors at a lower price. In other words, younger entrepreneurs may be a better “deal” for inv…

It's easier for VCs to take advantage of inexperience and ambition. Most suicide bombers are young too.

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

#66

Post by sgustard »

samontar wrote: post #52
quickthrower2 wrote: post #49

When do they measure the age? I worked at a company that took 20 years from conception to IPO. So is it the conception age or success age?

Paragraph 2 starts like this: > 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... So they do answer your question in the article.

Next sentence - "the average age of entrepreneurs at the time they founded their companies is 42"

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

#67

Post by taneq »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #25
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…

I met with a non-technical cofounder a few months ago who is in his early 20s. He had a great idea for a product and was looking for a technical co-founder (he also had an investor who already put up some money and he was already deeply involved in the sales channel and had two customers already sold). I have no doubt this product would very successful. Probably not a unicorn, but could make a few people quite wealth…

> ...non-technical cofounder [...] had a great idea for a product and was looking for a technical co-founder

As an aside, maybe I just don't 'get it' or maybe I've just met bad examples but this scenario always reads to me like "guy wants someone to do the work for him so he can be the boss".

Good ideas are cheap. Execution is the hard bit.

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

#68

Post by jm20 »

~50% of the top 10 companies in the world by market cap (Facebook, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon) were all started by founders aged 30 or younger. The rest are companies that are over 100 years old (or merged from ones that were) and Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway. I'm by no means saying you can't do it when you're older, but when you're a VC in the business of hitting home runs, it is just hard to ignore that fact.

It's also hard to ignore the fact that the 'sexiest' companies in that list are the aforementioned 5 started by young founders.

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

#69

Post by taneq »

tensor wrote: post #43
replicatorblog wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 stak…

Well, we'd be even more skeptical of a doctor who dropped out of undergrad, never got a degree, and was promising world changing results, which is the prevailing narrative Silicon Valley seems to want to believe.

There's an important difference between "dropped out of undergrad because you were failing" and "quit your course because your company succeeded so hard that finishing your course was irrelevant."

You probably wouldn't be sceptical of a managing director of a medical research company who'd dropped out of med school when they reached 10+ employees.

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