One of the biggest challenges for any individual thinking about starting a new business is taking that first step. There are a hundred reasons not to start a business (many of which have been written about a hundred times over in numerous articles, interviews and books).
But what about your age — is that a reason not to start a business? I spoke to someone recently who said he was considering starting a business, but thought it was just too old to do it. “I don’t know what I’d do — I’m not really familiar with software coding or Web 2.0. I’m probably just too old to be a high-tech entrepreneur.”
Am I too young or too old to start a new business?
Business schools across the country and around the world now offer a full range of entrepreneurship courses and programs of instructions. Undergraduates from technical backgrounds and business-entrepreneurship backgrounds are now graduating with the goal of starting their own business and leveraging their training. Likewise, lifelong employees of major corporations or researchers from government or academia are leaving their professions at a later stage in life looking to leverage on their experience and expertise. With these young and older entrepreneurs looking to start their own ventures, the question must be asked: is there really is room for these new entrants? Could you be too old or too young to build a high tech startup?
A number of researchers and industry trend watchers have examined the respective ages of the founders of successful startups to find the best age to create the proper mix of entrepreneurial “magic.” Nick Denton of Valleywag, a Silicon Valley blog, postured that twenty-six was the age that had produced the most spectacular recent successes (citing founders at the ages of 25-27 at the time they formed companies such as Yahoo!, Skype, Google, YouTube, and MySpace).
Looking at founders of European companies, VenturePedia data suggests that median and mean ages were 38 and 39.5 years respectively for founders of startups among their six hundred company sample. That data further suggested that founders of information technology companies were likely to be approximately five years younger than founders of healthcare, biotechnology, services, and retail companies. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures postured on his blog that founders in their thirties represented the prime time for entrepreneurship as these “thirtysomethings” were looking for “what’s next” in their careers and were armed with the right set of skills and experiences to find it.
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Think you are too YOUNG to be a successful entrepreneur?
A quick look at a few examples of “young” entrepreneurs and their ages at the time they formed their companies:
And another famous example, Warren Buffett (Bill Gate’s bridge partner and the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway) purchased his first stock at age 11, his first farm at the age of 14 and at age 26 started the partnership that would go onto become Berkshire Hathaway.
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But surely you can be too old to be a founder of a successful company? There are a number of examples of founders of very successful companies who would buck the research that says “thirtysomethings” represent the “sweet spot” of entrepreneurship.
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Think you are too OLD to be a successful entrepreneur?
A quick look at a few examples of “older” entrepreneurs and their ages at the time they formed their companies:
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Is there a time that is just right to become a founder of a company? Sure. Each founder will need to find the right combination for them when they hold the “correct” combination of experience and education, with the right timing for the business venture. Research suggests that the most crucial factor is your network, who you know or who you can get to know. Whether you are twenty-one or seventy-one, bringing a network (and then building) of associates and contacts is crucial to building a successful startup company.
And even if you are “past your prime” in the world of startups, you can sell that as the right mix of experience combined with the youthful exuberance of the others in the company. For Ely Callaway, perhaps his company would not have been a success if it had been started in the 1950s before a golf explosion began. And if you are a relative youngster, perhaps you can surround with “greybeards” (individuals heavy on experience) the way that founders such as the Google guys have. Remember that the key to success is not fitting the “right” persona or personality, but aligning your skill set with the right opportunity.
This article is an excerpt from my new book What Every Engineer Should Know About Starting a High-Tech Business Venture, available now.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Great post! Thanks for writing this. I think there is an interesting “perspective” (some might call it prejudice) among some investors (VCs, Angels, and Banks) to pattern match entrepreneurs against their “typical profiles for success”… and in some cases I believe they may assume that “young”==”spunk”+”innovation” and that “old”=”experienced”+”good operator”. Of course, this pattern matching is just as likely to be wrong as it is to be right… but it’s interesting, and I believe pervasive.
February 15th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Some very good points, Eric. When I started my first tech company in the early 80’s, I was in my late 20’s and the few VCs that I met then would look at me and say, “But you’re so young!” (They were mostly in their 40’s and 50’s back then!)
These days, I meet up with VCs - now mostly in their 20’s and 30’s - who look at me with that “But you’re so old!” look (I’m now in my late 50’s).
One way or another, I’ve always managed to get my projects funded and running and speaking only from personal experience, I can honestly say that my age has never been a serious obstacle for me. I bring a lot of young people on board as part of my team and more often than not, they need adult supervision!
A good startup has to do with several factors, not the least of which include the experience of the founder(s), the power of the concept behind the startup, as well as how well you can convey the value of that idea - and not necessarily in that order.