Louis Bidou

A group of MIT researchers looked at the age of successful U.S. entrepreneurs in the recent years.

Studying new businesses, narrowing it down to those with a high-tech startup profile, and including many more industries than just consumer-facing IT, they found that the average age of their founders, by the time they started their venture, was in the early forties. Not the young-graduate-wearing-hoodie profile we may have in mind.

They show that older entrepreneurs have a significant higher success-rate, and that professional background plays a critical role. “Relative to founders with no relevant experience, those with at least three years of prior work experience in the same narrow industry as their startup were 85% more likely to launch a highly successful startup.”

This actually bounces on a previous observation at one of Firstmark Capital event with their portfolio companies' founders and early employees. I was surprised to not see any founder in their early or even late twenties. All looked at least in their thirties, if not older.

Starting young can of course work just as well. But looks like there may not actually be a deadly countdown to absolutely start our company before 30.

Source: https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-successful-startup-founder-is-45