4 ms·

Here is a theory, Software as a Culture and Info vehicle is pretty much mature, the social, the news, etc. An average 20 year old is not well equipped with deep

by sremani 11y ago

Here is a theory, Software as a Culture and Info vehicle is pretty much mature, the social, the news, etc. An average 20 year old is not well equipped with deep domain knowledge, a good example is flexport, I do not know much about founders but its a business, you need to have a deeper understanding where a 30+ would usually have. So, you will see start-up coming from much older people at the helm and not the younger people. May be this is my bias, but Software fed a cultural need, a communication and information need, we are moving into different realms. Realms which are distributed across the country and world and over all need DEPTH(in Domain) rather than horizontal trends.

philrapo 11y ago
The average founder is (or was) already 30+: https://hbr.org/2014/04/how-old-are-silicon-valleys-top-founders-heres-the-data/ https://hbr.org/2014/04/how-old-are-silicon-valleys-top-foun...
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  But will it trend upward as the gold rush ends? I'd argue yes.
nostrademons 11y ago
I think you'll get periodic waves of re-invention as culture changes. AOL (1991) begat Yahoo (1995, with peak culture around 1998) begat Facebook (2004) begat WhatsApp (2009) & Instagram/SnapChat (2011). In the meantime there were plenty of niche subcultures as well: UseNet, Geocities, Xanga, EZBoard, LiveJournal, Second Life, Secret, etc. The center of gravity might be moving overseas now as the Chinese middle-class develops: Asian mobile messengers are often bigger than their U.S. counterparts. It's all part of every generation's prerogative to say that their predecessors are old-fogies who don't get it. If you're lucky enough to catch the next wave (which I'm guessing will be in 2018, based on past patterns), there's probably another billion-dollar business in there.
entee 11y ago
The research tends to back this up. The valley tends to be quite youth-obsessed but in reality successful founders of companies tend to be a little older than 25: http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anatomy-of-an-entrepreneur http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anat... Other things that older people have more experience with: Management. You will have seen plenty of bad management, and hopefully a little good management along the way. Management is hard, understanding that different people work differently and how to motivate them is also hard. Having (hopefully) learned how to do it on someone else's dime is pretty damned valuable I'd say. Also against conventional wisdom: families. Plenty of these guys are married and have kids. That teaches you about compromise, talking to humans that don't see the world the way you do and can make your life miserable or awesome. I know that my PhD advisor became a notably better manager after having his first child.
totalrobe 11y ago
I think the point you are trying to make is that complex traditional businesses supported by modern tech will continue to grow. Flexport is not a tech company. It's a traditional freight forwarder/customs brokerage masquerading as a tech startup because they have a nice web ui.

by sremani 11y ago

philrapo 11y ago

The average founder is (or was) already 30+: https://hbr.org/2014/04/how-old-are-silicon-valleys-top-founders-heres-the-data/ https://hbr.org/2014/04/how-old-are-silicon-valleys-top-foun...

toomuchtodo 11y ago
But will it trend upward as the gold rush ends? I'd argue yes.

nostrademons 11y ago

I think you'll get periodic waves of re-invention as culture changes. AOL (1991) begat Yahoo (1995, with peak culture around 1998) begat Facebook (2004) begat WhatsApp (2009) & Instagram/SnapChat (2011). In the meantime there were plenty of niche subcultures as well: UseNet, Geocities, Xanga, EZBoard, LiveJournal, Second Life, Secret, etc. The center of gravity might be moving overseas now as the Chinese middle-class develops: Asian mobile messengers are often bigger than their U.S. counterparts. It's all part of every generation's prerogative to say that their predecessors are old-fogies who don't get it. If you're lucky enough to catch the next wave (which I'm guessing will be in 2018, based on past patterns), there's probably another billion-dollar business in there.

entee 11y ago

The research tends to back this up. The valley tends to be quite youth-obsessed but in reality successful founders of companies tend to be a little older than 25: http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anatomy-of-an-entrepreneur http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anat... Other things that older people have more experience with: Management. You will have seen plenty of bad management, and hopefully a little good management along the way. Management is hard, understanding that different people work differently and how to motivate them is also hard. Having (hopefully) learned how to do it on someone else's dime is pretty damned valuable I'd say. Also against conventional wisdom: families. Plenty of these guys are married and have kids. That teaches you about compromise, talking to humans that don't see the world the way you do and can make your life miserable or awesome. I know that my PhD advisor became a notably better manager after having his first child.

totalrobe 11y ago

I think the point you are trying to make is that complex traditional businesses supported by modern tech will continue to grow. Flexport is not a tech company. It's a traditional freight forwarder/customs brokerage masquerading as a tech startup because they have a nice web ui.