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When It Comes to Entrepreneurs, Youth Isn't Everything
- bsder 8y agoUnsurprising that older founders are represented more strongly. To create a real business, you have to have some knowledge of how the business actually operates and how to do it better. Software is the anomaly in being able to throw inexperienced people at tasks and hope to cough up something relevant.
- alfredallan1 8y agoEven in software, the primary “advantage” of youth seems to be able to work much longer hours. But from my own experience, I wonder how much of those long hours are truly productive. At least in my own case, i often observe that the quality of the work I do early morning when I’m fresh is significantly better than what I do late at night, and that the late-night job is more liable to contain subtle bugs, thus often needing to be “polished” in the morning again. Additionally what I can finish in the last 4 hours at night (after a full days work) I can easily do in about 2 hours in the morning. So while there’s an egocentric feeling of satisfaction of wrapping something up before going to bed, from a pure productivity perspective I find it better to call it quits at a decent hour and take a fresh look in the morning. So recently, I’ve started to do things in a way that things that need to be created from scratch, or otherwise need more mental/intellectual involvement, I do them while I’m fresh, and reserve the more mundane things or interpersonal tasks (like meetings, etc.) for the later part of the day when I’m slightly tired. I wonder if any of this resonates with other peoples’ experiences.
- apatters 8y agoIf you're an investor the other advantage is that youth is cheap. The VC model is to fund a lot of sometimes wacky ideas, the founders live on ramen for a year or two and work out the kinks of the business model and code a prototype. You don't need seniority for this you just need people with open minds who work long hours so enthusiastic youngsters work great. If an investment achieves product market fit you start bringing on some more senior people at that point.
- alcima 8y agoMore than the longer hours it is the willingness to try things that failed before or are likely impossible.
- jarfil 8y agoNot at all. There are plenty of young chaps who only want to do stuff "by the book", and plenty of old folks who understand the value of trying something that used to be impossible but now is possible. The main difference is endurance vs. experience, and it isn't until the 50s-60s that a lack of endurance can offset the extra experience.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ThomPete 8y agoI explored this subject in an essay: https://medium.com/black-n-white/the-problem-with-problems-47ee63bb3511 https://medium.com/black-n-white/the-problem-with-problems-4... after I did the first: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007 3 years ago
- sctb 8y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16794228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16794228.
- purplezooey 8y agoThis is good, because corporations actively try to jettison employees over 40.