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He was 51 when he started Garmin. Never too late !
by vasilipupkin 7y ago
He was 51 when he started Garmin. Never too late !
- philshem 7y agoStartup founders, especially for high-performing companies, are older than one may think. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18212409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18212409 (Unfortunately the original HBR article is now behind a paywall.)
- HNLurker2 7y agoAnd what does this mean for youngsters in the game?
- jumbopapa 7y agoRay Kroc and Mr. Burrell are great examples of why you should never give up!
- alister 7y agoEven older actually, 52. (He was born Aug. 1937 and Garmin was founded Oct. 1989.) > In 1989, they pooled their savings and persuaded Dr. Kao’s Taiwanese relatives to invest seed money. With $4 million... That's $8.4 million in 2019 dollars. It takes a lot of money to start a hardware company, especially something as complex as a GPS. I'm wondering if Garmin would exist if he didn't have the personal savings and access to family money. One advantage of being older is having more money (usually). It was pretty standard that you used savings and/or relatives' money to do startups in the past. I think that a 20-year-old being about to raise cash from arms-length investors (like VCs) is a recent phenomenon -- only in the last couple decades. Jobs and Wozniak built the Apple I with personal cash, and got Mike Markkula's loan for $250,000 (in 1976) or $1.1 million in 2019 dollars only after getting a large order.
- ryandrake 7y agoIt's probably a good advantage but not as good as all the experience he undoubtedly built up in those years. What about those decades of observing what's worked and not worked? Decades of practice implementing other people's things while watching out for That One Right Thing?