The idea that most successful startups are created by people in their early twenties is basically a myth. The median age according to the various bits of resear

The idea that most successful startups are created by people in their early twenties is basically a myth. The median age according to the various bits of research I've seen over the years is somewhere around 35 - 45. And yes, that includes unicorns. [1][2][3][4] I've never seen any research on the topic but I have a strong suspicion that if you looked at the failure rate of startups founded by 20 years old it would be vastly higher than that of startups founded by 40 year olds, as 40 year olds are likely to be able to invest their own funds in the early stages, have industry expertise and contacts, and are more likely to have learned the interpersonal skills to manage relationships with co-founders, customers, funders etc. They also probably know the market that they are going into so have a much smaller space to search for product market fit than a 20 year old with less knowledge. There are exceptions of course. But the honest reality is that if you don't have a year or two's cushion where you can continue to pay the bills while pursuing your startup you probably shouldn't do it if you have kids and a family, unless your partner is willing and able to pick up the slack financially. That's assuming you go for the classical silicon valley "let's dedicate every waking hour to building our tinder clone for chinchillas that will revolutionise fuzzball breeding" tech-bro method of working on a startup. It might be saner to take a slower approach and bootstrap to begin with while seeing if you can work part time. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/27/super-founders-median-age-of-billion-startup-founders-over-15-years.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/27/super-founders-median-age-of... [2] https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-successful-startup-founder-is-45# https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-succes... [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1220545/founder-age-startups-usa/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1220545/founder-age-star... [4] https://startups.co.uk/news/average-age-of-startup-founder/ https://startups.co.uk/news/average-age-of-startup-founder/