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What's happening with founders over 40?
- master_crab 2y agoBreaking news: Founders find out people in midlife have young kids.
- nextworddev 2y ago[flagged]
- mnky9800n 2y agoThey also highlighted better at making decisions that are pragmatic company focused not based on insecurity.
- nextworddev 2y agoStrictly my personal experience but age has nothing to do with one’s capacity to make decisions free of ego or insecurity
- oldmanhn 2y ago[flagged]
- nextworddev 2y agoHey you got the old thing going for you. Cheers
- mnky9800n 2y agoStrictly my personal experience by age has often been an obvious impact on one’s capacity to make decisions free of ego or insecurity. Especially for those under 30.
- kittikitti 2y agoThe VC's want someone dumb and impressionable.
- exe34 2y agoit's like the army. a youngster will do what you tell them without asking why. a 40 year old will ask what the plan is, and you better have a good one.
- liontwist 2y agoIs it that 40 years are more skeptical? Or that they have their own manner of working that’s not unlearnable?
- exe34 2y agothey've probably been around long enough to see a lot of stuff going on and are less likely to fall for empty promises. if you give me a gun and point me at the Russians invading England, I'll probably head over and shoot in their general direction. if you put me in a camp and i have to suffer a drill sergeant shouting at me, I'll probably shoot him in the knee.
- liontwist 2y ago> if i have to suffer a drill sergeant shouting at me, I'll probably shoot him in the knee. Ive been around the corporate world and the equivalent of this pretty much never happens. And when it does it’s always been a young person standing up for themselves. So I think this is just big talk. And by that I don’t mean a personal insult. But your answer doesn’t give me confidence in your view.
- exe34 2y agoI suspect the older people in your experience have a mortgage, it might make a difference.
- drxzcl 2y agoHonestly? I think they are just rationalizing away their respective midlife crises.
- ktpsns 2y agoI perceived having "old" (co-)founders as a subtle but immanent disadvantage in the prototypical deep tech startup scene. When you talk to VC youngsters who barely started a university studies this is awkward at best and not successful in average. Things change dramatically when you talk to partners in the VC firms where the aged founder and partner meet at a similar age. This may sound trivial but these non-technical human interactions are quite dominating in my life, unfortunately. Age is as important as degrees or previous experience as founder.
- tomrod 2y agoAye, ageism can creep up on us all if we assume age means disadvantage despite knowing that experience is a massive advantage. Many older founders have both age and degrees, and many even teach those that get degrees. Older folks typically know the market much better, having lived it, and are better at garnering trust if they aren't a complete muppet.
- CalRobert 2y ago"Family obligations and priorities are prominent (kids in high school/college)." Maybe it's my bubble but I'm 41 and most people I know my age have kids in the 2-12 age range, not high school/college. I would love to be a founder but I am tired as hell, and don't have the wealth to quit my job to start a company.
- thrw42A8N 2y agoMy mother is 50 and I am over 30...
- petesergeant 2y agoOK, but are you most people, or are you a people?
- thrw42A8N 2y agoI'm most people in my bubble. I'm sure there are many different bubbles with completely different stats.
- rsanek 2y agoaverage in the US is around 28 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/05/18/graphics-show-changing-trend-average-age-parents/73707908007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/05/18/graphi...
- thrw42A8N 2y agoYeah, I'm European. Nowadays it's getting similar, but it was very different under communism - and the regime spent a lot of money to convince people to have children early.
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- revskill 2y agoI dont get the idea of a family. We should fund a more stable foundation.
- delichon 2y agoLike what? Were you orphaned or had an unsupportive family that brings you to put no value in them? Do you consider that an advantage such that the rest of us would be better off with less care and love in our lives? Or do you have plans for a different institution to provide those things better?
- revskill 2y agoHard to find the best match and easy to get a divorce after unhappy marriage with too much bad side effects.
- velcro 2y agoComments so far are sort of singling out the "negatives" i.e. make it seem like 40yo just don't want to put in the time anymore (for one reason or another) but the article also mentions stuff like: - At 40+ you're more judicious about where you put your energy - In your 40s, you have some accumulated wisdom: you recognize patterns faster and are more willing to change course Do I have the blind faith to grind it out 5+ years in a stagnating startup on an off chance it might take off someday - especially if I've done that before? Looking for a better way is not always a bad thing. On another hand - my 20yo self wouldn't have believed my 40yo self - some things you just have to live through.
- Dalewyn 2y ago>On another hand - my 20yo self wouldn't have believed my 40yo self - some things you just have to live through. As Otto Von Bismarck once said: "Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others."
- fijiaarone 2y agoHow old was Bismark when he said that?
- dambi0 2y agoWhat difference does it make?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- velcro 2y agoSure - and Plato once said: "Quotation marks are always a sign of absolute truth."
- nefrix 2y agoAn he also said: “Don’t believe everything that is attributed to me as truth, especially question those who put “my words” under fake quotation marks.”
- pbiggar 2y agoAnother option is to put that experience to good use. I just turned 43, I should probably have retired. But instead I founded Tech for Palestine, doing whatever we can to help end the oppression on Palestinians by Israel. Hard tiring work, but it feels like a good leverage for all those skills I spent my 20s and 30s building. Maybe that perspective will change once I have kids, which is in slated for the next few years.
- za3faran 2y agoThat is such an admirable and honorable cause. May God Grant you Success.
- truthjustthat 2y ago[flagged]
- flyinglizard 2y ago[flagged]
- oldmanhn 2y ago[flagged]
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- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoEh. I was quite willing to take risky bets on startups when I was laid off, at 55. I had experience in myriad aspects of releasing and maintaining software, managing release-level projects that were hybrid hardware/software (I originally hailed from a hardware genesis), and the myriad "soft skills" that are required of anyone that is going to ask cynical, hard-boiled people with bags of money (think Japanese executives) to help fund their efforts. I had (still have) a guaranteed income for life, so I would have been quite willing to work on equity, and had (still have) no problem, putting in a huge amount of hours (my GH Activity Graph is almost solid green. I keep busy). My experience: no one cared about that. They wanted young jargonauts. I assume that's the formula that gets VCs to pony up cash. They were probably correct, in pushing me away. I am not particularly enamored of the business plan model that seems to be in fashion, these days.
- schmookeeg 2y ago"jargonauts" is amazing. I've not heard that before, but what a well-fitting shoe. :D
- Clubber 2y ago>I am not particularly enamored of the business plan model that seems to be in fashion, these days. More work, more chaos, more micromanagement for less pay, what's not to like?
- tlogan 2y agoThe best time to start a business is in your 40s or 50s and when your kids are in high school or college. Here’s why: - You have more time since your kids are more independent, and they might even help with your business. - Your significant other might have a full-time job, giving you a safety net with steady income and insurance. - By now, you have a network of friends and colleagues, making it easier to find your first customers and get honest feedback. - Hiring is easier because you already know people in your industry or community. - You understand your industry better, which gives you an advantage. However, this can also be a downside—you might avoid risky, “crazy” ideas that could lead to huge success.
- mijustin 2y agoThis is true! However, "age" might be less of a deciding variable than experience, connections, and resources. Here's the research on older entrepreneurs being more successful: https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/younger-older-tech-entrepreneurs https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/younger-old... > "Among the very fastest-growing new tech companies, the average founder was 45 at the time of founding." However, the deciding factor appears to be experience: > "founders with three or more years of experience in the same industry as their startup are twice as likely to have a one-in-1,000 fastest-growing company."
- master_crab 2y ago+1 And the statistics would agree with this intuition: https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2020/comm/business-owners-ages.html https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2020/comm/busi... Over half of business owners are over 55 years of age. This includes small businesses, IT startups, etc. But even within tech, the majority of founders and CEOs I worked with, from small startups to large enterprises, tended to be 40s and up.
- rsanek 2y agoa business owner being 55+ is different statistic from a founder being 55+
- alexjplant 2y ago
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoWow. It's amazing how quickly this crashed off the HN frontpage. Not a popular topic.
- rkachowski 2y agoit must be the kids who are wrong
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoNah. The Kids Are Alright.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bearjaws 2y agoI will tell you right now, the worst founders are young. Probably great for the VC, but not great for anyone else. My best learnings have come from founders who were in their 40s when they started their businesses. One was even 58 when he started.
- steveBK123 2y agoYouth are easier to get more work out of than the value they will get in return. By 40 you have less tolerance for BS, can better judge if a venture will succeed, and when the risk/reward no longer make sense to continue. Some would call it higher risk tolerance, others might say its risk ignorance.
- safety1st 2y agoThe average age of a successful business founder in the US is in the early 40's - these days I see 42 and 45 thrown around based on available data. It's always been the case. 20 years ago I remember seeing the number 38 being thrown around. By middle age you've had enough time to accumulate skills, a network, and capital, which can far outweigh the downsides of this period of your life. Young adulthood is your fuck around period. Middle age is your find out period. It's really when the rubber hits the road and whatever you've been turning into a reality through your actions for the last 20+ years, happens. Old age is when you live with the consequences.
- deadbabe 2y agoWhen you’re young, if your startup fails, you’re still young. But when you’re in your 40s or more, and your startup fails, it hits you harder, you lost some last good years to the stress of building a startup, for nothing. And now you’re even older and more tired. It’s like there’s no point unless you’re sure you have something very promising, not just snake oil BS. Better to spend time with family and your hobbies. What’s the point of getting rich at like 70? You’re old and all the romance of life has been drained. Your wealth just pays for better end of life care.
- nahnahno 2y agoThen think of what it means if you have a person in their 40's that is really investing times in startups. Either they're stupid or they are committed in a way that 20 year olds likely aren't.
- k__ 2y agoAre there even enough sane founders that VCs can be picky about age?
- jazz9k 2y agoMost VCs want a founder that will spend years grinding away earning nothing and in the off chance they have something successful, sign away their rights, so the VC can make their millions. By 40, most people see right through the bullshit. Im in my 40s and I even turn down good paying jobs at startups, when I see no upside for me (long hours, terrible business model).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]