3 ms·

I think you and analyst74 make some good points here. It doesn't surprise me at all that VCs are happy to invest in a start-up with founders who have experience

I think you and analyst74 make some good points here. It doesn't surprise me at all that VCs are happy to invest in a start-up with founders who have experience like yourself. At your age - that is going to be expected. If you were 42 and spent the last 20 years working in Big Corp - even if you did impressive work - I'm sceptical you'd be on an even-footing with a 25 year old who spent 3 years at Zynga.

drone 14y ago
If you were 42 and spent the last 20 years working in Big Corp - even if you did impressive work - I'm sceptical you'd be on an even-footing with a 25 year old who spent 3 years at Zynga. I would disagree with this, depending on the focus. That is, if the person who spent 20 years at "Big Corp" was doing a startup in a related domain to "Big Corp," she would have a large network of contacts, and years of domain experience in the problem-space she's tackling. The person who spent 3 years at Zynga likely only has a brief experience of how to poorly run a company, and few contacts outside of the gaming world.
SteveGerencser 14y ago
"If you were 42 and spent the last 20 years working in Big Corp - even if you did impressive work - I'm sceptical you'd be on an even-footing with a 25 year old who spent 3 years at Zynga." I've worked with more than a few mid-20 somethings that stepped out on their own only to immediately drive their company in to the ground because they a) didn't understand "business" (profit) and b) assumed the 'old people' around them didn't understand the new economy. This isn't to say that there are not outstanding young business owners out there, but to assume that 20 years of work experience provides no, or little, benefit when it comes to running a start-up is short sighted at best.