5 ms·

Ask PG: YC Founders over 30 yrs old

60 points by dannyr 17y ago

I'm curious to know how many YC companies with founders over 30 yrs old have been funded. We hear so much about founders right out of college. I also wonder how much of a factor is age in selecting companies.

Retric 17y ago
Normaly there are a lot of rule about age discrimination, but I don't think they exist in terms of investment $. I wonder if there are any such pitfalls when building an incubator?
Mistone 17y ago
rescuetime is one example right off hand, also not sure how old Matt Moroon at draftMix is but def does not strike me as fresh out of college. sure there is a few more as well.
- deleted 17y ago
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  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
- icey 17y ago
  Someone posted a correction and I guess they've deleted it; but Matt's last name is "Maroon", not "Moroon".
  - mattmaroon 17y ago
    And he's under 30 still. Was 26 when he went out to YC. Spread the word.
    - Mistone 17y ago
      matt, sorry for the misspell, annoying im sure. a young guy indeed.
pg 17y ago
There are quite a lot of founders over 30. I don't know exactly how many because we don't keep track of ages. The sharp falloff is around 35, but we've had a handful of founders over 40. None over 50 though. I think our age distribution is probably close to the age distribution for startups generally. We've funded more founders who are 27 than 20 or 35 because more people start startups at 27 than at 20 or 35.
- sanj 17y ago
  I seem to recall at the YC meetup in Cambridge last summer (http://anyvite.com/events/home/tmokjxuwai/ http://anyvite.com/events/home/tmokjxuwai/) that there was a question asking why the application asked for age. I recall that you said "... age is a high bit in characterizing someone." And Jessica yelled from the cheap seats that "... we need it to know that you can sign stuff legally." I remember it vividly because it confirmed my decision not to apply to YC.
  - pg 17y ago
    It sounds like you were reading a lot into what we said. Jessica's remark was obviously a joke. And all I meant was that when you're trying to judge someone's achievements, you need to know how long they've had to achieve them. Would you hold a 20 year old to the same standard as a 30 year old?
    - SamAtt 17y ago
      I'd think there would be more of a drop off with opportunities like Y Combinator than there would be with other Angel investors. I'm surprised there are any at all. I guess it's still an excellent opportunity to meet people so I mean no offense to those over 30 who did sign up but I'm a 25 year old and I wouldn't pick up and move for $5,000 bucks. I always thought part of the lure of Y Combinator was that young folks had nothing to tie them down. I can't think of a 30 year old I know who has no obligations.
      - SwellJoe 17y ago
dbul 17y ago
It isn't surprising most founders are in their twenties given demographics which are probably close to this on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=517039 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=517039 It looks like those in their thirties are well-represented. I don't see why age would make a difference anyway. If you blow them away, my guess is you're in. Just spend a few hours on your application, get a few people who you think are smarter than you to review your application with you for a few hours, submit it, then go back to focusing on your startup.
benatkin 17y ago
This article has some good insight into people who succeed later in life (late bloomers): http://www.gladwell.com/2008/2008_10_20_a_latebloomers.html http://www.gladwell.com/2008/2008_10_20_a_latebloomers.html It does happen, and it's not as rare as most people think. The article also makes a pretty strong argument that late bloomers tend to approach things differently than those who get an early start.
- jfischer 17y ago
  Thanks -- I really enjoyed that article. I could relate to the line "I felt like I'd stepped off a cliff and I didn't know if the parachute was going to open. Nobody wants to waste their life..." The discussion about the importance of a support network for "experimental innovators" is spot-on, too.
tptacek 17y ago
The demographics here are kind of straightforward. If you're over 30, you're more likely to have a family. If you have a family and you can handle starting a company from zero, you're less likely to need YC. If you can't handle starting from zero, YC doesn't help you anyways.
TriinT 17y ago
If you look at many tech startups, you will notice that the age of the founders is closely related to the nature of their business. For instance, YC startups do mostly web software, so the founders should be young because the barriers of entry aren't that high. After all, a smart kid who spends his teens coding in his spare time will be at his best by the age of 20. On the other hand, I know startups which were founded by guys in their 30s and 40s. Their business areas were chip-design and laser tech for optical networks. The barrier of entry in these fields is huge. To cut a long story short, if you're 35 you may be old by web-app industry standards, but you're still young by semiconductor industry standards. Since you're on HN I suppose you're into software, not hardware, so what I have just written will most likely be irrelevant to you.
newsio 17y ago
This thread (and the link to the Gladwell essay that someone submitted to it earlier) are interesting. I'm 39 years old, and want to start my own company and change my career from journalist to news technologist/entrepreneur. Some readers might chuckle at that, but I am very serious. In my mind, the question of the age of YC founders has much to do with the threshold for risk. Age definitely plays a part. But age does not crush vision, and brings some benefits in terms of experience and understanding of target markets. In my own case, I have an idea for a mobile news platform that I believe will change the way in which a lot of people get information. I think it would be a product that people want, but the only way to find out is to build it and see what the market thinks. But I recognize that there are a lot of barriers to achieving my vision. First, I'm not a hacker, and I don't have a co-founder (yet) who is. I think in pg's view, this would preclude me from starting this type of company (based on some of his commentary in Founders At Work and in http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html). Nevertheless, I have a lot of experience with the technologies that would drive the platform, and insights into the way people consume information, and I think this will be extremely valuable in driving product development. Second, I have a family and a mortgage. Others have noted family-related issues, but the situation really depends on the specifics of your family. My wife is not working, as my youngest is in preschool only for three mornings a week. This makes it impossible for me to take the risk right now to drop my day job and the health insurance that comes with it (I live in the U.S., in the Boston area) and work full time on my product. If my wife was working in a professional position, not only would we have the salary and insurance to fall back on if I stopped working at my day job, but also we could afford day care. So, what I am doing right now is plugging away at the business plan and some of the technical concepts in my spare time, usually for two hours per day after the kids go to sleep. I'm trying to bone up on my understanding of the platforms that I think I will need to grok in order to get this thing off the ground. I've stopped putting money in my 401k to build up some funds, and I'm considering how I might tap other sources of funding -- not to mention considering various revenue streams from the product itself. Would I ever apply to Y Combinator? I couldn't do it on my own, but I might, if I had the right team and could consider taking off for a few months (I wish YC still had the summer program in Cambridge!). The family-related concerns are real, but there are ways to address them (for instance, COBRA for health insurance and enough funding to cover my mortgage and living expenses). Edited: Changed first sentence to add Gladwell ref
dedalus 17y ago
I work for a startup where everyone in the company is over 30
dannyr 17y ago
I'm a little surprised that there are a lot of 30+ founders. The thing is we mostly read about young people getting into YC. I have also been to a number of gatherings with the YC founders and most of them are young.
smakz 17y ago
Regardless of whether you go the YC path or not - you should know that there are many, many examples of extremely successful companies being founded by people in their 30's and later. Cisco, Qualcomm, Amazon.com, Bose Corporation, LinkedIn. etc.etc.etc.
iamelgringo 17y ago
A common belief is that U.S.-born tech founders of technology companies tend to be young. We found that about 1 percent were teenagers when they started their firms. More than twice as many were older than age fifty than were younger than twenty-five. Many, in fact, were in their sixties when they founded their startups. The vast majority of U.S.-born tech founders were older than twenty-five. The average and median age of key tech founders was thirty-nine. Source: http://sites.kauffman.org/pdf/Education_Tech_Ent_061108.pdf http://sites.kauffman.org/pdf/Education_Tech_Ent_061108.pdf
- electric 17y ago
  This is very relevant research. I actually agree with the findings based on the people I know who have started technology companies. I don't think it applies to the kind of people that YC is targeting - young, mobile, no dependents, able to live on very little $'s a year or the technology segment which is consumer web startups.

60 points by dannyr 17y ago

Retric 17y ago

Normaly there are a lot of rule about age discrimination, but I don't think they exist in terms of investment $. I wonder if there are any such pitfalls when building an incubator?

Mistone 17y ago

rescuetime is one example right off hand, also not sure how old Matt Moroon at draftMix is but def does not strike me as fresh out of college. sure there is a few more as well.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
icey 17y ago
Someone posted a correction and I guess they've deleted it; but Matt's last name is "Maroon", not "Moroon".
- mattmaroon 17y ago
  And he's under 30 still. Was 26 when he went out to YC. Spread the word.
  - Mistone 17y ago
    matt, sorry for the misspell, annoying im sure. a young guy indeed.

pg 17y ago

There are quite a lot of founders over 30. I don't know exactly how many because we don't keep track of ages. The sharp falloff is around 35, but we've had a handful of founders over 40. None over 50 though. I think our age distribution is probably close to the age distribution for startups generally. We've funded more founders who are 27 than 20 or 35 because more people start startups at 27 than at 20 or 35.

sanj 17y ago
I seem to recall at the YC meetup in Cambridge last summer (http://anyvite.com/events/home/tmokjxuwai/ http://anyvite.com/events/home/tmokjxuwai/) that there was a question asking why the application asked for age. I recall that you said "... age is a high bit in characterizing someone." And Jessica yelled from the cheap seats that "... we need it to know that you can sign stuff legally." I remember it vividly because it confirmed my decision not to apply to YC.
- pg 17y ago
  It sounds like you were reading a lot into what we said. Jessica's remark was obviously a joke. And all I meant was that when you're trying to judge someone's achievements, you need to know how long they've had to achieve them. Would you hold a 20 year old to the same standard as a 30 year old?
  - SamAtt 17y ago
    I'd think there would be more of a drop off with opportunities like Y Combinator than there would be with other Angel investors. I'm surprised there are any at all. I guess it's still an excellent opportunity to meet people so I mean no offense to those over 30 who did sign up but I'm a 25 year old and I wouldn't pick up and move for $5,000 bucks. I always thought part of the lure of Y Combinator was that young folks had nothing to tie them down. I can't think of a 30 year old I know who has no obligations.
    - SwellJoe 17y ago

dbul 17y ago

It isn't surprising most founders are in their twenties given demographics which are probably close to this on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=517039 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=517039 It looks like those in their thirties are well-represented. I don't see why age would make a difference anyway. If you blow them away, my guess is you're in. Just spend a few hours on your application, get a few people who you think are smarter than you to review your application with you for a few hours, submit it, then go back to focusing on your startup.

benatkin 17y ago

This article has some good insight into people who succeed later in life (late bloomers): http://www.gladwell.com/2008/2008_10_20_a_latebloomers.html http://www.gladwell.com/2008/2008_10_20_a_latebloomers.html It does happen, and it's not as rare as most people think. The article also makes a pretty strong argument that late bloomers tend to approach things differently than those who get an early start.

jfischer 17y ago
Thanks -- I really enjoyed that article. I could relate to the line "I felt like I'd stepped off a cliff and I didn't know if the parachute was going to open. Nobody wants to waste their life..." The discussion about the importance of a support network for "experimental innovators" is spot-on, too.

tptacek 17y ago

The demographics here are kind of straightforward. If you're over 30, you're more likely to have a family. If you have a family and you can handle starting a company from zero, you're less likely to need YC. If you can't handle starting from zero, YC doesn't help you anyways.

TriinT 17y ago

If you look at many tech startups, you will notice that the age of the founders is closely related to the nature of their business. For instance, YC startups do mostly web software, so the founders should be young because the barriers of entry aren't that high. After all, a smart kid who spends his teens coding in his spare time will be at his best by the age of 20. On the other hand, I know startups which were founded by guys in their 30s and 40s. Their business areas were chip-design and laser tech for optical networks. The barrier of entry in these fields is huge. To cut a long story short, if you're 35 you may be old by web-app industry standards, but you're still young by semiconductor industry standards. Since you're on HN I suppose you're into software, not hardware, so what I have just written will most likely be irrelevant to you.

newsio 17y ago

This thread (and the link to the Gladwell essay that someone submitted to it earlier) are interesting. I'm 39 years old, and want to start my own company and change my career from journalist to news technologist/entrepreneur. Some readers might chuckle at that, but I am very serious. In my mind, the question of the age of YC founders has much to do with the threshold for risk. Age definitely plays a part. But age does not crush vision, and brings some benefits in terms of experience and understanding of target markets. In my own case, I have an idea for a mobile news platform that I believe will change the way in which a lot of people get information. I think it would be a product that people want, but the only way to find out is to build it and see what the market thinks. But I recognize that there are a lot of barriers to achieving my vision. First, I'm not a hacker, and I don't have a co-founder (yet) who is. I think in pg's view, this would preclude me from starting this type of company (based on some of his commentary in Founders At Work and in http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html). Nevertheless, I have a lot of experience with the technologies that would drive the platform, and insights into the way people consume information, and I think this will be extremely valuable in driving product development. Second, I have a family and a mortgage. Others have noted family-related issues, but the situation really depends on the specifics of your family. My wife is not working, as my youngest is in preschool only for three mornings a week. This makes it impossible for me to take the risk right now to drop my day job and the health insurance that comes with it (I live in the U.S., in the Boston area) and work full time on my product. If my wife was working in a professional position, not only would we have the salary and insurance to fall back on if I stopped working at my day job, but also we could afford day care. So, what I am doing right now is plugging away at the business plan and some of the technical concepts in my spare time, usually for two hours per day after the kids go to sleep. I'm trying to bone up on my understanding of the platforms that I think I will need to grok in order to get this thing off the ground. I've stopped putting money in my 401k to build up some funds, and I'm considering how I might tap other sources of funding -- not to mention considering various revenue streams from the product itself. Would I ever apply to Y Combinator? I couldn't do it on my own, but I might, if I had the right team and could consider taking off for a few months (I wish YC still had the summer program in Cambridge!). The family-related concerns are real, but there are ways to address them (for instance, COBRA for health insurance and enough funding to cover my mortgage and living expenses). Edited: Changed first sentence to add Gladwell ref

dedalus 17y ago

I work for a startup where everyone in the company is over 30

dannyr 17y ago

I'm a little surprised that there are a lot of 30+ founders. The thing is we mostly read about young people getting into YC. I have also been to a number of gatherings with the YC founders and most of them are young.

smakz 17y ago

Regardless of whether you go the YC path or not - you should know that there are many, many examples of extremely successful companies being founded by people in their 30's and later. Cisco, Qualcomm, Amazon.com, Bose Corporation, LinkedIn. etc.etc.etc.

iamelgringo 17y ago

A common belief is that U.S.-born tech founders of technology companies tend to be young. We found that about 1 percent were teenagers when they started their firms. More than twice as many were older than age fifty than were younger than twenty-five. Many, in fact, were in their sixties when they founded their startups. The vast majority of U.S.-born tech founders were older than twenty-five. The average and median age of key tech founders was thirty-nine. Source: http://sites.kauffman.org/pdf/Education_Tech_Ent_061108.pdf http://sites.kauffman.org/pdf/Education_Tech_Ent_061108.pdf

electric 17y ago
This is very relevant research. I actually agree with the findings based on the people I know who have started technology companies. I don't think it applies to the kind of people that YC is targeting - young, mobile, no dependents, able to live on very little $'s a year or the technology segment which is consumer web startups.