4 ms·

You can gain more "experience" before you try to do your own thing, however the more experience you gain, the worse you become at creating the next billion doll

by wellboy 13y ago

You can gain more "experience" before you try to do your own thing, however the more experience you gain, the worse you become at creating the next billion dollar startup. For every year that you don´t start your own business, your capability to think large and taking risks and your resourcefulness dramatically declines. That´s the reason why none of the four horsemen in tech, Google, Apple, Amazon or Facebook were founded by founders over 30. Looking at all the other billion dollar startups Microsoft, Dropbox, Airbnb, Twitter, Instagram, Waze, Paypal, Tumblr none of their founders were over 30. See a pattern? There are probably billion startups who were founded by founders older than 30, but there are very few. The less experience you have, the more likely you are to create the next billion dollar company. If you start your startup after 30, it's very unlikely that you will be able to make it into a $1B startup.

tensor 13y ago
This is abhorrent ageism, and completely wrong. Peter Thiel, 31, Paypal, 37, Palintar. Larry Elison, 33, Oracle. Reid Hoffman, 35, Linked In. Evan Williams, 35, Twitter. Mark Pincus, 41, Zynga. Arianna Huffington, 54, Huffington Post. Can we stop making things up? Maybe five minutes of research would be good? You know, there is a place they teach these things.
- wellboy 13y ago
  Founders that had had successful startups before don't count. That's why I was referring to "experience BEFORE you try to do your own thing." And yes there are a few startup founders that were older than 30, I give you Larry Ellison. However none of the 4 horsemen had founders >30, plus the other founders except for Peter Thiel had already sold their previous startups. Regarding Palantir, they had Peter Thiel as a cofounder, I don't give you that one.
  - tensor 13y ago
    Again, you may want to do some research. Many of those I listed are first time founders. Your attitude mirrors the also incorrect idea that scientists must make their name before 30. That too, was studied and found to be completely wrong. I can only assume that this attitude comes from arrogant young people who want to think they are special.
  - wellboy 13y ago
    I don't want to be ageist or anything, I just like discovering facts. Except for Peter Thiel who was 31, 1 year above, only Larry Ellison is a first time founder, all the other ones where very successful before. Huffington Post is not a billion dollar company, since it was acquired for US$315 million by AOL 2 years ago.
    - tensor 13y ago
      I'm not sure if you are intentionally lying, or just didn't bother, again, to do any research. Reid Hoffman started his first company at 30. Mark Pincus at 29 (just one year shy!). Excluding Huffington simply because it didn't meet your arbitrarily set profitability threshold is unfair. Hell, even Google had Eric Schmidt help run the company at the start. Eric was 46 at the time, though surely you claim "but he's not a founder!" Data is somewhat hard to collect for this topic, but see: http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/28/peak-age-entrepreneurship/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/28/peak-age-entrepreneurship/ > The research shows that an older age is actually a better predictor of entrepreneurial success, and that three other traits also correlate strongly to success: strong fluid intelligence, high openness, and moderate agreeableness.
tlogan 13y ago
Good point but it could also that very talented people are so bored with their 9-to-5 job and they will be bored to death if they are forced to wait till their 30s to start their own company. On the other hand, not so talented people (like me) might need a little of learning before jumping into entrepreneurship. The trick is that when you are in 20s you might be either stupid or super intelligent but you will not know that.
- wellboy 13y ago
  You don't need experience to start a startup, you get the experience by doing a startup. And you don't get the BS experience in big companies, you get it in its purest form from the market itself, not compromised by any company politics BS.
npalli 13y ago
Additional data points: Jeff Bezos over 30 when he started Amazon Marc Benioff 34 when he started Salesforce.com Peter Thiel was 32 when he took over Paypal (his first startup) Adobe founders were over 40 Cisco founder was over 30 Intel founders were close to 40 when they started the company All are huge companies worth tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. Even Apple first iteration was 90 days from bankruptcy when Steve Jobs (aged 42) took over. At this point, his startup NEXT was not very successful. You seem to think $1B is some gigantic amount in the grand scheme of things. If you step beside tech, there are hundreds of examples. Take the example of Chobani yogurt. Started by a 33-year-old Turkish immigrant in 2005, the founder is a billionaire today. Companies started by founders older than 30 is the norm and will become so in tech too. Only in tech this foolish idea keeps persisting that only people under 30 do big things.

by wellboy 13y ago

tensor 13y ago

This is abhorrent ageism, and completely wrong. Peter Thiel, 31, Paypal, 37, Palintar. Larry Elison, 33, Oracle. Reid Hoffman, 35, Linked In. Evan Williams, 35, Twitter. Mark Pincus, 41, Zynga. Arianna Huffington, 54, Huffington Post. Can we stop making things up? Maybe five minutes of research would be good? You know, there is a place they teach these things.

wellboy 13y ago
Founders that had had successful startups before don't count. That's why I was referring to "experience BEFORE you try to do your own thing." And yes there are a few startup founders that were older than 30, I give you Larry Ellison. However none of the 4 horsemen had founders >30, plus the other founders except for Peter Thiel had already sold their previous startups. Regarding Palantir, they had Peter Thiel as a cofounder, I don't give you that one.
- tensor 13y ago
  Again, you may want to do some research. Many of those I listed are first time founders. Your attitude mirrors the also incorrect idea that scientists must make their name before 30. That too, was studied and found to be completely wrong. I can only assume that this attitude comes from arrogant young people who want to think they are special.
- wellboy 13y ago
  I don't want to be ageist or anything, I just like discovering facts. Except for Peter Thiel who was 31, 1 year above, only Larry Ellison is a first time founder, all the other ones where very successful before. Huffington Post is not a billion dollar company, since it was acquired for US$315 million by AOL 2 years ago.
  - tensor 13y ago
    I'm not sure if you are intentionally lying, or just didn't bother, again, to do any research. Reid Hoffman started his first company at 30. Mark Pincus at 29 (just one year shy!). Excluding Huffington simply because it didn't meet your arbitrarily set profitability threshold is unfair. Hell, even Google had Eric Schmidt help run the company at the start. Eric was 46 at the time, though surely you claim "but he's not a founder!" Data is somewhat hard to collect for this topic, but see: http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/28/peak-age-entrepreneurship/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/28/peak-age-entrepreneurship/ > The research shows that an older age is actually a better predictor of entrepreneurial success, and that three other traits also correlate strongly to success: strong fluid intelligence, high openness, and moderate agreeableness.

tlogan 13y ago

Good point but it could also that very talented people are so bored with their 9-to-5 job and they will be bored to death if they are forced to wait till their 30s to start their own company. On the other hand, not so talented people (like me) might need a little of learning before jumping into entrepreneurship. The trick is that when you are in 20s you might be either stupid or super intelligent but you will not know that.

wellboy 13y ago
You don't need experience to start a startup, you get the experience by doing a startup. And you don't get the BS experience in big companies, you get it in its purest form from the market itself, not compromised by any company politics BS.

npalli 13y ago

Additional data points: Jeff Bezos over 30 when he started Amazon Marc Benioff 34 when he started Salesforce.com Peter Thiel was 32 when he took over Paypal (his first startup) Adobe founders were over 40 Cisco founder was over 30 Intel founders were close to 40 when they started the company All are huge companies worth tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. Even Apple first iteration was 90 days from bankruptcy when Steve Jobs (aged 42) took over. At this point, his startup NEXT was not very successful. You seem to think $1B is some gigantic amount in the grand scheme of things. If you step beside tech, there are hundreds of examples. Take the example of Chobani yogurt. Started by a 33-year-old Turkish immigrant in 2005, the founder is a billionaire today. Companies started by founders older than 30 is the norm and will become so in tech too. Only in tech this foolish idea keeps persisting that only people under 30 do big things.