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> I have a family to support, so I can't take a super small salary and eat Top Ramen. This may be a subtle way that older founders are discriminated against. T

by verteu 13y ago

> I have a family to support, so I can't take a super small salary and eat Top Ramen. This may be a subtle way that older founders are discriminated against. This is not (harmful) discrimination. Ceteris paribus, people with financial obligations are less fit to found a startup.

wpietri 13y ago
The question is whether the ceteris really is paribus. Lower burn is definitely helpful, but lower experience, fewer connections, lower maturity, and higher controlability are less so. That said, older founders are also more likely to have access to capital, so of the kinds of discrimination I worry about in Silicon Valley, age discrimination is lower down on my list despite my salt-and-pepper beard.
troels 13y ago
Are you sure? There's probably a strong correlation between age and financial obligations and there's probably also a strong correlation between age and maturity/experience. Unless the pool size is very large, you are severely limiting the candidates by selecting for two mutually excluding parameters. Calling it discrimination is a bit odd though - It smacks of entitlement. But investors might want to consider these factors.
toast76 13y ago
They're also more motivated to succeed. I have a wife and two kids (both under 5) and a big mortgage. I pay myself barely enough for us to get by (the lowest salary that I've ever earned). The difference is made up in savings and my wife's occasional consulting work. I'm the lowest paid in the company. The cost of failure is so much higher, which simply means you're far more driven to succeed.
- beat 13y ago
  Absolutely. When the fate of your family hangs in the balance, you're not going to walk away just because it stops being fun.
  - obstacle1 13y ago
    I'd argue that this can actually be a huge liability. Sometimes (a lot of the time, a majority of the time?) a ship's just gonna sink, and being overinvested in its not sinking can obscure the escape route, so to speak. Hard to imagine a scenario in which being able to shift gears/directions on 'go' isn't preferable to needing a specific thing to work out.
Iftheshoefits 13y ago
This is like saying that people who are born into abject poverty are too stupid to do advanced mathematics or science when they never make it to college. You've made a pretty extraordinary claim here; have you any evidence to back it up?

by verteu 13y ago

wpietri 13y ago

The question is whether the ceteris really is paribus. Lower burn is definitely helpful, but lower experience, fewer connections, lower maturity, and higher controlability are less so. That said, older founders are also more likely to have access to capital, so of the kinds of discrimination I worry about in Silicon Valley, age discrimination is lower down on my list despite my salt-and-pepper beard.

troels 13y ago

Are you sure? There's probably a strong correlation between age and financial obligations and there's probably also a strong correlation between age and maturity/experience. Unless the pool size is very large, you are severely limiting the candidates by selecting for two mutually excluding parameters. Calling it discrimination is a bit odd though - It smacks of entitlement. But investors might want to consider these factors.

toast76 13y ago

They're also more motivated to succeed. I have a wife and two kids (both under 5) and a big mortgage. I pay myself barely enough for us to get by (the lowest salary that I've ever earned). The difference is made up in savings and my wife's occasional consulting work. I'm the lowest paid in the company. The cost of failure is so much higher, which simply means you're far more driven to succeed.

beat 13y ago
Absolutely. When the fate of your family hangs in the balance, you're not going to walk away just because it stops being fun.
- obstacle1 13y ago
  I'd argue that this can actually be a huge liability. Sometimes (a lot of the time, a majority of the time?) a ship's just gonna sink, and being overinvested in its not sinking can obscure the escape route, so to speak. Hard to imagine a scenario in which being able to shift gears/directions on 'go' isn't preferable to needing a specific thing to work out.

Iftheshoefits 13y ago

This is like saying that people who are born into abject poverty are too stupid to do advanced mathematics or science when they never make it to college. You've made a pretty extraordinary claim here; have you any evidence to back it up?