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Seeing that data overlaid with number of people starting companies would be really valuable. I suspect that the average "cost" of starting a company in your 20

by malanj 13y ago

Seeing that data overlaid with number of people starting companies would be really valuable. I suspect that the average "cost" of starting a company in your 20s is much lower than later in life (smaller salary to give up, less chance of family etc). The really interesting (relevant?) question would be chance of success over age.

icefox 13y ago
Then of course you would want to see what is the percentage of startups that failed at any specific age. Maybe it is cheap to start a startup when you are 20, but you fail more than when you are older and know what in the world you are doing.
- sillysaurus3 13y ago
  That's certainly something people would like to believe, but it'd be interesting to see whether the data backs that up.
- n3on 13y ago
  I don't think you know more when you are older. Knowledge comes with experience and if you never found a startup in your life, you won't have much more experience no matter what age. You become only more risk averse.
  - icefox 13y ago
    I was part of a startup when I was 20 and I knew nothing. I didn't understand business, I didn't understand money, I didn't understand value, and I barely knew how to develop software in a competent manor. When I was 20 it was still okay to sleep on a couch for months because I saved $80, I could barely comprehend how insignificant $80 is to a company. I was making something cool that I wanted and the fact that the company wanted it too was neat and frankly lucky. Given another ten years of just living your knowledge of how the world works will grow considerably. Maybe you do become a little more risk averse, but you definitely become a lot less stupid. When you are 20 you have a very hard time judging how good an idea is so one is as good as another. Given enough 20 year olds one is bound to be lucky :) When you are 30 you should be able to toss out many ideas most of which are just bad which is why I would expect them to fail less.

by malanj 13y ago

icefox 13y ago

Then of course you would want to see what is the percentage of startups that failed at any specific age. Maybe it is cheap to start a startup when you are 20, but you fail more than when you are older and know what in the world you are doing.

sillysaurus3 13y ago
That's certainly something people would like to believe, but it'd be interesting to see whether the data backs that up.
n3on 13y ago
I don't think you know more when you are older. Knowledge comes with experience and if you never found a startup in your life, you won't have much more experience no matter what age. You become only more risk averse.
- icefox 13y ago
  I was part of a startup when I was 20 and I knew nothing. I didn't understand business, I didn't understand money, I didn't understand value, and I barely knew how to develop software in a competent manor. When I was 20 it was still okay to sleep on a couch for months because I saved $80, I could barely comprehend how insignificant $80 is to a company. I was making something cool that I wanted and the fact that the company wanted it too was neat and frankly lucky. Given another ten years of just living your knowledge of how the world works will grow considerably. Maybe you do become a little more risk averse, but you definitely become a lot less stupid. When you are 20 you have a very hard time judging how good an idea is so one is as good as another. Given enough 20 year olds one is bound to be lucky :) When you are 30 you should be able to toss out many ideas most of which are just bad which is why I would expect them to fail less.