You may have missed this: A 2008 paper looked at a random sample of more moderately successful founders (sales in excess of $1 million and 20+ employees) an

You may have missed this: A 2008 paper looked at a random sample of more moderately successful founders (sales in excess of $1 million and 20+ employees) and found an average and median age at founding of 39, with only 31% under 35. According to the paper's abstract[1]: Twice as many U.S.-born tech entrepreneurs start ventures in their fifties as do those in their early twenties, as this paper will show. Given that this study covered more than 500 companies filtered by more reasonable criteria, I'd say it probably provides a more realistic perspective. It's also worth noting that it appears to be in line with the age data from a study conducted by the Kauffman Foundation[2] that took a broader look at entrepreneurial activity. [1] http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1127248&download=yes http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1127248&d... [2] http://www.kauffman.org/~/media/kauffman_org/research%20reports%20and%20covers/2013/04/kiea_2013_report.pdf http://www.kauffman.org/~/media/kauffman_org/research%20repo...