Is 30 Too Old To Be An Entrepreneur?
I’m just north of 30 (I’m 32) and I just started a business. So being 30 can’t be too old, right?
Valleywag examined the age of some superstar entrepreneurs and found that most of them were under 30. But this is a relatively small sampling.
Fred Wilson looked at the companies in his venture capital portfolio and found that 9 out of 11 companies are founded by people in their 30s. He writes, “That says to me that prime time entrepreneurship is 30s. And its possibly getting younger as web technology meets youth culture.”
Clay Shirky steps in to support Fred’s original thoughts on the matter by arguing that young entrepreneurs have less (if anything at all) to unlearn, which makes them more likely to do something “out there” and succeed with it.
So now the debate rages. What is the best age to be an entrepreneur?
I completely understand where Fred, Clay and others are coming from, particularly when they look at “Web 2.0″ companies. Those are going to be started almost exclusively by young entrepreneurs in their 20s-30s. That age group lives and breathes Web 2.0 so it’s logical to see them start companies in that space.
If you’re a VC or follower of that world you would easily assume 20-30 is the perfect age for starting a company.
Younger people also carry less risk and responsibility, which makes it easier to start a company. They may have some debt from school, but otherwise their financial burden should be low. There’s most certainly a “now or never” mentality that exists; start a business before you get married, have kids, settle down, add responsibilities, etc.
But as Paul Kedrosky notes, statistically, there’s tons of entrepreneurship going on outside the 20-30 age boundary. His point is simple: it’s more a question of the type of entrepreneurship you’re looking at, rather than what is the ideal age.
I don’t have any numbers to prove this, and it may be because I live inside the entrepreneurial bubble, but I feel like there’s more going on now than there ever has been. More opportunities for young entrepreneurs, more ways of finding financing, more solid businesses. My expectation is that people who have started businesses in the last few years, in their 20s-30s, will probably take a few more shots at it in the Web 2.0 space before evolving into other things (be it VC/angel investing, supporting younger entrepreneurs, different types of companies.) If someone who is 25 is going to start 2-4 businesses, it’ll take that person 10 years or so and the average age of Web 2.0 founders will start to creep up.
Perhaps in 5-10 years we’ll re-examine the age issue and see that Web 3.0 (it won’t still be Web 2.0 right?) companies are founded by people in their mid-30s+.
Clay Shirky’s thoughts still bug me. He feels it’s better for entrepreneurs to start young because they haven’t already learned a bunch of things that make them rigid. This gives younger entrepreneurs the chance to come up with wild, game changing ideas. Maybe…but all I can think about is what I didn’t know when I started over 10 years ago (which was a lot!) and how much value it would have been to know what I know now. Some of what I know does “lock me in” to a certain way of thinking, but so much more of what I’ve learned has helped me approach things in a more successful way.
And I’m still learning. A lot. But that’s also a function of being older, a bit more mature and able to handle it, and knowing what questions to ask.
Getting stuck in a rigid way of thinking is extremely dangerous for entrepreneurs. I would argue that entrepreneurs in general are very open-minded, very willing to learn and take new approaches, regardless of their past experience. That’s part of being an entrepreneur.
So the most successful entrepreneurs are willing and capable of using past experience to their benefit, but not relying on it to the point of being stuck.
Rob Hyndman has some great thoughts and points of contention with the idea that knowing nothing is the best place to be when you start a company.
Regardless of your age, you can be a very successful entrepreneur. At each stage in life you can succeed (and fail.) I believe there are clear benefits to having started businesses in the past and gaining from that experience. I also believe you should start young. At the end of the day, there’s no time like the present…
I bloody well hope 30 isn’t too old to strike it rich! I’ve only just hit the big three-zero, and I’ve got my fingers in more pies than I care to mention - so if 30 is too old then I’m screwed!
I’m 32 as well and it’s the perfect age to start. You’ve still got stamina and yet you have the wisdom of avoiding the mistakes you make in your 20’s. I’m on my 9th startup and having started my first at 19, there were just so many mistakes that I made not because I wasn’t smart enough, but because I just didn’t know any better. This time around it’s a million times easier and faster. It’s like going to high school all over again while knowing exactly how to navigate.
Age is relative, although energy isn’t always so.
I am 48, having started by business nearly five years ago. There are a lot of people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who are starting their own businesses, some web based, although the attention seems to be on the twenty-something crowd for the most part.
If you ever think that you are too old to get something going, then you are. I have met people who are washed up at 40, but I know people in their 70s who are creative, interesting, and always willing to try new things.
Honestly, who really gives a s—? Web entrepreneurs spend way too much time reading sites like Digg and Reddit and pondering whether or not they can do the thing they want/plan to do, rather than just going ahead and doing it. I doubt that anyone’s age is all the sudden going to magically handicap them.
Lee - I would tend to agree that web entrepreneurs very often live in a bubble of their own with sites like digg or reddit, but I’m not sure how that’s entirely relevant to the age discussion going on.
There are some interesting thoughts about age, entrepreneurship, when is the best time, what it takes, what companies / people are being funded, etc. Those aren’t all thoughts in my one post, but overall with this discussion taking place…
Let’s not forget Colonel Sanders, who started KFC at the young age of 62
Honestly, I don’t believe in any restrictions like that. Age is just a number. I’m 25, but I see people that defy age stereotypes over and over again. There’s people in their teens (not even 20’s) being CEO’s, people in their late 30’s-40’s only caring about tonight’s baseball game and beer…
Ben, I agree with the part when you say you can succeed as an entrepreneur at any age. But just like that, you can fail at any age as well.
Well Ben I’m just north of 40 (10 years old than you to be exact) and my plan is still to be an entrepreneur when I’m in my 70s. I wonder what Doc Searls would say about this.
I think Rob is right - that the question is getting muddled, the debate (if you can even call it that one) somewhat messy and distracting.
I do think some of the issues coming out of it are interesting, like Clay’s belief that starting young is best because you have less to unlearn. That’s really what stuck out of me as I was following the thread of blog posts on the subject.
Any age is the best age if you have a great idea and enough passion and persistence to make it happen! Entrepreneural thinking has no age constraints.
Bill gates was 17 when he started Microsoft and Colonel Harland Sanders was 65 when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken!
I hope 30 isn’t too old. I’m just about to hit 42 (where the question to the answer is revealed hopefully) and I’m just starting on my entrepreneurial journey.
My guess as to why (at least one reason why) there are fewer older entrepreneurs is that by the time they get past thirty, their businesses have become established. They have become business men and women and no longer fit into the category.
Different industries will have different norms for the age of their entrepreneurs. Web 2.0 companies (and I’m not afraid of using the term) are generally started by younger folks…but in other industries or with other styles of companies the profile of the “typical entrepreneur” could certainly be different.
I’m not familiar with the Colonel’s history (and not going to check on it right now) but had he started a lot of other businesses before he nailed the secret recipe for fried chicken?
[...] Is 30 Too Old To Be An Entrepreneur? : Instigator Blog I’m just north of 30 (I’m 32) and I just started a business. So being 30 can’t be too old, right? (tags: startup) [...]
Your never too old to be an Entrepreneur as long as your have passion for what your doing. Entrepreneur’s break the rules and the rules were meant to be broken.
-Jeff
http://blog.zemote.com
No way. 30s are the new 20s. =)
Interesting article Ben… I started my first business when I was 14. Not much, just retouching old photos. I started my last company four years ago at 41. I’ve had several businesses in between.
Age is all in your head (and your hair). My dad retired at 45. He’s been old ever since… no disrespect. He just stopped trying new things. I think being an entrepreneur keeps you young and in that sense, youth is a requirement for being an entrepreneur.