Don't listen to the Silicon Valley echo chamber - the rest of the country thrives on stable businesses, which are most likely to be led by older founders. Not only can you compete with those 20-somethings, but you can out-maneuver them using the experience you've earned in other environments. Younger founders may have to put in 100 hours a week and make dozens of costly mistakes that you, because of your corporate background, can potentially foresee and avoid altogether.
Reference: http://business.time.com/2013/03/14/ask-the-expert-the-best-...
I would guarantee if you took a survey, that the average founder actually falls somewhere around 38-45 years old, with one to two kids, a mortgage and everything else. Yet, the risk is substantially lower because they can leverage up to 20 years of earned experience (and contacts) in an industry (or multiple).
If you don't believe me, just ask the guys that started Intel, who were in their 40's with families. They even did it in a time when technology startups were virtually unheard of.
And while, yes, I can't gamble my income as I could before, I've never gone more than 1 month without income despite having been through more than half a dozen startups, and I've never had to trade a decent salary to get equity other than at my first startup (at 19; we were all clueless of business and hopelessly underfunded - we started an ISP with about $50k and lived on our student loans for the first year).
Maybe I've just been lucky, but fear of losing my salary just does not factor in to me. Nor does the idea of having to sacrifice salary. When joining my last startup, I took 7.5% in options coupled with a salary offer 20% above my previous job, with the only sacrifice being that I put in evenings and some weekend work for "free" for a few months before our A round closed.
Incidentally the founders of the last startup I mentioned above were both older, one of them had three young children, and a wife who worked part time on another startup.
Many at my age have reached the level of financial stability where setting aside enough savings to be secure for a year or two of uncertain income is easy enough to even make bootstrapping less stressful if I were to opt for that.
The biggest change for me is that my priorities have changed. I'm not so interested in chasing after the billion dollar exit, as I've come to realise how little money matters to my happiness, and that will change how/when/what I do next time I start a company or join another startup.
Usually from mid 30s people, the answer is hell, no.
The stats don't lie - the average founder is late 30's to early 40's. The 20-something wunderkind is a Silicon Valley thing, not reality for the rest of the country's businesses.
From that perspective, the average founder is definitely not late 30s to early 40s. Maybe I'm hanging out with the wrong crowd... :-)
Having done half a dozen plus startups, I've had to deal with low pay once, and that was a startup I did at 19, four of us co-founded an ISP and got about $50k funding from a guy almost as clueless as we were. Since then I've been able to demand, and get, market rate salaries on top of options or outright shares past initial periods of working on the project evenings etc. The startups I've been part of have in fact been more stable when it comes to paying on time.
There are cases where taking salary cuts are ok and justified to make a startup work, but there better be a lot of equity in there.
As for being able to reduce burn, I spend about 50% of my after tax income normally. Less at the moment due to some consulting. This is with a child and a mortgage. While i's true I spend more than I did at 20 (I'm 39 now), inflation adjusted the difference is small, and my income also allows me to build up a buffer which means I'm far better able to deal with loss of income today than I was then. It also means that I can live off 4-5 days of consulting a month in a crisis.
While I'm sure you're right for a lot of people, there are plenty of us for whom our 30's or 40's have brought a huge increase in financial flexibility.
Part of the thinking is that once you marry and have a family, then 100 hour work weeks are out. Well, setting aside the discussion of quantity v. quality of work, now that my kids are out of school and out of the nest I'm free to work the long hours again, but this time around I have a wealth of experience and wisdom to bring to the table as well as the hours.
impressiveness = achievements / age
Now that YC has tried to tackle the race and gender concerns, I really hope that ageism is next. They can start by switching the age application question to just an "over 18?" checkbox.
Looking back at my own life, pretty much all my worthwhile achievements has come after 20, and according to that formula I'd come out very favourable against 20-25 years olds like myself.
That formula is pretty much just saying that they expect people to have more achievements the older they are, which does not seem unreasonable to me.
Only the young get benefit from this equation. I would bet that your achievements would not be considered great by someone who uses this equation, no matter how great they are.
The somewhat misquoted phrase that's attributed to the Alibaba CEO describes the spirit of people who use this type of thinking better than my equation will:
"If you're not rich at 35, you deserve it!"
Two words: fuck 'em.
Signed, a 35-year old CEO.
"Starting a company" on the other hand is an excellent idea, if you think you've found a niche where you can make it work.
Your remarks about wanting to "feel the excitement" and "compete with the 20s" though make me think you might want to contemplate what you're trying to get out of it. If it's possibly-positive-value consumption (similar to the idea of starting a clothing boutique or coffeeshop) that's a different decision calculus than if it's an investment of time & some money that's intended to pay off with a given return in a given timeframe.
Some people spend money climbing mountains; some people found guide companies so they can spend more time climbing mountains; some people found sporting goods stores because they've noticed the margins are pretty high and more people seem to be climbing mountains lately. There's a key difference between #2 & #3.
This topic resurfaces every so often. Google will produce various articles and studies on the topic. Here's a study from HBR using Crunchbase API, LinkedIn, WSJ-
https://hbr.org/2014/04/how-old-are-silicon-valleys-top-foun...
Jan Koum started WhatsApp when he was 33. Now I'm not saying you are the next Jan Koum but I do believe it's never too late to work on something you're passionate about.
Sometimes joining an early stage startup can let you be part of that exhilarating experience so that's one idea.
The difference between now (startup #4 for me) and when I was in my 20s, is now I waste a lot less time and energy on things that don't matter.
My advice is start consulting on something you know just slightly better than the next guy. You can often jumpstart a product development plan by helping a large company define a product they need. Then make that if more than one company really needs it :)
127. It’s Never Too Late
Teen years - flipped burgers & partied
Age 21 - graduated college, flipped burgers, & partied
Age 24 - touched my first computer
Age 25 - wrote my first program
Age 27 - touched my first PC
Age 31 - wrote my first low level code
Age 32 - started my first business
Age 39 - started my second business
Age 41 - accessed the internet for the first time
Age 44 - wrote my first browser-based app
Age 51 - found Hacker News
Now - having more fun than ever
It’s never too late, you’re never too old, and it’s not whether the glass is half full or half empty.
It’s about getting up off your butt and filling the glass the rest of the way.
> In fact, research shows that the median age of U.S.-born tech company founders
> is 39, and there are twice as many entrepreneurs older than 50 than there are
> younger that age 25.
Create a project and work on it in your spare time. Get people using it early, and learn as much from them as possible. When an aspect of your project takes more time than you have spare, find someone to help with that task. Ideally, charge money; and once you have 10-20 customers, double your price and get 10-20 more. Keep doubling your price until a healthy amount of customers start citing price as the deciding factor—you've found a value for your product that serves both you and your customers.
At some point, you'll be making enough to live and save at least $1,000/mo—that's when you quit and focus on your project full-time; if you want to go the funding route, you have that freedom still.
The biggest advantages early-twenty-somethings have over later age groups is a higher risk tolerance and a lack of obligations getting in the way of putting in unlimited time at the office.
The latter is a little dubious, since the data shows that productivity tends to fall after about 40 hours of work a week and to drop off a cliff after 50. Sometimes you gotta crunch, but if you're crunching all the time something is wrong. I consider that a sign of poor planning or "work hygiene."
The former does matter, but it can be overcome by compensating with better planning and by leveraging superior experience. You can compensate for lower risk tolerance by working to de-risk the venture as early as possible as much as you can.
My suggestion would be to stop thinking about "startup founders" as 20-something college-dropouts that we so easily envision, and instead remember that most of the world's successful companies (not startups) are run by older, more experienced CEOs. You might not pull as many ridiculous redbull-fueled all-nighters (or maybe you will), but you've also seen a lot more in the world -- especially in business.
You ask if you're "too old to compete with the 20s" -- I have little doubt that they wonder if they're too young to compete with more experienced businesspeople.
If you want to build a startup, do it.
The term "taking another run at the fence" refers to flocks of turkeys, who are often crushed against short fences when the flock panics. They are stupid birds and don't know that they are able to fly above the fence.
For me, the considerations are:
- Time away from family
- Likelihood that the compensation will ultimately be crap
I can compensate for the long hours by taking care of myself, and by working smart.
Assuming you don't squander your early years starting older has some advantages. When you're older you've likely built some domain expertise, have a better idea of what you want from life, and can support yourself better.
For example, I started in my late 20's. By that time I'd saved a lot of money, built steady passive income, was married (wife's career keeps her busy), and didn't have any kids. Since most other areas of my life were taken care (especially financial) of I could pour myself into my startup without worrying about raising money or runway.
That said, remember that wanting to feel "the excitement of a start-up" is the wrong reason to join or start one. Before quitting your job I'd highly recommend just starting a side project and do it for at least 6 months before making any major decisions. It's very unglamorous and odds are you won't even launch a product, which is fine. Better to learn that now than after you quit your job because 35 isn't too old to start a startup but it is too old to be unemployed.
https://www.quora.com/What-do-people-in-Silicon-Valley-plan-...
Lots of great examples of entrepreneurs who founded successful companies after turning 35, and includes answers from Craig Newmark (Craigslist), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia, Wikia), and more.
I have been told by some that corporate experience allows you to develop good working relationships that can be used when finding co-founders as well as getting customers.
Also, it's better to bootstrap with savings than raise VC at the beginning.
The Ray Kroc Story
“If I had a brick for every time I’ve repeated the phrase Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, I think I’d probably be able to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with them.” —Ray Kroc
How do you create a restaurant business and become an overnight success at the age of 52? As Ray Kroc said, “I was an overnight success alright, but 30 years is a long, long night.”
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/our_history/the_ray...
You are never too old to dream! Jut work hard and you will get to where you want to be.
In the mean time, I want to have some financial security, sort out immigration to the US, etc.
It takes a good 10 years of coding before you can make products from design to development to maintenance and live mode, and some good working time to understand problems that need solving.
You are actually in the prime age for entrepreneurship. Go get it.
Paul Graham and Robert Morris started Viaweb when they were 31/30 years old and sold it after a couple of years.
VCs do want younger because it is better terms/leverage (http://business.time.com/2013/03/14/ask-the-expert-the-best-...) but if you have a good company/product that is investable you will get investment, or if you make a product people want, people will want it if you get it in front of them. I think the bias toward funding only young is also probably harming products differentiation.
However you can understand why VCs go younger, mainly because success of those kids is like an emerging underground band that might sell out stadiums one day. They want in earlier than other VCs or before anything of value has been created so it is under their umbrella. VCs are hipsters in that they are trying to find value before others see it.
VCs main goal is to pan for Zuckerbergs like gold upstream from the blue ocean well before the red ocean, because in 5-10 years time they might be their 1 in 10 successes needed. It is a risk they are willing to take to get potential big companies very early.
But you can build a company that makes you a success where you can create your own freedom at any age, you might do it so well you don't need investment, or it may make your company more robust and market tested because you have to bootstrap instead of seeking investment.
Great people with great products find a way.
Some links on ages of entrepreneurs:
http://www.quora.com/What-successful-Internet-entrepreneurs-...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/krisztinaholly/2014/01/15/why-gr...
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/28/peak-age-entrepreneurship/
https://hbr.org/2014/04/how-old-are-silicon-valleys-top-foun...
http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/31/why-middle-aged-entreprene...
https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/older-entrepreneurs-...