
Ask HN: Is 40 too late to start a software biz? - justaguyhere
All we read about are the 20s and 30s whizkids starting companies and retiring before they even hit 40. Any examples of 40+ people starting companies successfully? Is 40s too late?
======
DLA
Not at all too late. Just getting near the sweet spot!

"A Study of 2.7 Million Startups Found the Ideal Age to Start a Business (and
It's Much Older Than You Think) If you're in your 40s or 50s, you might think
it's too late to start a business. Wrong: It's actually the perfect time."
[https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/a-study-of-27-million-
startup...](https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/a-study-of-27-million-startups-
found-ideal-age-to-start-a-business-and-its-much-older-than-you-think.html)

Survey of 652 CEOs... "The average and median age of U.S.-born tech founders
was thirty-nine when they started their companies. Twice as many were older
than fifty as were younger than twenty-five."
[https://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship/reports/education-...](https://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship/reports/education-
and-tech-entrepreneurship/)

Examples: [https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/28/tech-
founders-45.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/28/tech-founders-45.html)
[https://arkenea.com/blog/entrepreneurs-
above-50/](https://arkenea.com/blog/entrepreneurs-above-50/)

------
nostrademons
Not too late. One of my childhood friend's dads started a company in his 70s,
though he had a previous exit in his 50s. But it gets more complicated. Some
questions to ask yourself:

1\. Can you afford to go without income for at least 2 years and possibly
indefinitely?

2\. Do you have kids? What age range? Starting a software company with kids in
the 0-5 range is very, very difficult, particularly if you have multiples. The
only time I've seen it succeed is if you started the company before having
kids, and the product is already built and has some measure of traction before
the kids are born.

3\. Have you built up a large amount of domain expertise in a particular
industry before starting the company, and is the company related to that
domain? Older founders rely more on experience: they don't have the same raw
energy and the same tap into the cultural zeitgeist that younger founders do,
but they should know how a particular industry operates and what the key
problems within it are.

4\. Do you have a network to draw on, both for potential co-founders and
employees and for potential customers?

------
billconan
perhaps, you should read [http://news.mit.edu/2020/age-founders-successful-
startups-03...](http://news.mit.edu/2020/age-founders-successful-
startups-0320)

[https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/20-year-old-
en...](https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/20-year-old-entrepreneur-
a-lie)

