
Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship - barry-cotter
https://www.nber.org/papers/w24489
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barry-cotter
> Many observers, and many investors, believe that young people are especially
> likely to produce the most successful new firms. We use administrative data
> at the U.S. Census Bureau to study the ages of founders of growth-oriented
> start-ups in the past decade. Our primary finding is that successful
> entrepreneurs are middle-aged, not young. _The mean founder age for the 1 in
> 1,000 fastest growing new ventures is 45.0. The findings are broadly similar
> when considering high-technology sectors, entrepreneurial hubs, and
> successful firm exits._ Prior experience in the specific industry predicts
> much greater rates of entrepreneurial success. These findings strongly
> reject common hypotheses that emphasize youth as a key trait of successful
> entrepreneurs.

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webdva
What possible relationships exist between this phenomenon of successful people
being middle-aged and not young and the common meme that asserts that life is
short?

