I'm sure they did a great job at researching that but it really does not match my experience at all. And I see a lot of start-ups (up to 50 / year) from the inside, at least a few hundred founders if not a 1000+ by now over the last 15 years. The bulk of the successful ones is late 20's to mid 30's.
- people in the VC entrepreneur world are seeing mostly 20s and 30s be successful
- VC world is, as one previous commenter put it, swing for the bleachers
- researchers are saying average age of success is 45, so more than half are 40+
This seems to perhaps indicate (though needs research) that
- those 40+ prefer bootstrapped businesses
- bootstrapped businesses are over half the successful entrepreneurs, so tend to be more successful
Many things could be wrong with this:
- different definitions of successful
- research bias
- geographical bias
However, it's something that seems to bear investigation.
And if true, what is it that is driving the budding entrepreneur to think that to be more successful they need to seek VC funding, when it may actually be the opposite. Would you rather take a 1 in 1m shot at 1m/yr, or a 1 in 10k shot at 300k/yr? Numbers made up in the question of course, research needed to figure out what they are.
The younger ones are not alone ( the successful 45/50+ parents/mentors/etc are supporting them financially and more ).
Otherwise, without the experience of your 20s and 30s you cannot understand the world, you haven't build the network you need to succeed ( I am my own example), basically you cannot manufacture you "luck".
“Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45”
https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-succes...
Discussion on HN here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18212409