Home Grow Why Your Age Doesn’t Matter For Startup Success

Why Your Age Doesn’t Matter For Startup Success

What founders at 20, 40, 60, and 80 can teach us.

By Inc.Arabia Staff
images header

This expert opinion by Nuala Walsh, CEO of MindEquity, behavioral scientist, and non-executive director, was originally published on Inc.com.

Do you imagine entrepreneurs as funky, hoodie-wearing twenty-somethings? Actually, research shows that the average founder age is significantly older. But is there a right age to launch a business? And does it really matter for success? 

Busting The Myth: The Entrepreneur Life Cycle

Young founders typically dominate media narratives. Glossy covers celebrate teenage tech moguls, billionaire whiz kids, and private equity unicorns. Annual TechCrunch award winners average 29 years old. Even Mark Zuckerberg famously quipped, “Young people are just smarter.” Funding programs can institutionalize this perception. For instance, the Thiel Fellowship caps its $200,000 grant to founders under 22 who either skip or drop out of college.  

Naturally, the unbridled optimism, energy, and perceived invincibility of Gen-Z offer much to potential business success. Not yet hardened by reality or regulation hurdles, enthusiasm can be a catalyst for growth. Hope fuels exhausting funding rounds and endless all-nighters, even if at a personal cost 

The willingness to move fast and break things can pay off. At 19, Sam Altman co-founded Loopt. He later became co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the $150 billion startup. At 21, Wang Ning founded Pop Mart, the force behind Labubu’s toy figurines. 

At 22, Britain’s Dragons’ Den investor Steven Bartlett co-founded Social Chain before the popular Diary of a CEO podcast, alongside FlightStory, and ThirdWeb.  At the same age, Alexis Ohanian co-founded Reddit which now hosts 510 million users. Two decades later, he still hunts for value. Age didn’t matter.  

Few exhibit signs of slowing down—a salutary reminder to moderate pace. The smarter entrepreneurs tune in to the voice of experience to avoid rookie traps.

Risk appetite shifts in your 30s or 40s. Confidence and experience compound. Networks deepen. This entrepreneurial milieu has a long list

At 30, Jensen Huang co-founded NVIDIA, the first semiconductor company to hit $1 trillion market capitalization.  Boeing, Carlsberg, and Salesforce boast 35-year-old founders. Equally, Lenovo, Intel, Zara, and HTC boast 39-year-old founders. 

This should reassure late starters. In fact, research shows that success peaks later.

MIT and Kellogg researchers analyzed US Census datasets of 2.7 million founders, concluding that the average age was 42 years. Digging deeper, they determined that among the fastest-growing startups over a five-year period, the average age was 45. 

Moreover, founders in their 40s succeeded twice as much as those in their 20s, attributed to greater experience and connections. 

Some prefer the comfort of the corporate cocoon. Others seek to satisfy unfulfilled ambitions. Midlife opportunities can emerge in early retirement or post-redundancy. 

Life events also shape decisions. Both CEOs and graduates reappraised careers during the pandemic. 

Beware stereotypes. At 54, Elon Musk still operates at breakneck speed, having launched SpaceX, X.comTeslaand NeuralinkHe’s now considering  Grokipedia.  

Empire builders love the buzz. Warren Buffett delivered into his 90s. As Berkshire’s 2024 earnings rose 27 percent, he recently confirmed his successor. Michael Bloomberg, 83, remains active at Bloomberg L.P., having returned as CEO in 2014. Nonagenarian Rupert Murdoch stepped down at 93 to become chairman emeritus of Fox Corp and News Corp. 

If undecided on the startup journey,  simple solutions can make this easier.

Equal Opportunity Knocks

Entrepreneurial failure is notorious, yet success outliers dominate headlines. We read about superstars, not those left on social welfare. 

Professor Shikhar Ghosh analyzed 2,000 venture-backed firms. He estimated that 95 percent miss initial projections, 70 to 80 percent fail to deliver projected returns, and up to 40 percent fail outright. 

As outlined in my book Tune In, leadership misjudgment stems from predictable traps rooted in bias. With failures invisible, success is easier to recall. Wins are more salient and wrongly become the norm. Aspiring entrepreneurs should remember that normalized exceptions are not a base rate around which to build their business.

In today’s AI-dominated world, tech entrepreneurship takes center stage. The very word conjures up a stereotypical image of Silicon Valley wunderkinds. Think Stripe’s Collinson brothers or Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd.  However, in pursuit of hyper-growth, the slippery slope beckons. 

When FTX left an $8 billion hole in customer funds, Sam Bankman-Fried received a 25-year federal sentence. Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes received an 11.25-year sentence for defrauding customers with fake blood tests. Ironically, both launched businesses in their 20s.  

Relentless entrepreneurial ambition costs. Adam Neumann’s WeWork was valued at $47 billion at its peak, yet it imploded ahead of its 2019 IPO. 

Lionized founders with uncontrolled egos, poor oversight, and mythical stories teach aspiring entrepreneurs valuable lessons. The takeaway isn’t to avoid tech but to judge by fundamentals, not by founder mythology. 

The world has moved on. It’s too simplistic and outdated to attribute entrepreneurial success to age. Great ideas, networking, and hard graft always prevail, aided by luck and opportunity. 

The best breakthroughs can materialize at any age and in any setting. It’s never too late to start.

Reading time: 5 min reads
Last update:
Publish date: