Last week the popular Silicon Valley blog, Valleywag, put together a list of the hottest technology entrepreneurs and how old they were when they started their companies. The result was that most of them were in their 20s. Some venture capitalists are also now suggesting that they will not fund anyone who is over 30 years old and trying to launch a new technology company.
The blog notes that most of the biggest technology success stories have been made by founders who were in their 20s and that the peak age was 26.
Bill Gates was 20 when he started Microsoft. Steve Jobs was 21 when he created Apple with Steve Wozniak (25). The Google guys were both 25 when they launched their business.
The hypothesis is that while older entrepreneurs mail fail less often because of the experience they have gained, they are also less likely to achieve spectacularly positive results.
Having just turned 27 on the weekend am I now over the hill?
Evan Carmichael
