Comments on: Is 30 Too Old For Entpreneurship? Only If You Believe ValleyWag’s Sloppy Thinking

By: DJM

DJM — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:50:12 +0000

I don’t know Valley Wag, but can infer enough from the name. Colonel Sanders, Dave Thomas (you can see what I am thinking about right now), and many others started firms well after the age of 30. More data oriented — there have been many academic studies that show that success of an entrepreneur is often heavily determined by experience.. while there is no ideal number that I can recall, i know it is not 2 or 3 years. Industry, management, and crisis experience are crucial to the long term success of any venture. This is not to say that younger entrepreneurs cannot build great firms, but my hunch is the write r over at Valley wag forgets about the smart vcs and the execs who came into firms like google, pretty quickly. sure brin, et all still grab the headlines, but there is much experience with them when the big money starts to arrive. Moreover, for any serious discussion of entrepreneurship and success, his sample is ridiculously skewed. Fun for blogs, but no one should make any real decisions based on the entry.

By: Arnie McKinnis

Arnie McKinnis — Sat, 19 May 2007 16:43:58 +0000

Another reason I don’t read Valley Wag!! The only reason to not continue to grow (both personally and professionally) is because you are either dead or in a coma (but I guess being a politician or reporter might also qualify).

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Fri, 18 May 2007 19:06:53 +0000

Great post! I am on my third start-up, am about to turn 61, and am loving every second of my worklife. I couldn’t agree more: There is no magic bullet nor an easy process to build a business. Not to disagree with Mark but it isn’t just about doing stuff. It is about doing the right stuff, and lots of it.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 18 May 2007 14:57:11 +0000

The notion that 35 or below is some prerequisite for business success is nonsense. I can site any number of new successful ventures begun by people in their mid-forties to mid-fifties. I’m talking about real businesses – not just building a job. You won’t find them written about in Wired or any new economy blogs or publications, though.

And, how many “intrapreneurs” who launch a new idea inside an exisiting company are over 35? Quite a few, I suspect.

By: laurence haughton

laurence haughton — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:59:10 +0000

Ignorant and sloppy thinking from the new journalism… why am I not surprised??

Rob, during the run up to the first dot com bust I interviewed a 60 plus year old venture guy who told me that he wouldn’t back a deal who had a CEO over 35… period! I thought that was a terrible idea. My reason was simple. Many under 35 CEOs never have experienced anything but success so it would be natural that if they hit an obstacle they would not know the right thing to do. As one sage wrote, Good judgment comes with experience and a lot of experience comes from having bad judgment.

By: Wally Bock

Wally Bock — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:29:36 +0000

Great post, Rob. There’s also the bias at work here that youth = creative thinking.