Optimal Age for Entrepreneurship

[Sam Yong]

Hi all,

I had a question about optimal age for entrepreneurship after listening to a talk by Hugh Mason in NUS. 

I closed two companies: Spree2Shop (i.JAM funded) and HeartCode (bootstrapped and closed in blacks). Having reached university, I find that at this stage people all around kept pushing students – especially those in technical courses such as CS – to become entrepreneurs. I felt that the age which I started the two companies had been one that I was ill-prepared to bring the companies to anywhere further.

 

I have read about how some people only founded startup in their 50s (on the basis that they have a lot of domain expertise), or some left their well-paid jobs to work on a startup idea while supporting a family (on the notion that they will have the drive to see it through or risk burdening his/her family). It seemed like there is a large deviation on when people decide to go on a new venture.

There's also a notion about starting companies at very young age to 12 - 18 years old, or even through National Service (where I ran HeartCode). What are your thoughts on which season of a person’s life is best suited for starting on new ventures?

Cheers

Sam

[Niall Greenwood]

Sam, 

I expect a lot of people will share anecdotal evidence of the optimum balance between experience, risk appetite, ability to innovate etc, or 'average age of entrepreneurs', but I don't think that is the point. 

The risk of failure running startups is high, statistically, and most end because they run out of resources, primarily finance, but sometimes will, or even the ability to work together.

Knowing that, the question has to be jointly 'how confident are you in your plan' and 'how able are you/your team to deliver your plan'.

This isn't determined by the year on your i/c, more a very honest evaluation of your plan and your team, and how much runway you can provide them, in the face of inevitable headwinds.

It's hard, and I know I wouldn't have been well prepared when I was younger, but the eco-system, networks, resources etc are better today, but it's still about you and your plan.

I hope this helps.

Niall

---

Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2016 06:02:07 -0700
From: hellc...@gmail.com
To: open...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [OpenFrog] Optimal Age for Entrepreneurship

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[Meng WONG]

On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Sam Yong <hellc...@gmail.com> wrote:

I closed two companies: Spree2Shop (i.JAM funded) and HeartCode (bootstrapped and closed in blacks). Having reached university, I find that at this stage people all around kept pushing students – especially those in technical courses such as CS – to become entrepreneurs. I felt that the age which I started the two companies had been one that I was ill-prepared to bring the companies to anywhere further.

All kinds of things can be the subject of government campaigns:

- don't spit on the street

- speak good English

- be more courteous

We can add to that list:

- have more children

- start more companies

For some reason, though, the Government doesn't just blare at undergrads: "become a parent today! (tonight!)"

Research shows that the Mark Zuckerberg stereotype tends to be an outlier:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29660624

Having been both a dorm-room and a graybeard entrepreneur, I can say that the game certainly isn't over at 27.

As https://ycstartupclass.com/CS183B+How+to+Start+a+Startup.pdf says, if you haven't got a great idea, then why bother starting a startup? It's like proposing to someone you don't really love, just because property prices are low and the government wants you to make babies.

The best startups spring from personal insight into both the market and the technology; feeling an itch (as a customer), and knowing how to scratch it (as a product designer). You need life experience for that. In some domains, you can pack a lot more life experience into your youth: technology is the obvious example. Vitalik Buterin started Ethereum when he was 19. Music and writing also count. Mary Shelley published Frankenstein when she was 21.

But most young people develop competencies in things that don't scale. There's nothing wrong with that, or with them. They just shouldn't be starting startups.

I don't mean to be all "youth is wasted on the young" – I just happen to think that just because the government wants more X, doesn't mean everybody should do X.

[Hugh Mason]

On Thursday, 22 September 2016, Sam Yong wrote:

I had a question about optimal age for entrepreneurship

 

Wadhwa et al (2009) reported on entrepreneur demographics and success factors in the US in two comprehensive reports for the Kauffman foundation:

http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anatomy-of-an-entrepreneur

Unsurprisingly, The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Family Background and Motivation presents a complex picture. It includes these two observations:

• The average and median age of company founders in our sample when they started their current companies was 40. (This is consistent with our previous research, which found the average and median age of technology company founders to be 39).

• 52 percent of respondents had some interest in becoming an entrepreneur when they were in college, but 34.7 percent didn't even think about it, and 13.3 percent had little or no interest. Those from lower-upper-class backgrounds were more likely to have been extremely interested in starting a business than the average (25 percent vs. 18.5 percent). 

[Patrick Haller]

On 2016-09-22 06:02, Sam Yong wrote:
> I felt that the age which I started the two companies had been one
> that I was ill-prepared to bring the companies to anywhere further.

TLDR: Read the books listed at the bottom, cos your question stems from
a deeper question. So here's me trying to answer that ur-question....


Hi Sam,

Like they say, Experience is what you get when you don't get what you
wanted. ;) You wanted something for those companies, but that didn't
work out, and now the hard thing is to learn as much as you possibly can
from what happened.

While it helps to be a graphomaniac like John Walker [0], the important
part is reflecting on the companies' trajectories and trying to debug
them post-mortem.

Get each of your old crews together ( say hi to Kim Sia ;) and list all
the probable pathologies. For each item, become a mini-expert in it.

That said, it's probably going to be difficult to pull that off while
working at NUS. Especially since it'd be way better to get some company
to pay you while you practice there.

Finally, Ryan Holiday has a horribly-named book [1] that you should
read. While there is much that is wrong in that book, there is much much
more that is "eminently correct", as Charlie Munger would say, and all
of it is worth wrestling with.


Patrick

[0] http://www.fourmilab.ch/autofile/www/autofile.html
[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591847818

[drllau]

> which season of a person’s life is best suited for starting on new ventures?

Pondering your question (optimal age for entrepreneur) I suspect it is a variation of whether entrepreneurs are born or made. Is the mindset innate or is it just skills/experience? Firstly, let's discard the notion that an entrepreneur has to be a founder (highest risk) as it is possible to be an intrapreneur within a corporation. Then you have to narrow down the distinction between creativity and innovation. Plenty of people are highly creative yet it doesn't make the ideas economically viable, much less disruptive. Other times the ideas are quite radical, yet the market is not ready (electric cars) or the technology is immature (cf Newton v Blackberry). If you simplify the definition of entrepreneur as someone who identifies and satisfies a market gap then you need a combination of awareness (what market exists, or latent needs or aggregate niches into a viable business), execution ability (the satisfy component) and an environment in disequilibrium (thus allow new entrants) yet with adequate resources, whether capital or talent. Younger souls have less preconceived ideas, stamina to burn the midnight oil, and often passion to survive on Raman noodles without the stress of finding milk money to feed kids. Older means more experience or talent evolution, often some financial backing/private savings and good social networks. But you still need to cultivate a mindset which is willing to take a risk, often going against conventional wisdom or believing in a idea through the funding valley of death.

As observed, the success factors suggest late 30s early 40s to have highest likelihood but this is only statistics and hard to apply to individuals. Perhaps accidental entrepreneur is more prevalent than the planned outcome (see repeated studies on the failure of govt "innovation") but if you learn from your mistakes, then sooner or later the dice of success will roll your way. What can help is to understand your own strengths and weaknesses,  develop persistence and ability to surmount difficulties, and learn how to manage uncertainty (Afterall, a definition of pioneer is someone with arrows in their backs). Age is less a barrier nowadays than other aspects ... just be aware the celebration of youth in popular media (cf Olympic geniuses) may somewhat distort perception that innovation belongs to the young ... if you really have an innate appetite for new venture (or adrenaline junkie in crazy ideas) you find ways to express it no matter the age (or even live vicariously by funding others).