Age for an entrepreneur, how old are startup entrepreneurs? Are you too old or too young? A constant question always seems to be: “How old should I be? Am I too old?” I have a few surprises for you, both with examples, and some survey material.
Many Famous Startup Entrepreneurs began Later in Life
First, let me give you a few examples. Ray Kroc, Founder of McDonald’s franchise, you may have heard, he didn’t start. Actually, he met the McDonald’s brothers when he was 52 years of age and that’s when he literally started with the idea. Wally Blume. You may not have heard of Moose Tracks Ice Cream, but age 57 was his starting time. Even though you may not know it, they are making 80 million dollars a year. The co-founder of LinkedIn was 35, that’s sort of on the young side actually. The founder of Curves was 40 years of age. It goes on and on.

Remember from Episode 01, the economic and technological change is a major reason to get a side gig or your own business.

Do you know that Martha Stewart was nearly 50 before she moved from the catering business into Martha Stewart Living and became that big magnet? There are even some people. If you remember the old TV show that had Justin Bateman on it, you’d think she wasn’t very bright. At age 48 she realized that some of the things that she wanted to do, she had to go back and she had to learn programming. She went back and learned how to program at 48. Vera Wang, she didn’t do her first dress design or any design until she was 39 years of age. It goes on and on.
Surprising Facts about the Age of Startup Entrepreneurs
Let me give you a few facts that you probably haven’t even thought of and that are really crucial for you to feel a little more confidence if you’re older and thinking: “Gee, what am I going to do now?” Remember the whole concept behind Life Unsettled is that if you’re a 50-year-old person then you have more years ahead of you than your entire adult life. Yes, living past 90 is greater than the 32 years you’ve been an adult, so plan on your next journey, plan on your next adventure.

A couple of little facts to help you out, too. What is the average age of an entrepreneur? It depends on where you are a little bit. It turns out in the United Kingdom it’s 47. For US, there was some research done by the Kauffman Foundation finding that the average age of a successful startup in the high-tech industry was actually 40. Yes, not 19, 20, 25, and all those years you heard, but the average age was 40. Gee, I thought they were supposed to be over the hill already for tech.

It turns out that high-growth startups are twice as likely to be launched by people over 55 than by people 20 to 34. Wasn’t it just a few years ago we were constantly hearing that it was the young people who were starting up all these neat, new companies? Yes, they may have started up Facebook and a few others, but a lot of the high-tech companies of today need a lot more breadth and a lot more in some other industry than a Facebook or something like that. Twice as likely to be over 55 than 20 to 34. I bet you didn’t know that.
Why Older Folks are Good Startup Entrepreneurs
Part of the reason I’m doing this is for you to think in terms of all the things that you have as your own experience, and in many cases how to meld technology. It doesn’t have to be technology. Vera Wing, that was designer. It can be technology melded with what you already know. The internet and technology have changed the world and they’re changing it very rapidly and continuing to change. Henry Kaiser of Kaiser Permanente, he linked together with a physician to form Kaiser Permanente when he was 63.
Colonel Sanders was Driven to Success at 'Retirement'
Harland David Sanders, yes, Colonel Sanders, you’ve probably heard that over and over again, he was 65 years old when he started his first little business. Actually,