Question continues…
Since life in Silicon Valley ends at 35 unless you hit it big or move up in management (and simple logic tells you that most won’t), I’m curious what people younger than this think they’ll be doing at that age.
” I turned 35 the year I founded Wikipedia. 38 the year I founded Wikia (now ranked #30, quantcast).
The premise of the question is wrong. A better question might be: How can we in the tech community make sure that unusual success at a very early age is not mistakenly thought to be the norm? ”
– Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder and Wikia cofounder
I started TechCrunch when I was 35.
Well, started Netflix DVD rental when I was 37…and first streaming when I was 47…so maybe not too bad after 35 except that all-nighters are definitely harder.
Well, I started craigslist when I was 42…
– Craig Newmark, Customer service rep & founder, Craigslist
Mark Pincus was 41 when he started Zynga.
Reid Hoffman was 36 when he founded LinkedIn.
Marc Benioff was 35 when he started Salesforce.
Robert Noyce started Intel at 41 with a 39 year old Gordon Moore.
Irwin Jacobs was 52 and Andrew Viterbi was 50 when they founded Qualcomm.
Pradeep Sindhu was 42 when he founded Juniper Networks.
You don’t need to be under 35 to start a successful company. There are many more examples outside of technology of people older than 35 founding well known successful companies.
I started Pandora when I was 35. I think 30s and 40s are great decades to start things. Greater maturity, life experience, and still plenty of gas in the tank…
Om Malik, Founder, Gigaom. Partner @ True Ventures
Over-35 founders are actually more common. To turn anecdotes into data:
The average and median age of U.S.-born tech founders [of companies that have more than $1 million in sales, twenty or more employees, and company branches with fifty or more employees] was thirty-nine when they started their companies. Twice as many were older than fifty as were younger than twenty-five.
Sources:
– Education and Tech Entrepreneurship
– h/t carbon8 on Hacker News
– Eddie Xue, California 37
Source: Click the Original
My Notes 