Tech Start-ups: How Old Is Too Old?

Last week on his blog, venture capitalist Fred Wilson unwittingly set off an interesting debate about whether starting tech companies is a young person's game. Drawing on his own perspective, Wilson concluded: Nine of our eleven entrepreneurs are in their 30s. One is in his 20s, and one is in his 50s. That says to me that prime time entrepreneurship is 30s. And its possibly getting younger as web technology meets youth culture.

And then he got hammered by older entrepreneurs in the comments.

I asked for some additional input from a few top-tier, mid-life entrepreneurs who've been around the block more times than a Good Humor truck.

From Gordon Eubanks, former CEO of Symantec and founder of Oblix, which was sold to Oracle:

Age is one of many issues that lead to success. I do not think it is the most important by far. Idea, timing etc. seem to have a much bigger impact and certainly luck is probably a factor. If we think of this as a linear programming problem age would not dominate the result.

I was 38 when I joined Symantec. That seems very young now. What I have always believed is that passion and drive have much more to do with it than age and that experience is way over rated. You do not run through walls when you know how think they are.

This from Ralph Petroff, who was CEO of ultra-wideband start-up Time Domain:

There are two questions here as I read it: First, what's next for entrepreneurs; and second, what's the prime age?

Let's take the second question. When I reflect back on the times that VCs got their entire portfolio companies together, I remarked at how many of the entrepreneurs were in the 45-55 range. Fewer "kids" than I expected. CTOs and founders could be youngsters, but some veteran was usually running the show. I don't know if my data points are skewed or Wilson's are.

The question on "What's Next" is an intriguing one. Entrepreneurs are compulsive "builders" - they want to build "something." When they are younger, it means companies, but as they age, they get more involved in "other things." Whether it's my wife Peggy starting a Catholic High School, me volunteering to refurbish the Saturn V, or Bill and Melinda building a global infrastructure to fight diseases, they will be building "something."

The role I am settling into now - and I see other entrepreneurs doing the same - is consulting to multiple start-ups, having a finger in multiple pies - and increasing amounts of volunteer work. Entrepreneurs are people who "get things done." They create "something" out of "nothing" - whether it's business or a volunteer activity. And given that the demand for people who "get things done" is always greater than the supply, their services will always be in demand.

Finally, I heard from Alan Warms, who did start a new company -- BuzzTracker -- just before turning 40. He basically says that at this point in his life, he knows much more and has a lot more patience -- so he's waited far longer before taking VC money vs. his previous start-up, Participate.com. So, Warms concludes, Fred Wilson might be seeing more young entrepreneurs because they're the ones who knock on his VC firm's door asking for money.