The average YC founder is about 25. The range so far has been from 19 to (I thin... (2024)

python_kiss on March 5, 2007 | next [–]

Paul, is the YC demographic a good representative of the average startup founder's age? Judging from your articles, I sense that there is a certain, though justified, bias towards funding younger startup founders. This is the excerpt I am referring to:

"The other reason it's hard to start a company before 23 is that people won't take you seriously. VCs won't trust you, and will try to reduce you to a mascot as a condition of funding. Customers will worry you're going to flake out and leave them stranded. Even you yourself, unless you're very unusual, will feel your age to some degree; you'll find it awkward to be the boss of someone much older than you, and if you're 21, hiring only people younger rather limits your options." - How to start a Startup

Harj on March 5, 2007 | parent | next [–]

I'm a current YC company founder and I'm 21. I see the points pg makes in that essay you quote but I can't say I've let them apply to me personally. I have someone working for our company at the moment who is 33, in fact I don't think I've ever worked with someone who is the same age or younger than me (my co founder is 23). I've never had a problem with it personally, in fact I probably prefer it as I can generally learn more from more older than I am.

To make that situation work I think you need to believe strongly in two things:

1) Being a good leader does not mean being the smartest/most knowledgeable person in your company. It means being able to spot the smartest people and make them work together and learn from each other. That's not as simple as it sounds

2) You MUST believe 110% that age is a completely irrelevant metric when determining the "smartness" of a person. I don't care if someone is 20 years older than I am - if they haven't done a start-up then that puts me ahead of them in respect to running a start up. They may be an infinitely better coder/designer/whatever than I am but not a better startup founder.

The second reason is why I ditched my career as an attorney to be a start up founder. I don't intend on letting my income be determined by the number of years I've been sitting behind a desk.

pg on March 7, 2007 | root | parent | next [–]

You're only 21? I would have guessed 26.

omarish on March 5, 2007 | parent | prev | next [–]

From the front page:

"We care more about how smart you are than how old you are, and more about the quality of your ideas than whether you have a formal business plan."

Perhaps the question should be: How many startups have you been a part of?

danw on March 5, 2007 | root | parent | next [–]

Or perhaps "How smart are you?" would be better?

pg on March 7, 2007 | parent | prev | next [–]

It's hard to say for sure, but I'd guess it's not off by more than a couple years.

YC founders probably differ from the average founder more in how hackerly they are than their age. We have a strong bias toward companies run by the people actually writing the software.

jamiequint on March 5, 2007 | prev | next [–]

Only 21 and I still feel like I should have accomplished more with my life by now.

Experience is important, passion is more important.

Experience without passion is a dead startup.

amichail on March 5, 2007 | prev [–]

Creativity is essential for startups and for some people creativity increases with age: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/genius.html