[montrose]

If this result is surprising to HN readers, it is probably because this list of the last 100 IPOs is also surprising:

https://www.iposcoop.com/last-100-ipos/

Only 19 of the 100 most recent IPOs are classified as "technology" companies. The rest are in categories like "health care" and "oil and gas."

There are a lot of high-growth companies that are not startups in the classic sense of starting from nothing and winning by building a better mousetrap. E.g. pharmaceutical companies commercializing research, where the founder is a PI and probably a tenured professor who's at least 40.