[jasode]

I don't see the raw data of the study but I can think of one reason why it contradicts the public perception of the 20-something founder: There's a difference between B2B/SaaS/enterprise startups vs B2C startups.

The B2B companies are often started by older folks in their 30s and 40s. (E.g. PeopleSoft human resources software started by David Duffield age 46 and Siebel CRM software started by Tom Siebel age 41. Both were acquired by Oracle.) Their accumulated years in the industry gives them the relationships to convert into their first enterprise customers. Even more fundamentally, a B2B startup solves a "paint point" for corporate customers. Therefore, it makes sense that the founders would have spent many years working for companies (as employees in their 20s and 30s) to intimately understand how to solve their problem. Being a 40-something founder is the natural timeline for all that to happen.

However, many prominent B2C companies are started by 20-somethings (e.g. Google (age 25), Facebook (age 19), Snapchat (age 21), Instagram (age 27). The top-100 consumer-facing iOS & Android apps on their app stores are probably done by younger founders. It's hard to think of consumer-facing internet companies that were started by 40-somethings. (Netscape in 1995 with 50-year-old Jim Clark would be an uncommon example.) The B2C world doesn't require existing industry relationships; it's the viral spread of software to create network effects rather than a 6-month sales cycle of B2B.

It's the B2C companies that get more coverage on WSJ, Bloomberg news, and even tech sites like HN. Readers will click on more stories with "Snapchat" (B2C) in the title rather than "Palantir" (B2B). Therefore, it seems like the startup world is skewed towards 20-somethings.

[padobson]

If I was going to sum-up this comment, it'd be something like "Sell what you know."

The viral growth of companies started by 20-something founders is fueled by 20-something consumers.

The growth of companies started by 40-something founders is fueled by businesses with 40-something managers/executives.

[lowry]

Hm... Women make most of purchase decisions in households but founders are mostly men. Something does not match up.

[mayukh]

Yes looking at the raw data would be interesting. My hunch is that that there are many more 20 year olds starting companies (and going for moon shots). The opportunity costs are much lower when you are younger. The success rates might be higher in the older group but the younger group just by virtue of a larger sample (and going for moon-shots) might be why you see these outliers of multi-billion dollar public companies founded by 20 somethings

[akarma]

> Netscape in 1995 with 50-year-old Jim Clark would be an uncommon example

Don't forget 23-year-old Marc Andreessen as a cofounder.

This is a really interesting trend! Thanks for pointing it out.