Which statistics are those? https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/podcast/knowledge-at-wha... seems to indicate that 45 or 55 are the “best” ages to start a business. And since the average was 42 between 2007 and 2014 it would seem to indicate that at least a good amount of founders are “old”.
If I were to guess I think most founders would be either young or above middle age. Living “poor” is less of a problem when you’re young, and then once your children grow up and you have both experience and stable finances you’re again free of a lot of life’s responsibilities. Meanwhile you’re likely going to be struggling to even find enough hours in your life to take a shower in your 30-40ies with small kids and jobs, and you’re also likely to actually depend on paychecks during this period.
The impetus of this particular thread and context of gp (sabbaticaldev) comment is "starting" a business at age 60.
On the other hand, your cite seems to be survey of all businesses and gets a snapshot of whatever ages the business owners happen to be when the survey was done. In other words, maybe many of those 55+ business owners started when they were much younger?
Plenty of people have definitely said they can't. But the lesson is - just don't listen to anyone, because nobody knows the future, and you can do whatever you want and let the chips fall where they may!
If I were to guess I think most founders would be either young or above middle age. Living “poor” is less of a problem when you’re young, and then once your children grow up and you have both experience and stable finances you’re again free of a lot of life’s responsibilities. Meanwhile you’re likely going to be struggling to even find enough hours in your life to take a shower in your 30-40ies with small kids and jobs, and you’re also likely to actually depend on paychecks during this period.