[not_your_vase]

Not advice, but...

  > doing 100+ interviews

Companies seem to be definitely interested in you, if you get to the interview stage. They do see your gap of 5 years, your age (I assume both are present in your CV), but in the past 2 years, you got on average an interview every week. This is actually quite enviable. If companies wouldn't be interested in you, they wouldn't spend the time interviewing you.

There will be some other recurring pattern that makes them change their mind...

[fmxsh]

Adding to this:

Coming to the interview stage, carry yourself with confidence when explaining the 5+ year gap. Do not fall into assuming it was wasted time because you didn't reach a target goal. Maybe that assumption will be unconsciously conveyed to whoever you speak to. Examine your conclusion about the past engagement. View it as part of a constant learning experience to get better. Base the confidence on the fact that you bravely chose to throw yourself into new difficult territory. In discussing any of the gap, focus on what the challenges were, what your plan was, what you learned, and where you aspire to go next.

I hope a positive essence can be seen here beyond any oversimplification I may have made. There likely are more practical things to consider as well. My point is to also work on framing one's past engagement in a positive light as part of learning, not as a conclusive failure.

[whoshiring57392]

I am guilty of this, I usually talk about my time as an entrepreneur negatively because, to be frank, I'm ashamed of my failure. Thanks for the insight, it's helpful and I should have thought more about this earlier.

[uncomplexity_]

yeah this, always baffles me when people look down on their entrepreneurial pursuits instead of bragging it

it's not like you learned nothing and became rusty because you just smoked weed and played video games all day