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That doesn't matter. What matters is how many qualified people over 30, 40, 50, 60 have applied to Y Combinator, and then how many have been accepted, vs. how many qualified applied/accepted 0-18, 18-22, 22-25, 25-30. I think the group who actually get discriminated against, if otherwise just as qualified, are 0-18. That's who I would discriminate against, based on US laws, contracts, etc. We know from public YC companies that the majority are in their 20s, but there are a lot in their 30s, and several examples in 40+. What we don't know is 1) how many applied in each age group and 2) were they of differing quality other than age. I'd be inclined to suspect YC gets a lot of the best
20-something entrepreneurs to apply, but doesn't yet get a large percentage of the qualified 35+ year old entrepreneurs to apply. I think that's for three main reasons: 1) a perception that YC is youth-focused 2) diversity of resources and other diversity for older entrepreneurs (IMO, a 25 year old who just did a $50mm exit from his second company has a lot more in common with a 45 year old who has done the same, than either have with a 22yo who has done nothing but college or a 45yo who has worked for the local government in IT his whole life) 3) people get trapped into mortgage/family/etc. and aren't willing to take 3 months off and move to the Bay Area to do YC, even if they think they're willing to do a startup (3 months in the bay area is far from the greatest hardship you'll face...) |