[wooyi]

The biggest challenge I find with ex-corporate mid 30s folks is their inability to reduce their personal burn and lifestyle in order to survive the startup process to succeed. The question you're asking is the wrong one. It's not how old you are. The question is, can you do without your pay, sustain your family (if you have one) and the mental stress around that, for 18-24 months before your startup becomes profitable (or you raise money).

Usually from mid 30s people, the answer is hell, no.

[USNetizen]

Actually, the answer is most commonly yes, and more so than someone in their 20's that is burdened with student debt and no experience or industry contacts. Mid-30's people have savings, assets, credit history and other funds. Plus, they potentially have a spouse to cover expenses while the startup grows. That is the best kind of investment in terms of supporting a new business.

The stats don't lie - the average founder is late 30's to early 40's. The 20-something wunderkind is a Silicon Valley thing, not reality for the rest of the country's businesses.

[wooyi]

My answer was based on anecdotal evidence. Yes, having a supportive a spouse is key and a win for a mid 30s professional. I started my first business in my mid 30s so my peers are in this group.

From that perspective, the average founder is definitely not late 30s to early 40s. Maybe I'm hanging out with the wrong crowd... :-)

[vidarh]

First of all, unless you are a co-founder of a bootstrapped startup, you should ask yourself some very hard questions if you are asked to do without pay or take a pay cut unless your pay is extremely high to begin with.

Having done half a dozen plus startups, I've had to deal with low pay once, and that was a startup I did at 19, four of us co-founded an ISP and got about $50k funding from a guy almost as clueless as we were. Since then I've been able to demand, and get, market rate salaries on top of options or outright shares past initial periods of working on the project evenings etc. The startups I've been part of have in fact been more stable when it comes to paying on time.

There are cases where taking salary cuts are ok and justified to make a startup work, but there better be a lot of equity in there.

As for being able to reduce burn, I spend about 50% of my after tax income normally. Less at the moment due to some consulting. This is with a child and a mortgage. While i's true I spend more than I did at 20 (I'm 39 now), inflation adjusted the difference is small, and my income also allows me to build up a buffer which means I'm far better able to deal with loss of income today than I was then. It also means that I can live off 4-5 days of consulting a month in a crisis.

While I'm sure you're right for a lot of people, there are plenty of us for whom our 30's or 40's have brought a huge increase in financial flexibility.