Why would you not assume the opposite? I would assume the most experienced people with the most knowledge, contacts, and money to be in their 40s and 50s.
Warning, I'm about to make a couple of massive generalisations...
I would guess that most 40-50 year olds who already have knowledge, contacts and money don't apply to YC, probably because they don't feel that they need it.
I expect that founders at that age are more likely to be coming from a position of experience within their target industry, i.e. solving a problem that they've seen/experienced. They may not be trying to become "X for Y" but solving problem Z that a limited number of clients will pay good money to have solved.
Older founders may have more to risk, so the "go big or go home" model may not be as attractive to them.
As I said, this is a huge generalisation with a lot of guesswork thrown in. I would love to see some more detailed data so that we could draw some conclusions.
Not to mention the fact that it's probably quite a bit harder to convince a group of 40-50 year olds to move to SV for 3 months for $18k than it is a group a 21 year olds.
It's $120k now but yes, one 40 year old engineer working full time makes that in 9 months. Why doesn't YC offer more attractive investment, say $500k, and allow non-SV offices? Is it just the presumption that this won't lead to large returns? Is there any data to support that?
Silicon Valley culture is inherently ageist. The median age is by far the most surprising statistic to me. I would have thought it'd be at least 5 years younger. To me the ageist aspect is part of the idea that only young people should be building products for young people.
This is perhaps an insight into the types of companies YC is funding. They may just have a larger pool of B2B and enterprise companies this session.
Well, a big point of YC is that it provides the "contacts and money". And of course anyone who is further along in their career has more at risk by going to a startup.
In my case (I'm 48) I've been applying to YC (third time lucky) because I have plenty of experience, but don't have the contacts. I suspect most people outside Silicon Valley or the US don't have the kind of contacts that YC can provide, or the kind of money that is necessary to scale their business.
I would guess that most 40-50 year olds who already have knowledge, contacts and money don't apply to YC, probably because they don't feel that they need it.
I expect that founders at that age are more likely to be coming from a position of experience within their target industry, i.e. solving a problem that they've seen/experienced. They may not be trying to become "X for Y" but solving problem Z that a limited number of clients will pay good money to have solved.
Older founders may have more to risk, so the "go big or go home" model may not be as attractive to them.
As I said, this is a huge generalisation with a lot of guesswork thrown in. I would love to see some more detailed data so that we could draw some conclusions.