A new Kauffman Foundation study indicates that most tech firm founders are approaching middle-age and have extensive backgrounds business and technology. Findings from the study, a survey of 652 US-born technology firm executives, indicate:<p>- The median age at which founders started companies was 39.
- 92% of founders have bachelor’s degrees, while 31% hold master’s degrees, and 10% hold a Ph.D.
- 45% of founders started their companies in the state where they attended college.<p>What do you think? How well does that profile match your own experience?<p>If you want to know more about the study and the findings, you can download the report, Education and Tech Entrepreneurship by Vivek Wadha, Richard Freeman, and Ben Rissing, here: http://www.kauffman .org/pdf/ Education_ Tech_Ent_ 042908.pdf
I've read this study, and looked at the sources. There's strong selection bias; they aren't accurately selecting startups of the particularly technical kind. Their survey also requires people to respond, of which less than half did.
I'd like to see a similar breakdown of software companies specifically. I'm sure there are more young founders of software startups than hardware, biotech, etc.