What's happening with founders over 40?

The best time to start a business is in your 40s or 50s and when your kids are in high school or college. Here’s why:<p>- You have more time since your kids are more independent, and they might even help with your business.<p>- Your significant other might have a full-time job, giving you a safety net with steady income and insurance.<p>- By now, you have a network of friends and colleagues, making it easier to find your first customers and get honest feedback.<p>- Hiring is easier because you already know people in your industry or community.<p>- You understand your industry better, which gives you an advantage. However, this can also be a downside—you might avoid risky, “crazy” ideas that could lead to huge success.

Comments so far are sort of singling out the &quot;negatives&quot; i.e. make it seem like 40yo just don&#x27;t want to put in the time anymore (for one reason or another) but the article also mentions stuff like:<p>- At 40+ you&#x27;re more judicious about where you put your energy<p>- In your 40s, you have some accumulated wisdom: you recognize patterns faster and are more willing to change course<p>Do I have the blind faith to grind it out 5+ years in a stagnating startup on an off chance it might take off someday - especially if I&#x27;ve done that before? Looking for a better way is not always a bad thing. On another hand - my 20yo self wouldn&#x27;t have believed my 40yo self - some things you just have to live through.

&quot;Family obligations and priorities are prominent (kids in high school&#x2F;college).&quot;<p>Maybe it&#x27;s my bubble but I&#x27;m 41 and most people I know my age have kids in the 2-12 age range, not high school&#x2F;college.<p>I would love to be a founder but I am tired as hell, and don&#x27;t have the wealth to quit my job to start a company.

The VC&#x27;s want someone dumb and impressionable.

Breaking news: Founders find out people in midlife have young kids.

Another option is to put that experience to good use. I just turned 43, I should probably have retired. But instead I founded Tech for Palestine, doing whatever we can to help end the oppression on Palestinians by Israel. Hard tiring work, but it feels like a good leverage for all those skills I spent my 20s and 30s building. Maybe that perspective will change once I have kids, which is in slated for the next few years.

Eh. I was quite willing to take risky bets on startups when I was laid off, at 55.<p>I had experience in myriad aspects of releasing and maintaining software, managing release-level projects that were hybrid hardware&#x2F;software (I originally hailed from a hardware genesis), and the myriad &quot;soft skills&quot; that are <i>required</i> of anyone that is going to ask cynical, hard-boiled people with bags of money (think Japanese executives) to help fund their efforts. I had (still have) a guaranteed income for life, so I would have been quite willing to work on equity, and had (still have) no problem, putting in a huge amount of hours (my GH Activity Graph is almost solid green. I keep busy).<p>My experience: no one cared about that. They wanted young jargonauts. I assume that&#x27;s the formula that gets VCs to pony up cash.<p>They were probably correct, in pushing me away. I am not particularly enamored of the business plan model that seems to be in fashion, these days.

Most VCs want a founder that will spend years grinding away earning nothing and in the off chance they have something successful, sign away their rights, so the VC can make their millions. By 40, most people see right through the bullshit.<p>Im in my 40s and I even turn down good paying jobs at startups, when I see no upside for me (long hours, terrible business model).

Wow. It&#x27;s amazing how quickly this crashed off the HN frontpage. Not a popular topic.

When you’re young, if your startup fails, you’re still young.<p>But when you’re in your 40s or more, and your startup fails, it hits you harder, you lost some last good years to the stress of building a startup, for nothing. And now you’re even older and more tired.<p>It’s like there’s no point unless you’re sure you have something very promising, not just snake oil BS. Better to spend time with family and your hobbies.<p>What’s the point of getting rich at like 70? You’re old and all the romance of life has been drained. Your wealth just pays for better end of life care.

I will tell you right now, the worst founders are young. Probably great for the VC, but not great for anyone else.<p>My best learnings have come from founders who were in their 40s when they started their businesses. One was even 58 when he started.

Are there even enough sane founders that VCs can be picky about age?

Honestly? I think they are just rationalizing away their respective midlife crises.

I dont get the idea of a family. We should fund a more stable foundation.

I perceived having &quot;old&quot; (co-)founders as a subtle but immanent disadvantage in the prototypical deep tech startup scene. When you talk to VC youngsters who barely started a university studies this is awkward at best and not successful in average. Things change dramatically when you talk to partners in the VC firms where the aged founder and partner meet at a similar age. This may sound trivial but these non-technical human interactions are quite dominating in my life, unfortunately. Age is as important as degrees or previous experience as founder.