New Study Reveals the Perfect Age to Be an Entrepreneur

October 22, 2014

It’s no secret that entrepreneurs seem to be starting younger and younger every year. College dropouts are hailed as badasses and our generation just can’t seem to commit to one job for long periods of time. With that being said, one would think that the perfect time to launch a startup is in your 20s, right? Well, according to a study conducted by Bloomberg’s new $75 million VC fund, you’re wrong.

In a report by BBC, Bloomberg hired analytics firm Mattermark to analyze data to find people who had a great chance of launching and building a successful startup — and this is even before those people knew it themselves. Danielle Morrill, Mattermark’s co-founder, told the BBC:

“We took a sample set of founders … We looked at where they had worked, what kind of job they had, their age and other factors and used those to build a model … It is the largest study that has ever been done on patterns of business founders …”

Other criteria included whether the individuals had worked at a startup, attended top universities, or whether they worked in technology or business management.

All the data was mined by publicly available information on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin on 1.5 million people who were connected to the tech startup scene. From there, they found 350 individuals who fit the criteria of a successful startup founder.

Here were their findings:

1. Most successful startup founders in that pool were in their late 30s, while some were over 40.

2. Those who had stayed in a job for a long time were more likely to go off on their own to launch a startup.

3. Two-thirds of business founders had not held a senior level position before starting their own company

“Contrary to conventional wisdom, being ‘stuck’ in the same company or position for a long time, even a decade, does not diminish your likelihood of becoming a business founder,” Morrill told BBC.

While the study produced interesting results, Bloomberg officially commissioned the study in order to have data from which to find individuals to invite to “meet-up” dinners attended by VCs. The media company has been cold-emailing invites that read, “You’ve been chosen … as one of the most likely people in the technology industry to create a company.”

Source: BBC

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