- Apple. Steve Jobs. First company. Age 21.
- Microsoft. Bill Gates. First company. Age 19.
- Dell. Michael Dell. First company. Age 19.
- Yahoo. Jerry Yang and David Filo. First company. Age 26/28.
- Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin. First company. Age 25.
- Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg. First company. Age 19.
Have seasoned entrepreneurs ever changed the world? Venture capitalists are stupid.
February 17th, 2010
by Yatrik
+1, very nice.
February 17th, 2010
by Morden
Great. I’m older than all of those guys and I haven’t gotten anywhere in my life yet. Haven’t gotten anywhere as in I haven’t yet started a successful, multinational company that works for my gazillions of dollars. And I don’t think it’s happening, either.
February 17th, 2010
by N.P. Brandt
Wow, I now feel depreciated and useless. Wonder if there are any clueless young entrepreneurs from my generation?
February 17th, 2010
by Blair McBride
Clueless and young is the what I call the wildcard factor. Most will lose everything or give up, and end up in “normal” jobs. Some will continue to be entrepeneurs, becoming your “seasoned” entrepreneurs. Then there’s the very select few who will strike brilliance before they learn to know any better. And assuming they don’t sell-out too early, that brilliance will change the world as you describe.
February 18th, 2010
by Sami Rageb
Interesting observation, but you should take Bill Gates off the list. Microsoft wasn’t his first company.
February 19th, 2010
by Abi Raja
The Author
Bill Gates’ first company was really small and wasn’t really a company in many ways. It’s hard to classify him as a serial entrepreneur.
February 19th, 2010
by John Lilly
Abi — I agree with the premise that young entrepreneurs are, quite often, totally, fantastically awesome.
But you’re missing a ton of counter-factual data points:
Not to mention Mozilla itself, whose founders Mitchell and Brendan, were in their 40s.
There are a bunch more — and I’m not arguing that many entrepreneurs are very young and awesome — just that stating the positive examples to prove your point is not really telling anything like the whole story.
February 19th, 2010
by Havvy
And the best part of this is that government is not funding any of these companies. Heck, some are actively harming them through taxation or censorship. This is capitalism at its finest.
February 19th, 2010
by Mossop
No, venture capitalists are smart. They take the option that gives the most reward with the least risk for their money. Sure they may miss out on big wins occasionally from risky young starters but why should they care? There are always more less risky ventures to invest in, and guaranteed there are way more young guys starting who fail than there are who succeed.
If you think venture capitalists are making such a mistake why not invest some of your own money in the risky ventures ;)
February 20th, 2010
by Josh Chandler
Ha, love it!
It really shows that the more senior VC’s are likely missing out on huge opportunities. It’s unfortunate that they don’t favor unproven teams, they should always be investing in people. Don’t you think?