- People over 50 are far more likely to start a company than people under 30.
- Older Entrepreneurs have higher success rates.
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, based in my home town of Kansas City, is devoted to the study and teaching of entrepreneurialism. Dane Strangler, a researcher there, studied thousands of companies formed from 1996 to 2007. This was at the height of the dot-com boom — the period when Google and Facebook were formed, and when the popular image of an entrepreneur was some kid who couldn't even wait to graduate from college before making his first million.
The numbers tell a different story...
- People aged 55-64 are about 1/3 more likely to start a business than people aged 20-34.
- Even in the tech sector, people over 50 started twice as many companies as people under 30.
- Companies started by people over 50 have a five-year survival rate about 50% higher than companies started by people under 30.