Top 0.1% startup founders average 45 years old; VCs chasing 19-year-olds is a market inefficiency
RichardsonDx · x · 2026-09-22
Reacting to Peter Thiel paying young people to skip college and a16z backing an alternative for 16-22 year-olds, the author argues that funds optimizing for youth is a market inefficiency. A large study of startup founders found the average founder of the top 0.1% fastest-growing companies was 45, not 22.
He argues for backing the 35-year-old engineer with a decade of domain depth, the 42-year-old operator, and the 50-year-old expert: AI removes the old tradeoff where experience required teams and capital, so one experienced person can now move at the speed of a 20-person company.
Related event: Top Founders Average 45, Study Pushes Back on Silicon Valley's Youth Bet(2 posts)→
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