A snapshot of entrepreneurs
by Miki SaxonImage credit: arkitekt
Do you sometimes get the impression that, like the garage of “olden” times, the college dorm room is where most startups start? That founders are dominantly twenty-somethings, many who skipped or quit college, who got some friends together and grabbed the brass ring?
Even more hilariously, do you believe that startups are a by-product of the Internet, as has been frequently explained over the last 15 years to me by younger, more nimble minds?
You may if you go by the media, since even old media focuses obsessively on young entrepreneurs doing wild things on the Net from their dorm rooms.
Not so.
“…a new study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and researchers at Duke and Harvard universities reveals most U.S.-born technology and engineering company founders are middle-aged, well-educated, and hold degrees from a wide assortment of universities.”
I found this information at Dobbs Code Talk where Jon Erickson’s great post highlights key points in the study (note that the focus is US-born founders of engineering and tech companies), the first two being that
- twice as many U.S.-born tech entrepreneurs start ventures in their 50s as do those in their early 20s.
- elite, highly ranked schools are over-represented in the ranks of these founders, and Ivy-League graduates achieve the greatest business success; however, 92 percent of U.S.-born founders graduate from other universities.
According to Vivek Wadhwa, the study’s lead researcher and a Wertheim fellow with the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University,
“While education clearly is an advantage for tech founders in the United States, experience also is a key factor.”
Click on over to read more and for a link to the actual report, you’ll find both interesting reading.
Do you think the media presents an accurate picture of entrepreneurs?
Your comments-priceless
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May 28th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I think the media paints a picture of what they want to feel; not what’s reality.
They want to feel that it’s possible for every college kid to start-up a company that is valued in the billions before it’s 5th anniversary.
However, we all know every company can’t do that, but what makes a better story to sell? One “kid” strikes it rich or twenty 50 year olds open and sustain modest companies that put together might reach a value of $1 billion.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Hi Luke, thanks for visiting. I think you’re right, but the interesting thing is that in addition to those “modest” companies most of those that are funded by the venture community are still “older,” as in thirties, forties, fifties and up (yeah, up:)
May 30th, 2008 at 2:40 am
[...] their dorm rooms, sure, there are a few that make it big. But the great majority of companies are started by seasoned business people and the most successful have advanced [...]