The right age to start a company is late thirties or older

2022-10-06 original Startups

If you were hoping for the answer “There’s no such thing as a right age,” I’m sorry to disappoint. There is one. It’s “late thirties and beyond.” This is only a rough guideline, of course, not a claim like “Does 35 count?” or “Is 33 no good?” Again, this is a guideline pitched at a certain level of abstraction.

Why late thirties, roughly? It becomes clear once you imagine some of the difficulties you’ll run into after founding a company. Some people are lucky enough to avoid the difficulties listed below even after founding a company, and some can get through those crises with support from other members, officers, shareholders, and other stakeholders. So understand this as being strictly about the case where you have to get through it on your own.

【Difficulty 1】You need to find people with expertise

When you found a company, the odds that the initial members are versed in everything the business needs are quite low. That inevitably leaves gaps. For things like “I don’t know the ropes so I’m inefficient” or “someone could explain this and it would all get sorted out, but nobody knows how,” the fastest path is simply to grab an expert in that area and get their help. But that expert probably has specialized experience and knowledge, and isn’t someone you can easily reach — you may not even know where to look, right? Someone who has already been through a full cycle of business experience in some domain naturally has connections, and also knows how to build connections in domains where they have none. For someone who knows how to find things out, not knowing something is practically the same as knowing it.

【Difficulty 2】Every kind of shark and every kind of nobody will come swarming in

Once the business starts moving to some degree, or once news of a funding round gets out, you’ll suddenly find yourself surrounded. “How about this collaboration,” “why not try our product,” “what’s the plan for the next funding round,” “are you going after grants, are you borrowing money” — on and on. These people are seasoned operators who’ve seen it all. You’ll need to make judgment calls as you go: what are their aims, their strengths, their weaknesses, who’s dangerous enough to cut off, who you should keep at arm’s length. Choosing partners who will also become stakeholders is especially hard to explain through logic alone. The criteria for screening people out can be explained fairly logically, I think, but the final either-or choice comes down to something extremely close to intuition. Someone who has already made that either-or choice several times, failing and succeeding, knows from experience that their intuition sharpens with each round.

【Difficulty 3】Just focus on the business, all of you

As the organization takes shape, there will inevitably be moments when everyone’s out of step. This is when leadership gets tested. That said, is leadership innate or a skill? I think it’s a skill. People with charismatic leadership deserve respect, but most people can’t attain it, so give up on that path. If skill means technique, then it’s something you need to study and acquire properly. You also need to try it out in practice and get feedback. Skill is built by repeating that process several times. The leadership required also differs depending on the situation. Which means you need to acquire multiple skills, not just one. Does a company run just because you have technology, funding, and a vision? That’s an illusion. Unless you handle the endless stream of trivial, tedious matters day by day with the right skills, you can’t drive the car that is a startup. Leave that part on autopilot and you’re sure to get burned.

The list could go on forever, but as these examples show, what I really mean by “late thirties” is “the experience of having gone through one full cycle.” That comes packaged with the failures you’ve already made and a personal toolkit already built up to some degree. Founding a company is an extremely exhausting activity. I genuinely respect people who can keep learning flexibly while doing it. But for most people, isn’t it more like a final reckoning where you throw in everything you’ve got? This is especially true in a society like Japan’s, which has little tolerance for failure. Given that, the more cards you’re holding, the better. But as I said, it’s an extremely exhausting undertaking. So naturally, the younger you can do it, the better, as far as that goes.

So if I had to pick the age range that best balances both sides, I’d say “late thirties.”

The content of this post is an excerpt (original text) from the following book. If you’re interested, please get a copy.

The Shape of a Happy IoT Startup

Originally published in Japanese at https://clazytech.com/2022/10/1258/. Translated with LLM assistance and reviewed before publication.