Analysis

April 19, 2022

What's it like being a startup founder over 40?

What it’s like when you start a company — and actually have a reputation to lose


Naomi Ackerman

8 min read

Aforza cofounder Dominic Dinardo

Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham once quipped that when it comes to first-time startup founders, “the cutoff [age] in investors’ heads is 32”. He was only partly joking: a perception endures that the best founders will be 19-year-old wunderkinds like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, or in their early 30s at the latest. 

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Algorithmiq CEO Sabrina Maniscalco
Algorithmiq CEO Sabrina Maniscalco
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Founder of Snoop Jayne Anne Gadhia
Founder of Snoop Jayne Anne Gadhia
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Naomi Ackerman

Naomi Ackerman is a freelance business journalist and tweets from @nomiackerman.

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