This Forbes article highlights one of the common myths discussed last class: youth superiority in entrepreneurship. According to the article, a study funded by the Kauffmann Foundation in which 500 successful high growth founders were surveyed indicated that the typical successful founder was 40 years old. The author explains that entrepreneurs often identify different opportunities based on their unique prior knowledge. For example, managers may recognize the need for new software in their line of business, while a recent college graduate may not have the business exposure necessary to recognize that same opportunity. Valuable business ideas are often not something obvious or trendy like those pursued by recent college graduates. Another thing noted by this article is the growing trend among universities to provide entrepreneurial coursework and pitch competitions, and how that trend may be misleading millennials out of viable careers. As professor mentioned last class, it will be interesting to track the average age of entrepreneurs in the next decade as the baby boomers move into retirement age but continue to pursue business opportunities.
Excellent. I encourage everyone to hit the Kauffman Foundation website – they do amazing research and publish interesting and very accessible reports that you might well find it useful for your papers.