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age-bias

Families - not age - affects startups

on Fri, 02/22/2013 - 13:15

On February 17, 2013, Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe wrote an article Exploring the Age Divide in Boston Start-Ups. It infuritated me for two reasons: 1) It's probably true, but 2) for different reasons than Scott asserted.

Scott's premise is that start-ups are only the domain of young, 20-somethings. He concludes "older people" (over 30?) don't do startups because they:

  1. Moved to - and so work - in the 'burbs;
  2. Won't put in the hours required by a startup;
  3. Have atrophying skills (e.g. Java vs. RoR);
  4. Are less malleable and trainable;
  5. Have higher salary expectations than startups can supply;