When someone says that he will only fund or work with people in their 20s, run. He's looking for a young, inexperienced person who doesn't know his rights and of whom he can take advantage.
Where there is some truth in this is that a 30-year-old first-time entrepreneur usually cannot get terms from a VC that would merit leaving a more stable job. A person of that age with a decent career is unlikely to have much interest in the terms (participating preferred, easy to fire the founders, giving up a lot of board seats, low salary) available to a no-name first-time entrepreneur. If someone who is 35 is willing to take a 3x-liquidation preference and participating preferred, do you really want to fund him? Obviously no, because he either lacks decent options or doesn't understand business, neither of which is a good sign for someone of that age. On the other hand, there are plenty of 22-year-olds with a lot of talent but no sense of what they're worth or what rights they have.
Considering that it takes 7+ years to build a substantial, successful company, if you found a startup when you're 25 and take 7 years to exit, you WILL be > 30 when you're done and available to work on startup #2.
So by this "under 30 only" logic, you would never fund successful serial entrepreneurs. Great idea. :-/
Comments
When someone says that he will only fund or work with people in their 20s, run. He's looking for a young, inexperienced person who doesn't know his rights and of whom he can take advantage.
Where there is some truth in this is that a 30-year-old first-time entrepreneur usually cannot get terms from a VC that would merit leaving a more stable job. A person of that age with a decent career is unlikely to have much interest in the terms (participating preferred, easy to fire the founders, giving up a lot of board seats, low salary) available to a no-name first-time entrepreneur. If someone who is 35 is willing to take a 3x-liquidation preference and participating preferred, do you really want to fund him? Obviously no, because he either lacks decent options or doesn't understand business, neither of which is a good sign for someone of that age. On the other hand, there are plenty of 22-year-olds with a lot of talent but no sense of what they're worth or what rights they have.
Considering that it takes 7+ years to build a substantial, successful company, if you found a startup when you're 25 and take 7 years to exit, you WILL be > 30 when you're done and available to work on startup #2.
So by this "under 30 only" logic, you would never fund successful serial entrepreneurs. Great idea. :-/
Well said.