Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship

Pierre Azoulay, Benjamin Jones, J. Daniel Kim and Javier Miranda

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: Many observers, and many investors, believe that young people are especially likely to produce the most successful new firms. We use administrative data at the U.S. Census Bureau to study the ages of founders of growth-oriented start-ups in the past decade. Our primary finding is that successful entrepreneurs are middle-aged, not young. The mean founder age for the 1 in 1,000 fastest growing new ventures is 45.0. The findings are broadly similar when considering high-technology sectors, entrepreneurial hubs, and successful firm exits. Prior experience in the specific industry predicts much greater rates of entrepreneurial success. These findings strongly reject common hypotheses that emphasize youth as a key trait of successful entrepreneurs.

Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2018-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-ent, nep-ino, nep-sbm and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2018/CES-WP-18-23.pdf First version, 2018 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship (2020)
Working Paper: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship (2018)
Working Paper: Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:18-23

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