In spite of Silicon Valley’s apparent fixation on youth – see How Tech Investors are Failing on Due Diligence – a recent academic study has shown that older entrepreneurs are less likely to fail.
The study spanned 5 years and looked at founders in 5 different age groups by decade (20s – 30s – 40s – 50s – 60s).
Given that the study covers 5 years – about half of the people in their 40s would be in their 50s by the time the study ended.
Note that entrepreneurs in their 30s are marginally more likely to exit by way of M&A transaction than their older colleagues.