Silicon Valley adores its wunderkinds. It’s easy to look at the Mark Zuckerbergs and Jack Dorseys of the world and assume that youth is a necessity, or at least a major benefit, when starting a business.
And yet, according the Kauffman Foundation’s annual Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, the rate of new businesses being started by entrepreneurs between 20 and 34 has actually been falling in recent years. Meanwhile, the number of businesses created by older entrepreneurs between the ages of 55 and 64 is rising drastically. In 1996, just 14.3 percent of new entrepreneurs were older than 55. By 2012, that number had risen to 23.4 percent.
