Am I young enough to start a business?

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1."The myth of entrepreneurship and age"

"In the world of entrepreneurship, miracles often happen: Bill Gates founded Microsoft at the age of 19, Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook at 19, Steve Jobs founded Apple at 21, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded the tech giant Google at the age of 25.

In these most celebrated business stories, the plot often follows a similar trajectory: brilliant young minds create great enterprises, drive progress in the world, influence people's lives, and then leave a significant mark on business history. This spectacular narrative of 'youthful heroes' always ignites the passions of onlookers and earns their applause.

It's precisely because of these examples that a widely accepted viewpoint persists and is passed down: 'Entrepreneurship is a game for the young.' It sounds plausible, considering that these extraordinary young individuals have changed the world in as little as three to five years or as long as ten to twenty years, either gracefully stepping aside, leaving behind an admired legacy like Larry Page, or persisting until they reach either glory or downfall, like Steve Jobs.

This is the most charming and captivating part of entrepreneurship stories, but it's not the whole story. When we broaden our scope of study and attempt to understand the full landscape of the venture capital world, we may come to different conclusions.

Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, transitioned from being a franchisee to an entrepreneur at the age of 44 and went on to become the world's top-ranked company on the Fortune 500 list for eight consecutive years. Henry Ford, who failed in entrepreneurship twice, embarked on his successful journey founding Ford Motor Company at the age of 40, reaching a peak market value of over $150 billion. Don Valentine, with a background in sales, established a venture capital department at Capital Group at the age of 40, later spinning it off to become one of the pioneers of the VC wave with Sequoia Capital. Jeff Huber, founder of Grail, a company we invested in at AMINO, started his company at the age of 49. Under his leadership, the company grew from zero to an $8 billion valuation in just five years and was ultimately acquired by Illumina.

Turning our attention to entrepreneurs in Asia, we find many similar examples: Robin Zeng founded CATL at the age of 43, now the world's leading lithium-ion battery company, ranking first in global installed power battery capacity for five consecutive years, breaking the established pattern of the lithium battery industry that had been developing for over 30 years. Guo Wensan started Conch Cement at the age of 42, making it an undisputed leader in the global cement industry. When Morris Chang founded TSMC, he was already 56 years old, yet this septuagenarian led TSMC to become the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer.

In these stories, success seems to have little to do with 'youth'."

"Entrepreneurial success is a rare event. Therefore, when we extrapolate from the few well-known cases to infer about the population, the results are often filled with personal biases and speculation, making them less convincing. In order to assess the validity of the viewpoint that 'young people are more successful in entrepreneurship,' institutions such as the Wharton School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Northwestern University conducted a joint study. The findings were completely different from the general speculation:

1. The average age of founders of all startups in the United States is 41.9 years old.

2. If focusing on startups in the technology sector, the average age of founders increases to 43.2 years old.

3. The average age of founders of the top 5% fastest-growing companies is 42.1 years old.

4. If focusing on the top 0.1% fastest-growing companies (1,700 companies), the average age of founders increases to 45 years old.

5. Among the sample of 4,000 companies where founders successfully exited, data analysis shows that the probability of successful exit increases with age before the age of 60.

6. The likelihood of successful exit for entrepreneurs at the age of 50 is approximately twice that of entrepreneurs at the age of 30.

In other words, although stories of early fame are repeatedly told, they remain a tiny minority. From a statistical perspective, we can naturally refute the claim of 'entrepreneurship is only for the young.' Experience, skills, vision, and resources, which accumulate over time, still form the most solid foundation for entrepreneurs on their journey.

   "So, what does 'entrepreneurship is a young person's game' mean?"

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2. "What is youth?"

Many people mistakenly equate the concept of "youth" with young age, which is overly simplistic.

As a seasoned venture capitalist, when I mention "youth," I consider not only age but also the four core traits that "youth" represents.

The first is excellent physical fitness and abundant energy. Entrepreneurship is a challenging journey, with demanding work and constant pressure challenging the physical and mental stamina of founders. Only those with excellent physical fitness can swiftly handle the myriad complexities of work, while only those brimming with energy can meet challenges head-on, turning pressure into motivation and pressing forward relentlessly.

In my interactions with entrepreneurs, I often pay attention to details beyond business logic, such as the founder's sleep habits. In my view, if a founder can fall asleep quickly and enjoy high-quality sleep, it can demonstrate their excellent stress resistance and ability to quickly recover energy to some extent. These two points are crucial for entrepreneurs in many situations. After all, even someone as strong as Elon Musk frequently woke up shouting in the midst of dreams during SpaceX's near-bankruptcy days. The immense pressure on entrepreneurs is evident.

The second is a youthful mindset and active thinking.

What is the mindset of youth? It's about refusing to give up, daring to dream and strive, challenging oneself, never turning back until one breaks through, and, most importantly, pursuing dreams. This is almost identical to the core of the entrepreneurial community. In the venture capital circle, there is a term called "passion," which has been mentioned by many repeatedly and often criticized as being overused. But in my opinion, behind "passion" lies the driving force for entrepreneurs to continue pursuing their dreams despite facing immense challenges. This is also the best interpretation of a "youthful mindset."

Dreams alone cannot make entrepreneurs successful, but entrepreneurs without dreams cannot go far either. Only by having a youthful mindset, maintaining the spirit of pursuing dreams, can entrepreneurs have the continuous drive to move forward. In the year Kobos was founded, one of my good friend had just turned 40. At the age of enlightenment, he talked tirelessly and passionately about the company's products. Such genuine passion and love are not bestowed by age itself. Under his leadership, Kobos achieved three strategic transformations from traditional vacuum cleaners to floor-cleaning robots, then to a complete line of home robots, and finally to the internationalization and internetization of robots. After more than 20 years of deep cultivation and development, Kobos floor-cleaning robots now account for 43.5% of online retail sales in the Chinese market and a staggering 86.6% of offline retail sales.

Active thinking, in my opinion, mainly manifests in individuals or teams being able to approach problems with flexible perspectives, not being constrained by experience and prejudices in analyzing problems and finding solutions, and being results-oriented in seeking the most reasonable and efficient solutions.

The third is keen insight and an open-minded attitude.

The business battlefield is full of twists and turns, constantly changing with new technologies, new competitors, and new demands emerging incessantly. Keen insight enables entrepreneurs to quickly understand market trends, grasp changes in market demand and industry competition, and respond and handle them in the fastest and most targeted manner. These constant crises can be transformed into motivation and opportunities for suitable entrepreneurs, enabling them to respond promptly, even becoming the moat for the company's own development.

Maintaining an open mind towards new things and new perspectives, maintaining a beginner's mindset, is also crucial. Regardless of past successes or failures, the most important aspect of entrepreneurship is to continuously absorb new perspectives, accept new things, and continually progress and grow in the process of exploring the unknown.

Lastly, it is essential to maintain the humility of youth and continue learning, just like a student. Always have a clear understanding of one's own shortcomings, and constantly strive to improve, to grow vigorously. Whether it's technical skills, operational abilities, or leadership skills, none of them are innate. At least for the vast majority of entrepreneurs, they are not. These abilities require a process of continuous experimentation, adjustment, and accumulation. Facing one's own shortcomings with equanimity and being willing to invest enough time and effort in growth are the greatest advantages of "youth."

The development of Web 2.0 has made content sharing and interaction efficiently accessible to almost all entrepreneurs. This means that aspiring entrepreneurs have almost endless channels and resources to gain further understanding of the professional knowledge they want to delve into. This is the gift that the times bestow upon entrepreneurs.

However, on the other hand, the vast amount of publicly available learning resources has also lowered the threshold for entry-level technology, directly resulting in intensified industry competition. In this situation, the ability to continue learning, progress rapidly, and grow becomes even more critical for entrepreneurs compared to the previous century.

Skills, mindset, and thinking are what we should interpret from the word "youth." And these have no direct correlation with age. In my opinion, anyone who can make achievements in these aspects is the best candidate for self-transformation and entrepreneurship.

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3. With the development of the times and the advancement of technology, the boundaries of human technological applications are rapidly expanding. Those who possess the "youthful traits" are the backbone of this pioneering journey. And it cannot be denied that since the birth of venture capital in the last century, we have observed a gradual increase in the number and proportion of successful young entrepreneurs.

On the one hand, young people today have access to far more resources during their youth than their counterparts in the last century; on the other hand, in many emerging industries and technological fields, young people, compared to older individuals, do not have as many disadvantages as in traditional industries.

These are all gifts from the era and science to entrepreneurs. They enable entrepreneurial and success opportunities to reach a wider range of people and provide a better environment for more miracles to happen. From this perspective, we are living in the best era for entrepreneurs.

Venture capital is an extraordinary industry that spans cycles to seek the future, and our team at AMINO, as practitioners of early-stage investment, is dedicated to finding the most extraordinary and youthful entrepreneurs.

If you are such a person, feel free to reach out to us. Let's sit down and chat about dreams, ideals, inspirations, and the possibilities and impossibilities of changing the world together.