This has got to make PG nervous. How many people's life is he affecting? :-)
He's definitely had an impact on my priorities in a very big and positive way. I hope everyone who makes changes based on his inspiration and motivation does it with a clear head and can take responsiblity for the decision and outcome.
Paul Graham has backpedaled from one of the initial goals of Y Combinator, funding companies with no lower-bound for the age of founders.
With the publication of this essay, http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html, he has backpedaled from that stance because of his personal moral culpability for encouraging people to become drop-outs. So if you are seeking Y Combinator funding and are a current undergraduate, tell Paul Graham that you are dropping out to start the company regardless of whether or not he funds you.
We never proposed there was no lower bound; the goal was more to discover where it was. And we now have, I think. Though in fact the main thing we discovered was how fuzzy it is.
There really are people who can start a startup when they're 19. Sam Altman, the founder of Loopt, was 19. But for most people the lower bound is about 22. One reason is that most people need to experience what a job is like to be sufficiently motivated to avoid it. Another is that few people are forceful enough at 19.
Have you discovered an upper bound? The commonly held belief is that people over X (where 30 < X 35?) can't start startups because they have kids and a mortgage, or they just aren't in-tune with what's hip. Curiously, that excludes people who have "been there and seen that", the best current example being AJAX. Also, those who have taken a few more trips around the Sun also may recognize niches that 19-25 years would never see. My impression is that Y-Combinator is an attractor for the younger entrepreneur.
Full disclosure: I'm in the range above, planning to start a company, and not trolling for Y-Combinator dollars.
Harder to say about the upper bound. The factors you mention may play a role, especially kids. I also think need for money is a factor. Most people who could make money have by 40, and once you have enough, you're less willing to endure the pain of starting a startup.
I couldn't agree with you more. It isn't until you really experience what it is like to work for someone else before you realize what it's like to work for someone else.
After 2 years of corporate work, I'm ready to step out on my own as a result of frustration with what other people want me to do. Sometimes it takes the mother bird to force the chick out of the nest before it learns to fly ....
