Demographics of entrepreneurship in the US.

A new study (see NBER paper) shows that successful American entrepreneurs are significantly older than anecdotal evidence tends to suggest.

Feb 1, 2012. MTR -- the average and median age of the founders of successful U.S. technology businesses (with real revenues) is 39. We found twice as many successful founders over 50 as under 25, and twice as many over 60 as under 20.

  

Kellogg School of Management economist Benjamin F. Jones looked at the backgrounds of Nobel Prize winners and other great inventors of the 20th century. He found that the average age at which they made their greatest innovations was 39. The largest mass of great advances -- 72 percent -- came in an inventor's 30s and 40s, and only 7 percent came before the age of 26.

Should we be spending more time and resources on post-college entrepreneurship education?

tags: education, innovation, problem, solution, technology