Ask HN: Too old for Y Combinator? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Too old for Y Combinator?

Seriously, who's the oldest co-founder in any Y Combinator company? I'm pretty sure we would be the oldest, should I be worried? ("Look out, here come the graybeards!!")

Old thread, here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=248811

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You certainly don't have anything to worry about. There is nothing age specific about YC.

I am pretty sure that I remember pg mentioning in a previous thread on this topic that there have been YC founders in their 40's and 50's.

The age range in our batch (w2010) was 18 to late 30's with the average probably being somewhere in the middle 20's.

My startup is made up of a 26, 28 and 63 year old and we are going to apply to YC Summer 2011.

The 63 year old is my father. He's pretty tech savvy and understands our target market very very well. On top of that he founded a company in the early 90s back when founding a company on someone else's dime was a much more challenging endeavor because of the amount of cash involved.

In this case, the tried and true hippie wisdom still applies: "Age is just a number, man." Older founders can be energetic and adventurous, and young founders can be mature. Based on your profile info, you guys seem pretty youthful.

Also, with the Yuri Milner funding injection to YC, there will likely be more "graybeards" in the future.

I'm pretty sure we would be the oldest

FWIW, I'm 37 (turn 38 in July) and I'm looking forward to possibly applying to YC in the future. So yeah, there are a few of us older guys out there still dreaming the startup dream. I wouldn't worry about the age thing if I were you. It's just a number.

Y Combinator does (or at least did in the past) ask for the founders' ages on their application, so it must be incorporated into their decision making process somehow (not saying negative or positive, but if it didn't matter, they wouldn't ask).

They probably want more impressive things if you're older -- if you're 18, it's impressive to have created a single site and sold it for a few thousand dollars, and have that be your biggest achievement. If you're 40, it's less so.

"There's always a first"

-- From the ancient and archaic TV show Kung Fu that I used to watch with my pet dinosaur and rotary phone.

PS: You did not state your age(s)/age range, at least not that I can find.

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