Hacker News Reader

He never said the latter isn't an entrepreneur.

If ordinary company founders are not excluded, then distinguishing between startups and ordinary companies would not change the fact that most entrepreneurs are in their forties. If it's a distinction without a difference, why distinguish?

I'm not sure I understand you correctly, but he's saying that startup founders tend to be young, probably due to the risk profile of startups vs small businesses. Entrepreneurs as a whole (a much larger group) may well be in their forties on average, though.

Edit: Does anyone happen to know the success rate (for some definition of success) for restaurants?

According to this[1] Bloomberg article, failure rate is roughly 60%. Failure rate is defined as changing ownership within three years of founding.

Pretty low failure rate, compared to a startup.

[1] http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-04-16/the-restauran...

Funny that ownership change is usually considered a startup success.

You, are right; but there is ambiguity. 'Startup' is not never mentioned by the authors.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com