Who's Your Typical Hi-Tech Entrepreneur?

Who's your average hi-tech entrepreneur? Not who you might think:

Contrary to the popular belief that tech entrepreneurs start their companies in their teens or early 20s, we found that the average and median age of founders was 39. Twice as many were older than 50 as were younger than 25. And there were twice as many over 60 as under 20 ... We found the vast majority (92%) of founders held bachelor's degrees, 31% held master's degrees, and 10% had completed PhDs. Nearly half of these degrees were in science-, technology-, engineering-, and mathematics-related disciplines. And one-third were in business, accounting, and finance ...

Almost every major U.S. university was represented in the ranks of company founders—including schools such as The University of Southern Mississippi and Akron University. Only 8% graduated from Ivy League schools. But that was significantly higher than their proportion of all graduates. In other words, you don't need to graduate from an elite university to become an entrepreneur, but graduates of Ivy League schools were more likely to become entrepreneurs than others ...

Founders holding MBA degrees established their companies the soonest compared to other advanced-degree holders—an average of 13 years after graduation. Master's-degree holders took 14.7 years and bachelor's degree holders took 16.7 years. Those with PhDs typically waited 21 years.

Hmmm... so based on my MBA, I should start a company in 2016. But based on my (expected) PhD, not until 2031 or 2032...

(HT Richard Florida)