The notion of the teenage and 20-something technology entrepreneur looms large. In reality, the most successful companies are more commonly founded by people in their 30s or older. Among start-ups valued at $1bn or more created over the past 15 years, the median age of the founders when starting their businesses was 34, according to research in a new book called “Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups”.

The finding offers new evidence that leaders with some experience bring advantages, said Ali Tamaseb, the author and a partner at the venture capital firm DCVC. “There are, indeed, many successful billion-dollar start-up founders in their early twenties,” Tamaseb wrote in the book, “but most of them aren’t.” His takeaway: age does not matter...

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