Hold On There, Youngsters
Posted by: Mark Marich
on
June 06, 2011
A recent TechCrunch blog post by Adeo Ressi, the 39-year old founder of The Founder Institute, takes a poke at an earlier argument that entrepreneurs peak around the age of 25. In order to prove the point, the Founder Institute -- a global network of startups and mentors that helps entrepreneurs launch meaningful and enduring technology companies -- "conducted a battery of proprietary personality and aptitude tests on over 3,000 applicants worldwide, and then carefully tracked the progress of our nearly 1,000 enrolled founders and 350 graduates."
What did the study show? Similar to an earlier study the Kauffman Foundationn, Ressi's study demonstrates that "an older age is actually a better predictor of entrepreneurial success." Apart from age, other traits that correlated strongly to success: 'strong fluid intelligence' or the ability to quickly learn and apply that logic to solve problems; high openness and curiosity; and, moderate agreeableness to enable collaboration and perseverance.
