The right age to start a business?

At Elephant’s Child we use the psychological framework of the Head, Heart  and the Hand  to explain how we create value:

•    Head: Logical, strategic decision-making
•    Heart: Passion, purpose, and emotional drive
•    Hand: The practical steps to make it happen.

In our experience, 20-year-olds predominately lead with their heart, while  50-year-olds rely more on their heads.

In your 20s the “Mission” is all about becoming someone, the climb, the challenge. In your 50s it’s more about legacy – building a culture,  or even leaving something that outlives the founder.

Whatever your age, my advice is to create a plan and have a clear definition of “exit” as part of that plan. When I launched my last business in my 40s, I decided to sell to the trade right at the beginning. Everything we did from that point was shaped by this decision; a guiding light if you like. I am proud to see the business still thriving and growing in my 60s, having sold it in my 50s.

How age shapes entrepreneurship

As we age, our mindset doesn’t fundamentally change, we are still the same person in our 50s as we were in our 20s. But we are tempered by our own experience. This temperance can be broken down into seven business-related steps:

1. The vision

20-year-old founder: The mission is fluid, expansive and exploratory. They’re trying to find their market, their model, their edge, and sometimes themselves. The excitement is in the unknown. “Let’s break something and see what happens.” This is the heart ruling the head. 

50-year-old founder: The mission is distilled. They’ve already seen what works and what doesn’t. The excitement comes from clarity. They tend to have a specific problem they must solve, often born of personal or professional pain. “I’ve seen this gap for 20 years, now I’m fixing it.”. This is the head ruling the heart.

In reality, both have decisions made with their heart and their head, but the balance changes over time. 

2. Strategy

20-year-old: Thinks in terms of scaling fast, market share, virality, funding rounds. Their time horizon is long, so they optimise their time for learning, exposure, and opportunity.

50-year-old: Thinks in terms of leverage, relationships, capital, expertise and reputation. They compress time by using accumulated wisdom and networks to skip steps. That is not to suggest that 50-year-olds do not create scalable businesses, they just tend to be related to a defined niche and tightly defined problem. 

Both age groups need a plan that delivers their strategy. Too many businesses do not have a documented plan yet in early-stage or SME deals, the valuation uplift from having a clear, credible plan can range between 25% and 100% depending on stage and sector.

3. Motivation

20-year-old: Often driven by proving value to investors, peers, the world. Success validates a young entrepreneur's identity and they can be hyper critical of themselves and others in the team. Chaos often rules. We have supported a start-up who has raised £3 million+ funding from high net worths to create a sustainable runway. Recently we managed to support their Series A to lengthen the runway into profitability.

50-year-old: Already has life experience and its imperfections, so they are driven by expressing value, turning accumulated skill and insight into something meaningful. Success confirms purpose. We are currently supporting a significant ‘buy and build’ strategy with a VC / trade investor backing the experience of the new team. This is a £100 million+ strategy. 

At 20, the goal is to arrive.
At 50, the goal is to have a purpose and make a difference.

4. Risk appetite

20-year-old: Youth is willing to burn down the old system. Their risk tolerance comes from limited attachment to anything, fewer dependents, obligations, or sunk costs.

50-year-old: An older entrepreneur is naturally risk-aware but still bold. The difference is pattern recognition: they’ve seen something similar before and what failure costs, so they design for resilience and plan for options in the case of failure.

The 20-year-old gambles for greatness.
The 50-year-old invests in legacy.

5. Learning style

20-year-old: Youth consumes ideas fast, podcasts, mentors, accelerators. They have high mental flexibility but are equally prone to overload and burn out.

50-year-old: Experience filters ideas fast, rejects stupid ideas using decades of pattern-matching, this means they can instantly spot what’s fluff and what’s gold. 

The youthful founder learns through trial.
The experienced founder learns through context.

6. Leadership

20-year-old: Inspires the people around them through energy and audacity, people follow their belief before their track record. Great leaders can sell a vision and how to get there. The start-up is run by someone who has lots of energy and passion and is prepared to listen. 

50-year-old: Inspires through gravitas and calm, people follow their steadiness and earned wisdom, they use more logic and facts to support their vision. The  ‘buy and build’ has a highly experienced team with real pedigree and, most importantly, high calibre leadership.

Early leadership thrives on momentum. 
Later leadership thrives on trust.

7. Failure processing

20-year-old: Failure feels existential, “I failed; therefore I am a failure”. Young entrepreneurs can also move on quickly to another equally enthralling project and take people with them.

50-year-old: Failure feels diagnostic  “That didn’t work. What’s the variable?”

The difference is psychological distance: older entrepreneurs have more narrative and experience to explain their actions; they can absorb a hit without shattering self-confidence. 

Need support with your business?

The challenges and approach to starting a business vary with age, but if you are in start-up mode, however old you are, it’s never too early to be thinking about your exit. What will you need from your business to retire, start your next venture, or simply have the freedom to choose what comes next? Get in touch today.

We work in conjunction with an extensive network of external growth advisers and SME specialists, such as Elephants Child, who have been carefully selected by St. James's Place.  The services provided by these specialists are separate and distinct to the services carried out by St. James's Place and include advice on how to grow your business and prepare your business for sale and exit.

Where the opinions of third parties are offered, these may not necessarily reflect those of St. James's Place.