Experience – a Silicon Valley Opportunity

Why does Silicon Valley ignore people based on age?

Go into any creative industry (such as a startup or an advertising agency) and it is absolutely impossible to find anyone over the age of 40.  And yet, in many creative fields, older people completely dominate.

• Steve Jobs reinvented industries from age 21 thru 56 and the world would agree that he would still be surprising us with his creativity today if he was still with us at age 60

• Albert Einstein was working on the Manhattan project at age 61
• Thomas Edison filed for more than 200 patents between 60 to 73.
• Andy Bechtolsheim was the first investor in Google, age 54
• The average age of the five Best Director Oscar nominees is 62.
• The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to Jennifer Egan, age 50
• The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded to Bruce Norris, age 52
• The Noble Prize for Literature went to Tomas Transtromer age 83.
• The Emmy for Best Comedy went to Modern Family creators Christopher Lloyd, age 52 and Steven Levitan, age 50

And I am sure that NONE of these people would get an investment, or be hired by ANY company in Silicon Valley.  Dan Sheinman (the original investor in VMWare) is one of the only exceptions to the Silicon Valley bias.  He says “Older entrepreneurs are the mother of all undervalued opportunities.“