Baby Boomers Ushering in Next Golden Age of Entrepreneurship

While the prevailing image of entrepreneurism may be the youthful innovator who becomes a billionaire before reaching the age of 30, new research suggests that Baby Boomers may just be the more prolific demographic of entrepreneurs.

In 2008, at the height of the entrepreneurial youth renaissance, Viviek Wadha, director of research at Duke’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization, released a breakthrough study showing the number of founders older than 50 was double the number of founders younger than 25, and the number of founders over age 60 was also twice the number of founders under 20. The average age of male founders was 40, and female founders' average age was 41. In fact, Wadhwa's research revealed that the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity had shifted to boomers in the 55-64 age group. That trend continued through 2009, according to a 2011 Kauffman Foundation study and Wadhwa says he expects the boom in boomer entrepreneurship to continue through 2012.

"We suspect the age of entrepreneurs is actually increasing," Wadhwa says. "When we did the study, it created a lot of controversy, because it went against the stereotypes in Silicon Valley. The perception here is that only the young can innovate and that any kid out of school can build a Facebook. People here believe it's all about youth, but we found that isn't the case."

Ageism in the entrepreneurial community is a fairly recent development. Wadhwa points out that Ben Franklin discovered electricity at 46 and invented bifocals after age 70, Sam Walton built Walmart in his mid-40s and Ray Kroc built McDonald's in his early 50s. Wadhwa finds it ironic Silicon Valley may scorn boomers, while its very icon of innovation, Steve Jobs, introduced the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone and iPad all after age 45.

Rather than the dominion of the young, innovation is a product of young minds, and the baby boom generation has that to spare according to Rieva Lesonsky, founder and CEO of GrowBiz Media and a member of the Huffington Post’s Small Business Board of Directors.

“When people become middle-aged, they have experience, knowledge, savings — they just have this fire in the belly to create something,” says Wadhwa.

"Boomers don't feel or act their chronological age. We have a lot of good years ahead of us, and we don't want to sit idly on the sidelines,” says Lesonsky.  "This era of entrepreneurship being embraced by the mature and the young is new territory.  Both age demographics have a lot to learn from and share with one another. If we do this right, we could be entering another 'golden age' of entrepreneurship, where smart, educated people embrace business ownership partly out of necessity, partly fueled by their dreams, and partly to grab control of their lives."

For more, see the story in the Huffington Post: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/09/boomers-who-start-businesses_n_...