The Profit Prophet

When most people think of start ups they think of a couple of young kids working in a garage or basement (or now Starbucks), eking out a living until they are purchased for billions of dollars, but this is more fiction than reality. As published in Time's March 14th, 2013 issue, according to research by Vivek Wadhwa, an academic and tech entrepreneur, and the Kauffman Foundation, the average age of successful start-up founders of start-ups and other high-growth industries was 40. And high-growth start-ups are almost twice as likely to be launched by people over 55 as by people 20 to 30. How can that be?  Well firstly, most startups take founders with multiple skill sets and know-how. Yes, dreaming is important, but execution is paramount to success. As an example of this, I thought I would share a story about an old dog and if you can draw the conclusion about age. A wealthy old lady decides to go on a safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles along ...

Once, I was asked to help an existing company recruit some sales help by their VP of Sales and Marketing. They needed someone who could grow a new software product they were developing, and who had both a technical expertise and business savvy about them. We had narrowed down the field to two people. One guy was in his forties, and had a 15-year track record of substantial sales and marketing experience and success. He actually was an electrical engineer, who during his career had migrated into sales and marketing. He understood the product perfectly, and both the VP and I felt that he would be an excellent fit. He was driven, self-assured, personable, and hungry. The other candidate had just graduated from a pretty prestigious MBA B-School program, but did not have any direct selling experience. He did know all the latest buzzwords and jargon, and was very knowledgeable on all the latest strategies in selling. I felt that while this guy was personable and knowledgeable, h...