Some people say that age is a relevant issue. But, often we hear that when individuals are younger, they have more chances for success. Society gives youth a positive and desired value. At the same time, the mature age pushes on the sideline. In the industry of startups the age doesn’t matter, but in contrast a good idea plays the leading role. We gathered together a group of ten young and experienced founders from successful companies.
Cher Wang – Co-Founder of HTC
Cher Wang had a long, successful career in IT before she decided to co-found in 1997 a company with Peter Chou. Then she was just shy of her 40th birthday. That company turned out to be HTC, the telecommunications giant that designs and manufactures mobile devices. Wang recently returned to help HTC recover from recent lackluster sales, taking over as head of sales and marketing. Currently, Forbes placed her on the list of 100 Power Women.
Mark Zuckerberg – Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg is one of the youngest billionaires in the world. In 2004 at an age of 28 Zuckerberg, a Harvard student launched Facebook, from his dorm room. At present, the company went public with more than 900 million users. It generates about $4 billion per year. Ipso facto, founder of Facebook is one of the richest people in the world.
Tory Burch – Founder of Tory Burch
Tory Burch started a fledgling clothing line when she was 38. In the meantime, she opened her first store in Manhattan’s NoLiTa neighborhood. Her shop became a full-fledged fashion house. Now, Tory Burch is more and more popular among fashion lovers. Her eponymous company operates more than 125 freestanding boutiques. More than 3,000 department and retail stores across the globe are selling her products.
Brian Chesky – Founder of Airbnb
Brian Chesky is only 29, but he runs the peer-to-peer apartment rental site Airbnb $1.2 billion worth. In 2008, at age 28 Chesky with his two co-founders Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk, launched Airbnb. It made a splash at Y Combinator Demo Day and later became the program’s first billion-dollar company.
Reid Hoffman – Co-Founder of LinkedIn
Reid Hoffman is an experienced entrepreneur. First, he established his position in the business industry, and later he hit the professional jackpot. In 2003, at the age of 36, Hoffman launched LinkedIn – the professional social network he co-founded that got its start in his living room. Now the company is worth an estimated $4 billion. Hoffman still serves as president of LinkedIn, which counts some 6,000 employees and more than 330 million members among its ranks.
Andrew Mason – Founder of Groupon
Andrew Mason in his thirties founded Groupon from The Point, a failed startup. In two years he grew it into a massive couponing business that Google offered to buy for $6 billion. Mason didn’t accept this proposition. Instead, he took the company public. Last quarter it generated $559.3 million in revenue and $39.6 million in operating income.
Arianna Huffington – Founder of The Huffington Post
Arianna Huffington was 55 when she founded The Huffington Post, which has grown to become one of the 30 most trafficked websites in the U.S. The company decided to resign from print version and focused on digital media. This choice brought Huffington position of the most successful at cultivating a broad audience, driving millions of users to its affiliated sites. The strategy helped pave the way for a major acquisition, with AOL purchasing the web property in 2011 for $315 million.
David Karp – Founder of Tumblr
David Karp in his early twenties created Tumblr – a microblogging and social networking website. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Until now, Karp’s company has raised $125 million, and it employs more than 100 people, and it’s worth about $800 million. Tumblr is popular since it generates more than 15 billion monthly page views.
Evan Williams – Co-Founder of Twitter
Before Evan Williams co-founded Twitter, he had spent years working at other peoples’ companies, including Google. He left the technology giant in 2004, hoping to make it on his own. Success didn’t come as fast as Williams thought. Finally, in 2006, at the age of 34, he and a few friends came up the idea behind Twitter, the now-omnipresent social media network where he served as CEO before stepping down. He still made a killing on the company’s IPO, but he has a net worth of $2.5 billion.
Kevin Systrom – Co-Founder of Instagram
In 2010 at the age of 27 Kevin Systrom with his 25-year-old co-founder Mike Krieger created Instagram. This social networking service for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone allows users to apply a filter to a photo and share it on the service or other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. Instagram is successful since it has already visited half a billion users. It seems that he defeated his rival Twitter.
Image Credits: Robert Scoble from Half Moon Bay, USA (Flickr), Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0 , Jason McELweenie, Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0, Alms1119, Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0, LeWEB12 (OFFICIAL LeWEB PHOTOS), Wikipedia Commons CC BY 2.0, Joi Ito, Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0 , Aaron Fulkerson, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 , Photograph taken on September 11, 2003 by Minesweeper and released under terms, Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-SA-3.0 , Marco Arment, Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0, Joi, Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0, TechCrunch, Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0
