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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

And 35 year olds don't apply because they don't want to spend 1-3 years making 30-40k/yr. It's not complicated.

When you think about it though, Plenty of 28-30 year olds take on $100K in debt and forfeit as much or more in lost wages to get an MBA. Through that lens YC and an angel round seems like a great deal relative to the network and opportunity you get.

Very few 35-40 year olds are going to give up 75% of their income for any reason.

Nobody's criticizing YC here though; we're all just making the obvious point that YC trends young because people with established careers in tech make a lot more money in a year than many YC participants will see in several.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you suggesting that older individuals are less willing to take financial risk? I agree with that, but where is your 30-40K number coming from?

Ramen-profitable wages.

I'm still not sure I follow your reasoning. Admission to YC does not guarantee ramen-profitably nor does it preclude the possibility of earning a lot more.

On the other hand, a majority of YC companies over the last year or two raise significant funding pretty quickly. A modest angel round can support a spouse/kids/mortgage lifestyle.

I used to be under the impression that one was obliged to take a low salary while employed by or founding an early-stage startup. Your seemingly sincere comment and an anecdote from a friend who was offered a quite competitive salary are starting to change my mind.

Just remember that 100K/yr is "low" to the guys giving you your $10M series A.

I can sum up your odds of pulling down a 10MM A round by saying "you are not going to get a 10MM A round".

I've worked at 3 consecutive startups that each had $10M+ series A rounds...

I'm sorry to have written something that could be misconstrued as saying "there are no startups that get 10MM A rounds", but I was actually making a more subtle point.

I'm really stupid... what was your point?

The general rule is that founders should pay themselves as little as possible. For some people, that's $30K, and for others, it's $100K. Just depends on where one is in life.

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