My hypothesis is that older founders will not be as likely to get involved in a startup that would have them doing everything themselves and working the kind of hours thus entailed.
I predict that marital / family status would have more to do with it than just raw age (allowing that age may somewhat correlate with being married / having children). That is, a single founder who is 39 is, as far as I can tell, not much different than a 25 year old founder. Being in that position myself, I can at least tell you that the "now or never" effect mentioned below is very motivational for us old farts. I know I work harder on Fogbeam Labs now than I would have when I was 25, and I'd be comfortable saying I work approximately as hard as most 19, 23, 27, 32 or whatever year old founders.
Now, if I were married with children at home, I probably would not be willing to put in those hours... in that regard, I kinda agree with your hypotheses.
I predict that marital / family status would have more to do with it than just raw age (allowing that age may somewhat correlate with being married / having children). That is, a single founder who is 39 is, as far as I can tell, not much different than a 25 year old founder. Being in that position myself, I can at least tell you that the "now or never" effect mentioned below is very motivational for us old farts. I know I work harder on Fogbeam Labs now than I would have when I was 25, and I'd be comfortable saying I work approximately as hard as most 19, 23, 27, 32 or whatever year old founders.
Now, if I were married with children at home, I probably would not be willing to put in those hours... in that regard, I kinda agree with your hypotheses.