https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-succes...
I think the public debate is so skewed towards young founders because it is so centered around extreme outlier founders and companies.
If you insist on proceeding... Validate demand first; once you find something you're sure people want, you know a great deal about these people and enjoy working with them. You're sure you can find lots of them, and you find the core problem you're working on fun and interesting.
My dad told me... "A successful business is when you can do something badly and people will still pay you for it." That's key in a startup because it takes a long time and a lot of money to do most things well, so you need customers who will settle for ok.
Good luck!
I also think that the question you are asking is maybe best answered by someone with a Sales or Product background... tho I could be convinced otherwise.
-Do you have an idea?
-Can you describe the customer?
-Can you find example customers?
-Can you sell this without a demo or prototype?
-If not, which one do you need?
-Can you self-produce said demo or prototype?
-If not, can you source the talent?
-If not, yer f*cked! jk jk
Im pushing you toward validating your idea and your passion to do it! But, don't fret- here is my experiential advice:
-Form your own LLC, protect yourself.
-Dont skimp or cut corners on legal!
-Dont focus on only single solution at first, try to map your strengths and passions to a problem. That problem to a custom group.
-Goals! Just be real, set some simple quarterly/yearly goals and measure them! Seriously.
I have not personally produced a windfall startup, but I have built/consulted for many, and many founders directly... and I run my own consultancy for 20 years now. It can simply be boiled down to, Passion, Problem, Customer. You lack any 1 of the 3, it wont play out nicely.
So I thought I'd get a job at a big corp, see if I can learn how business works, save up some money, and then start a company. That's exactly what I did, but it was a big mistake.
There's no better (other?) way to learn than to do. And you learn about a hundred times more and faster if it's your business versus a job, no matter how high-powered.
I should've started before I even left high school and simply failed many times. All's well that ends well though!
You have to ask yourself, do you care about creating something, or do you just want to be your own boss? If you want to create things, create things and think about capitalizing afterwards (or maybe not at all, depending) when you find that people are asking for something like the thing you created. If you want to be your own boss, just get into white labeling/arbitrage/reselling/etc, there are a lot of side hustle guides out there that will get you profitable a lot faster than trying to start a business with your own original idea.
For instance I now have a family, and starting a business would either take me away from family time, involve nights and weekends work, or involve quitting my day job (of which the bar is now very high).
If you find the answer, let me know!
2. When the failure of the business will not ruin your life (and, very importantly, your family/dependents lives)
3. When you feel there are enough advantageous circumstances (like first-mover advantage, or you are lucky enough to be part of a skilled group that is like-minded, or you simply are extremely motivated not to work for an employer anymore)
These are just my honest observations, ymmv.
Some people are more risk-averse, so they will want more pre-conditions, some people are okay with just 1 of the above, etc.
The thing is, I have businesses that just made obvious sense. They aren’t in the glorious technology sphere, and I’m not trying to grow them aggressively. They were all formed based on a need I had, usually because having a business that did “X” was cheaper than paying one to do it. Now, collectively they make me very comfortable.
In my experience it’s not about “big” or exciting decisions to create a business, it is about efficiency with money and time.
You can't succeed if you don't have those and if you do you'd just go for it because the impetus is there. Everything else becomes secondary. It's the same as trying to time the stock market.
The only advice I have is if you take this route, you need to be able to put your project aside and prioritize the "keep the lights on" income at times. If you can be at peace with setbacks that are out of control, it will set you up for success in other parts of business starting too.
I'm just going to keep cranking till I get there. Very close. It's a long game but when it comes together I will not be paying anybody else or splitting revenue with any other party. It's worth this in the end.
Having a sustainable day job is also KEY for this, it took me roughly 5yrs through burnout to get here since my last real significant job.
Expectations are the root of all evil. Make the best you can with the situation you are in today. Set yourself up for success tomorrow.
1) Are you primarily interested in finding a way to extract revenue from people, or are you primarily interested helping people? If the former, please, don't. We have too many parasitic businesses already.
2) You either help people do what they are already doing better than they could do it previously, or you help people do something they want to do but couldn't do previously. If neither of those apply, please, don't. We have too many solutions in search of an acquisition already.
3) Do you want the tradeoffs? Starting a business sucks. Not starting a business sucks. Decide which problems you're willing to have. If you aren't willing to have these problems, again, please, don't. For your sake.
But, if you do want to help people, you know how you'll help them, and this sucks less for you, then get going already.
You should always start a business. The way these things work, is that you need a unique set of lenses to align in order to make it work. And they are mostly out of your control.
The two biggest ones that you do control are : your interests and the market you are targeting.
You got to take your interests and building something in a growing market over and over again and eventually you will hit something which takes off.
And take off = 100s of new signups everyday. Paying you $99 / month or more. You can go from 0 to $10,000 MRR and then from that another 30 40x in days and months once you find product market fit.
Whole thing failed miserably but I learned a ton. Well worthwhile use of time to get that hard earned knowledge. Someone I met along the way offered to hire me and I’ve grown much more in my new role than the previous would have allowed.
So I may be biased here but I think trying with a bad idea is better than not trying at all. It ended up feeling like a “you make your own luck” scenario.
"A man holding a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way" -Mark Twain
You need to grab that tail and learn things you will not otherwise.
From that it follows that the answer to your question is: As early as possible.
This also means you probably should not make your first experiences the most grandiose ideas. You might actually want to assume failure. Don't assume you know anything about business at all. Jump in. Make mistakes. Learn. If you get lucky, great. If your experience is +/- on standard deviation from the mean, you'll come out of the experience all cut-up and bloody (image: holding cat by tail). And you will also come out with tons of wisdom. That's why you don't bet the farm on your first attempts. You are far more likely to fail. Don't worry. Keep going. Make small bets. Don't risk it all in one hand. Make small bets and learn.
Definitely self-fund. Don't play with someone else's money. I know this is very much counter to the YC/SV culture of funding young teams with and idea and zero business experience. So be it. Around 90% of startups fail. YC does a bit better than that. I think I can say that failure is far more probable than success. So, fail small and fail a bunch of times.
Every try to learn to play a musical instrument? You can't learn without constantly making mistakes. In fact, neuroscience tells us that learning requires making mistakes. Why should business be any different?
Can you start something with a few hundred dollars? If you fail, so be it. You will learn invaluable lessons.
The challenge from The Wolf of Wall Street, "Sell me this pen", is extremely important. You have to understand how to sell. If you don't, and your competition does, you are never going to succeed.
At the end of the day, making a better mousetrap isn't enough. In fact, making the same mousetrap is just fine if you are good at selling. I know a guy who decided to sell US flags. He didn't make anything. He bought them from a manufacturer and focused on selling. He was soon making over three million dollars per year.
Sell me this pen.
Now a specific product or service may be much more impacted by the market it will be in, so that requires forethought.
And a business can be "a job" or it can be an entity one plans to eventually sell, with or without others being part of it (partners, employees, etc.).
Financing has also changed quite a bit, my ventures have been frugal, so that is my experience.
If you want to get on the money train or want to be impressive, your insecurity might be motivating you and that’s not a powerful place to create a contribution.
If you want to build a cool product that you want but doesn’t exist, commit and start building now. If you don’t have the skills to build, go learn them.
Keep in mind, at least in the US a "business" is nothing more than a legal and tax entity. Lotta people talking immediately about "your startup will fail!". A "startup" is only one of many ways to do business, and more and more often I find it a smoke and mirrors way of doing things.
While I have a fair few qualms about such an idea, I think the 'now not how' approach is correct. We don't learn how to swim without getting wet, after all.
People often have it backwards, thinking they'll start a business, THEN get customers. That is often wrong.
I'm wondering if it makes sense to think about your goals here. Why are you even thinking about starting a business? Are you trying to make money? To really serve people? Because it's a fun challenge? Because you want financial freedom? Because you see an opportunity? Because you've been told you should or want the status of someone who has "made it"? What's in your heart?
What were the reasons (that you see), why you should not have started those businesses?