Entrepreneurs: The Value Of Old People
by Miki SaxonWho does a company, with explosive growth, founded and built by old folks in their forties and fifties all with extensive executive management experience, turn to when moving to the next level?
The company hasn’t disclosed exact revenue figures, but it says it grew new annual recurring revenue by more than 50% in 2014, and claims more than 2,500 companies, including Coca Cola, Toyota, and AAA use its software. It’s raised $100 million in funding from investors like Salesforce, Norwest Venture Partners, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
The company is Adaptive Insights and the guy is Tom Bogan, an even older guy, with even more experience.
A guy who is (gasp) 63 years old.
Gasp, because according to a recent study, old people shouldn’t even go out in public.
When a large sample of Facebook groups created by 20- to 29-year-olds was examined by a team based at the Yale School of Public Health, three-quarters of the groups were found to denigrate old people. More than a third advocated banning old people from public activities like shopping.
Of course, one assumes that the ‘old people’ to which they refer aren’t their relatives.
(I’d like to hear them on the subject 10, 20, 30 and 40 years from now.)
There is enormous value in having ‘been there/done that’ through multiple economic cycles, cultural change, globalization and technology evolution/revolution.
But to take advantage of it you need to be comfortable enough in your own skin to admit you need to learn — like Mark Zukerberg and Larry Page.
Image credit: Adaptive Insights