Ageism in the entrepreneurial community is a fairly recent development. Vivek Wadhwa points out that Ben Franklin discovered electricity at 46 and invented bifocals after age 70, Sam Walton built Walmart in his mid-40s and Ray Kroc built McDonald’s in his early 50s. Wadhwa finds it ironic Silicon Valley may scorn boomers, while its very icon of innovation, Steve Jobs, introduced the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone and iPad all after age 45. “When he was young, he got kicked out of Apple,” and some of his greatest innovations came “with age and maturity,” Wadhwa says.
