Research by Vivek Wadhwa, VP of academics and innovation at Singularity University, and his team found in a survey that the average and median age of the founders of successful U.S. technology businesses (with real revenues) is 39.

They found twice as many successful founders over 50 as under 25, and twice as many over 60 as under 20.

However, “understanding diverse technologies isn’t the domain of the young,” Wadhwa says.

“Though college dropouts may know all about social media, it is very unlikely that they understand the intricacies of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence as well as their elders do. These are complex technologies that require not only a strong education but also the ability to work across domains and collaborate with intellectual peers in different disciplines of science and engineering.”