“I’m not here to back lemonade stands”: Steve Baxter on the best age to become an entrepreneur

When is the best time in your life to start a business or become an entrepreneur? It’s a long-running debate, with some thinking you should be as young and hungry and others thinking you should be older and more experienced.

While the correct answer is probably ‘whenever works best for you’, Queensland’s chief entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor Steve Baxter has provided his view via a newly released video on the investor’s brand spanking new YouTube channel.

Admitting his answer gets him in “a lot of trouble” (nothing unusual for the at times fiery Baxter), the renowned entrepreneur says he believes founders should start their entrepreneurial journey as young as they possibly can, but only once they’ve accumulated the appropriate skills and talents.

“I like my entrepreneurs young. When you’re young, you don’t have a partner, three kids and a mortgage. You can live at home with mum and dad, on the couch, eating ramen noodles,” he says.

“The other thing is, your brain hasn’t atrophied. I’m 47, I’m way too old for this stuff, but young people don’t know stuff’s impossible, they have no fear.” Read more

Dominic Powell - SmartCompany - 14 August 2018