I think he answered your question. Burn rate. YC does not give out a lot of money, and older founders probably burn through it too quickly to be successful.
It's kind of like that betting strategy where you double your bet every time you lose. If you have an infinite amount of money, you will always make your money back. If you have a finite amount of money, well... you lose everything very quickly.
Similarly, older founders may do well, but not before the money runs out.
(I had a coworker who was talking about a friends startup. Millions of dollars worth of initial funding for a project that's very similar to something YC invested in. If your $3000 investment fails, it's not a big deal. If your $30,000,000 investment fails, you become very unhappy. Since most startups fail...)
We have had companies that have died quicker because they had high burn rates, but we haven't yet let this consideration affect our investment choices.
Is there some self-selection going on where founders that think they can do more with less go for YC instead of someone else? Do people of the "first, let's buy aeron chairs, then we can worry about deciding what to make" mentality even know that YC exists?
I think the main reason we get more applicants in their 20s is that the older people are, the more difficulty they have getting n cofounders to be free of obligations all at the same time.
I'm willing to bet that people who have the capability of making $30m rounds are far less emotional about failed investments than the people making $3k investments
It's kind of like that betting strategy where you double your bet every time you lose. If you have an infinite amount of money, you will always make your money back. If you have a finite amount of money, well... you lose everything very quickly.
Similarly, older founders may do well, but not before the money runs out.
(I had a coworker who was talking about a friends startup. Millions of dollars worth of initial funding for a project that's very similar to something YC invested in. If your $3000 investment fails, it's not a big deal. If your $30,000,000 investment fails, you become very unhappy. Since most startups fail...)