I happen to be familiar with the writer of the above comment and I would back him in a second; wait I already have and would do again. What Paul says is absolutely true. I believe the differences in our points is that when Paul (and most other mature entrepreneurs) start companies, the VCs are investing in Paul more than anything else. When a VC invests in a much younger entrepreneur, they are investing more in the idea and market than the people since odds are they will be brining in a CEO to run the company once it starts to get traction. That said, these are all generalities and there are numerous and notable exceptions. Furthermore, all VCs will say that they are investing in the people and team first, everything else is secondary. I believe they might even believe this but do not believe that their investment actions show otherwise. One other qualifier, everything I wrote is only applicable to early stage investments. As companies grow other factors come into play that, in my opinion, push the age issue down in importance.

Wesley Hein
Wesley [at] lifetwo [dot] com