Entrepreneurs Who Did Not Succeed Till 30!

People do not have to start out young to become successful. While there are entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg who stuck to this philosophy, there are others who proved to us time and again that age is just a number. Here are some creators who tasted success only after 30!

1. Jack Dorsey: Twitter 

Most of us would like to believe Jack Dorsey has always been extremely sophisticated. However, up until his late 20s, he was quite different. Did you know he was a serious punk skater in his early days? The idea of Twitter came to him when he was 30 and the rest is history.

2. Ray Kroc: McDonald’s 

After selling milkshake machines to the Mcdonald brothers in CA, Ray Kroc persuaded the brothers to sell him a franchise of the business. He eventually went on to purchase it. Ray was 30 years old at the time.

3. Robert Noyce: Intel 

Robert Noyce graduated from MIT in the year 1953 and worked in various seminal ventures for a while after he graduated. He struck gold by starting Intel with Gordon Moore only in the year 1968, a good fifteen years after graduation.

4. Jan Koum: WhatsApp 

Did you know that before starting WhatsApp, one of the most widely used instant messaging service in the world, Jan Koum applied for a job at Facebook? He was rejected! After leaving school, he landed a gig at Yahoo where he met Brian Acton, his co founder. After nine years at Yahoo, Koum applied to work at Facebook and was famously rejected, which I find pretty hilarious.

5. Jack Ma: Alibaba 

Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, hasn’t written a single line of code in his life and didn’t use a computer till he was into his 30s. At 35, he founded Alibaba. Like Amazon, Alibaba didn’t make any profit in its first three years, but we know how the story ended.

6. Peter Theil: PayPal 

Peter Theil, one of the most successful tech entrepreneurs, almost went to law school! Before he founded PayPal, Theil was just another lawyer. Within seven months, he left and founded PayPal three years later. Four years later, eBay acquired PayPal for $ 1.5 billion. Now, PayPal’s net worth stands at roughly $ 50 million!

7. Henry Ford: Ford Motor Company 

Before starting Ford at the age of 40, Henry Ford’s perfectionism led to failure as he missed deadlines on making his prototypes. Before becoming the success he is today, Ford started two companies which went bankrupt right after they were founded. It was only after two rounds of failures that Ford finally succeeded!

8. Chaleo Yoovidhya: Red Bull 

Born into a poor family, Chaleo eventually moved to Bangkok to start his own company. It was only after he met Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz, that he decided to market his tonic drink, Red Bull, internationally. Now, this drink is one of the most popular drinks world over. He was over 60 years old at the time.