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I don't think this is a valid criticism. Most of the VC funded startups I'm aware of are founded by graduates of top US schools (Ivy or similar), where almost no one graduates with debt.

An alternative hypothesis that fits the data equally well is this:

As startups become more popular, the low hanging fruit is quickly picked over (social networks, mobile apps that require very little initial capital, etc.). Concurrently, startups have become more mainstream and seen as less risky (whether justified or not). As such, many "older" (by which I mean not in their 20s) people with narrow domain expertise have begun to start companies with the goal of addressing some narrow need that isn't addressable by the typical smart, CS-grad, startup founder with little to no real world experience outside of tech internships.

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> As startups become more popular, the low hanging fruit is quickly picked over (social networks, mobile apps that require very little initial capital, etc.). Concurrently, startups have become more mainstream and seen as less risky (whether justified or not). As such, many "older" (by which I mean not in their 20s) people with narrow domain expertise have begun to start companies with the goal of addressing some narrow need that isn't addressable by the typical smart, CS-grad, startup founder with little to know real world experience outside of tech internships.

Very much so. You are at an incredible advantage when you're worked in a market and then you go build your startup vs sitting in a chair whiteboarding what problems you could possibly solve.

> Most of the VC funded startups I'm aware of are founded by graduates of top US schools (Ivy or similar), where almost no one graduates with debt.

Not true. Although not bad, students typically graduate with $15k in debt. Families with income just above the aid cutoff point or with high assets but lower income tend to get hit hard; I know some individuals that are graduating with $50-100k in debt from undergrad at Ivies.

http://www.browndailyherald.com/2014/04/07/brunonians-highes...

> Most of the VC funded startups I'm aware of are founded by graduates of top US schools

I know plenty of folks that graduated with debt from top schools.

> graduating with $50-100k in debt from undergrad at Ivies.

Indeed.