via Chamath on Startup Grind Oct 2015. Related tweetstorm.
When Chamath started his VC firm, they crunched a bunch of data on previous investment returns in venture capital (studied data 1985-present, all major exits not including current unicorns A and B rounds only. With later-stage investing, age less important (presumably since fundamentals matter much more as a company grows).
Of those exits that returned money to its investing partners, there was a strong correlation between age and returns.
Age of 36-47yo correlated with positively with returns.
If you add the modern unicorns back in (which presumably have not exited), lower bound goes down to 33-34yo.
Given correlation of venture returns with the age of the investor, it clear technology investment absolutely lends itself to youth. Fascinatingly this applies only to early-stage investments: small companies with much greater uncertainty.
My guess would be that network effects (being in the know on key technical areas) and risk aversion (which expands with age) both contribute to this phenomena.
Second major takeaway: diversity matters.
The greater consensus among the group of investors, the worse they did.
Third key: Define your values. Literally write them down.
It's difficult to build something when you don't know your true character. Has negative impact on hiring.
By writing down the core values, use them to evaluate the people your hire.
Basically hire the people who roughly agree with you, and share the same values, so the when the chips are down they won't run away.