How you stack up
Put in your age. We show what well-known founders had just done at about the same age, and the ones who started later than that. Many of the founders on our list were past 40.
How you stack up
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How it works
Each founder’s age is the year of the milestone − the year they were born. We do not store birth months, so an age can be a year out, and we say “about”. “About your age” means within one year of the age you enter. We also list up to six milestones reached at an older age than yours, youngest first. We never list the ones reached more than a year younger than you: this is for perspective, not a race.
The founder milestones we compare with
Sources checked on October 26, 2026. We are not affiliated with anyone named here or their companies, and none of them endorses this site.
| Who | Milestone | Year | Age | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phil Knight | Started Blue Ribbon Sports, the company that became Nike | 1964 | about 26 | www.referenceforbusiness.com |
| Fred Smith | Founded Federal Express | 1971 | about 27 | www.encyclopedia.com |
| Jeff Bezos | Opened Amazon.com to the public | 1995 | about 31 | www.biography.com |
| Jack Ma | Co-founded Alibaba with 18 others, working out of an apartment | 1999 | about 35 | abc17news.com |
| Madam C. J. Walker | Moved to Denver to launch her own hair care business | 1905 | about 38 | www.biography.com |
| Estée Lauder | Formed Estée Lauder Cosmetics, after years of selling her products herself | 1946 | about 38 | www.biography.com |
| Henry Ford | Founded the Ford Motor Company | 1903 | about 40 | www.history.com |
| Robert Noyce | Co-founded Intel with Gordon Moore | 1968 | about 41 | invent.org |
| Sam Walton | Opened the first Walmart store, in Rogers, Arkansas | 1962 | about 44 | www.biography.com |
| Rose Blumkin | Opened the first Nebraska Furniture Mart, in Omaha | 1937 | about 44 | www.homefurnishingshalloffame.com |
| Mary Kay Ash | Started her own cosmetics company, Mary Kay | 1963 | about 45 | www.biography.com |
| Momofuku Ando | Put Chicken Ramen, the first instant ramen, on sale | 1958 | about 48 | www.nippon.com |
| Ray Kroc | Founded the company that became McDonald's Corporation | 1955 | about 53 | www.biography.com |
| Arianna Huffington | Started The Huffington Post | 2005 | about 55 | www.biography.com |
| Harland Sanders | Started franchising his Kentucky Fried Chicken | 1952 | about 62 | www.biography.com |