I was rejected 33 times and built a $390 million company — at 48 years old. Age bias in tech is costing us all

I was 48 years old when I left my job and enrolled in the Entrepreneurial Studies program at Stanford.

Most people at that stage of their careers are trying to reduce risk, not introduce it. They have steady income. They have dependents. In tech, the unspoken assumption is that if you were going to take a big swing, you should have done it already. I decided to swing anyway.

For most of my career, I watched Silicon Valley celebrate a particular kind of ambition: the kind that belongs to the young.