Den,
That’s right, those would be the more celebrated ones… but older people still start startups. In the Founders at Work book, most of them had their successful startup when they had some experience under their belt.

On the other hand, Paul Graham is kids fresh out of school to go for his Y Combinator.

I just remembered – I met a Pinoy from Google when I was in California last year, and he gave me a Google shirt. So at least we know there is at least one countryman over there!

Gabby,
Cool story!
Hope other folks can share their experience of startup vs established company. Welcome back to blogging!

This is just offhand observation, but I think Pinoys abroad may tend to go for the “sure thing” with stable pay instead of the eat-your-noodles-while-waiting-to-get-rich option with startups.

A friend of mine’s favorite story is about her tita that was approached by her ex-classmate in the late 70’s, who had recently dropped out to start a company. She said, “Why should I go with this college dropout?” Well, that man was Bill G., and the rest is history.

(BTW, I can’t independently verify this story, but it’s a good friend’s relative who told the story.)

I should make a separate post about entrepreneurship.

Until then, thanks to a PinoyJUG colleague, I found this: Why to Not Not Start a Startup.

身为第一批进入Google的工程师，沈修平说，要进入Google 最重要是看能力，看你以前做过什么？未来还可以做什么？‘什么都没有，才会看学历’。

沈修平在进入Google前，正经历人生创业失败后的低潮期，进入Google后，发现身边很多跟他一样是‘高能力的失败者’。因为这些能力强，但创业的心已死的‘失败者’（loser），发现创业这条路不通，就会死心榻地的为Google效命，在工程领域成为赢家（winner）。

另一位资深工程师翟本乔举例，在Google办公室内，有一位同事的诺基亚手机，发生一点故障，因此广发信件，征询诺基亚‘达人’；不久回信来了，‘我没有用诺基亚手机，但是那一款手机的作业系统是我写的，有什么问题吗？’回信的是一位高中没毕业的英国籍女工程师。

翟本乔说，很多人有很好的实力，但是不会考试，所以Google没有很重视学历；他在总部的办公室旁，有一位听障工程师，还有一位是视障的工程师，只要能开发好的产品，这些都不是问题，公司甚至发展出很好的无障碍空间与设备。