Age and Experience Matter

Remember as little kids, how we marveled at how smart our parents and grandparents were? Well, it appears that we were right. As the AON Invent team looks back at our first 10 years in business, we made a fascinating discovery. Above all else, age and experience matters, and not just a little. On average, a person in their 50s is 6-10 times more likely to invent a commercially viable product, than someone in their 20s or 30s, regardless of the education of either person. And this age-advantage continues to improve as we get older, unless disrupted by a debilitating mental state… and one last fascinating observation: The group with the best overall win-loss score are members of the 80+ crowd. Yes, that is absolutely true.

Note: These observations were made in reference to concepts for “hardline” consumer goods, excluding high-tech products and devices over a nine-year period.