What relationship exists—or does not exist—between the age of founders or executives who have achieved an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the TSE Growth Market and their post-listing growth trajectory? The relationship between the age of entrepreneurs and executives and subsequent growth is undoubtedly a topic that many people are eager to understand.
For instance, among a young IT entrepreneur in their 30s and a more seasoned entrepreneur in their 50s or 60s who both list on the TSE Growth Market, which one—or perhaps both—is able to continue expanding business scale and Market Capitalization thereafter? Or is there no statistically meaningful difference between them?
Our firm, Ignite Capital Partners, operates "Lapis Lazuli," a TSE Growth Market stock analysis platform specializing in growth-listed equities. In this piece, we leverage the capabilities of Lapis Lazuli in conjunction with the generative AI "Claude Code" to explore this question in depth.
■ The Median Age of CEOs at the Time of TSE Growth Market Listing is "47" (Founder-Owners and Non-Owners Combined)
The date of birth of listed company officers is publicly disclosed and legally required in annual securities reports and IPO disclosure documents. Our TSE Growth Market-focused information platform, "Lapis Lazuli," has traced back to the disclosure documents filed at the time of each company's IPO to verify the Representative Director and President's date of birth, compiling a database of "CEO age at the time of listing." A key point is that this reflects the CEO's age at the time of listing—not their current age (at companies where a CEO change has occurred, these are two different individuals). A total of 411 companies for which primary source data could be confirmed constitute the analytical universe for this series.
TSE Growth Market CEOs: Median Age of 47
| CEO Age at Time of Listing | No. of Companies | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Age 39 or younger | 89 | 22% |
| Age 40–49 | 169 | 41% |
| Age 50–59 | 113 | 27% |
| Age 60 or older | 40 | 10% |
The median age is 47. The youngest was 24 and the oldest was 75. The highest-concentration age bracket is the 40s, accounting for a full 40% of the total. CEOs in their 20s and 30s represent only approximately 20%, while nearly 40% are aged 50 or older. There is a greater gap than one might expect between the popular image of "startups founded by young people" and the actual profile of the TSE Growth Market.
How, then, does this compare to founders' ages at the time of establishment? For 298 companies led by founder-owner CEOs (defined as CEOs holding 5% or more of shares), the median age at the time of company incorporation was 33. Founding a company around the age of 33 and reaching a listing roughly a decade or more later—this represents the most typical pathway to the TSE Growth Market. While the median CEO age at the time of listing was indeed 47, the fact that the median founding age for founder-owner CEOs is 33 suggests that one's 30s may well be the prime window for entrepreneurship.
The Notion That "Tech CEOs Are Younger" Is Not Supported by the Data
Let us now examine this by industry sector. A natural hypothesis would be that "IT and tech sectors have younger CEOs, while other industries skew older." The results were as follows.
| Industry Sector | No. of Companies | Median Age at Listing | Proportion Aged 39 or Younger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information & Communications Technology (ICT) | 184 | 46 | 26% |
| Services | 135 | 46 | 24% |
| Real Estate | 11 | 48 | 18% |
| Retail | 15 | 49 | 7% |
| Pharmaceuticals (Drug Discovery) | 18 | 55.5 | 0% |
※ Only sectors with 8 or more companies are displayed. Sector classifications follow the TSE 33-sector classification system.
Notably, the median age and proportion of younger CEOs in the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) sector were nearly identical to those in the Services sector (ICT: 46 years old, 26% vs. Services: 46 years old, 24%). The prevailing notion that "tech skews young" does not hold, at least with respect to listed CEOs on the TSE Growth Market.
In stark contrast, the clear outlier is pharmaceuticals—specifically, drug discovery biotech. The median CEO age at listing is 55.5, the highest of any sector, and not a single one of the 18 companies had a CEO aged 39 or younger. This is a natural outcome when one considers the typical career trajectory: earning a doctorate, building expertise as a researcher or within a pharmaceutical company, and then founding a venture on the basis of that specialization. It is clear that there are sectors where "experience and exceptional domain expertise" matter far more than youth.
The Data Show No Such Thing as "Too Late to Start a Business"
There is another important finding that emerges from this distribution data. Among the 298 founder-owner CEO companies, there was virtually no relationship between the age at which the founder started the business and subsequent revenue growth rates.
| Age at Time of Founding | No. of Companies | Revenue Growth Rate (Annualized, Median) |
|---|---|---|
| Founded at age 29 or younger | 103 | +18.0% |
| Founded in their 30s | 126 | +16.4% |
| Founded in their 40s | 51 | +18.7% |
| Founded at age 50 or older | 18 | +10.8% |
The growth rates of companies founded in one's 20s and those founded in one's 40s are nearly equivalent—if anything, companies founded in one's 40s show marginally higher growth (while the figure is somewhat lower for those founded at age 50 or older, the sample size of 18 companies is too small to draw definitive conclusions). At least among companies that have reached a listing, the data support the notion that "it is never too late to start a business."
And yet—while "age at founding" appears unrelated to growth, a markedly different picture emerges when "the CEO's age at the time of listing" is examined against subsequent growth. In our next installment, we will analyze the relationship between a founder's age at the time of listing and subsequent growth performance.
Source: Data from the IPO and TSE Growth Market analysis service "Lapis Lazuli" (as of July 2026). CEO age at the time of listing is calculated from the date of birth recorded in the "Director Profiles" section of IPO disclosure documents or annual securities reports filed within 24 months of listing (covering 411 companies for which primary source data could be confirmed; some companies listed in 2016 or earlier are excluded due to document retention period constraints). Age at founding for founder-owner CEOs is calculated from the year of company incorporation and year of birth. Revenue growth rate is the annualized figure from the earliest full-year actuals on record to the most recent full-year actuals in our database. Figures are based on each company's disclosed materials but accuracy is not guaranteed.
※ This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any specific securities.
