Spin Master Founder's Startup Advice: Start in Your 20s

Ronnen Harary has a simple message for aspiring founders: stop waiting. The cofounder of Spin Master, the children's entertainment company behind Paw Patrol and Rubik's Cube, said the best time to start a business is your 20s, not your 30s.

His advice runs counter to the average age of entrepreneurs in the US, which he said tracks closer to the 30s. That was also the decade LinkedIn users picked as the best time to start a company in a Business Insider survey. Harary, speaking in a live Q&A, said starting earlier lets the benefits compound.

"I'm an advocate of starting a little bit earlier, and then letting all the energy and all the benefits of starting earlier compound," he said.

Part of the advantage is perceptual. In your 20s, "everybody's rooting for you," Harary said, and you are not yet seen as a threat. "When you're 25, no one sees you as competition," he said. "When you're 35, potentially, people see you as competition."

Harary, who recently authored "No Experience Necessary: Why Betting on Yourself in Your Twenties Is the Best Decision You'll Ever Make," recalled calling Alan Hassenfeld, the former CEO of Hasbro, when he was 25 and asking for advice. Hassenfeld was generous with his time and excited to have the founders enter the industry.

"He gave us a lot of help from a business perspective," Harary said.

Harary founded Spin Master with his business partners at 23, less than a year out of college and living with his mother. He said he couldn't have started the company in his 50s. A chapter in his book covers how it's easier to take chances when you know less. In your 20s, there's more willingness to make mistakes because there's more time to bounce back.

"As a result of being in your 20s, you have so much energy, you have so much drive, determination, and will to get things done," Harary said. "When you hit your middle age, it decreases."

Starting young doesn't mean skipping higher education. Harary was initially waitlisted by the University of Western Ontario, where he ultimately attended. At a young age, he was identified as having learning challenges, including dysgraphia, a learning disability that made writing by hand difficult.

Going to college was ultimately one of the greatest things that happened to him, he said, because it allowed him to learn more and strengthen his relationship with his future business partner, Anton Rabie, whom he met at summer camp. Rabie met their third cofounder, Ben Varadi, at the school as well.

"If I didn't make it to university, the business wouldn't have started," Harary said.

Spin Master generated over $2 billion in revenue last year. Its brands include Paw Patrol, Rubik's Cube, and Melissa & Doug.