8 entrepreneurs over 60 who have started successful business stories

List of entrepreneurs over 60 with a winning spirit

Although many people, when they reach a certain age, think about retiring and starting a quiet and secluded life. However, a small part of them doesn’t share that opinion. They still have a winning spirit and think they are too young for retirement. We highlight 8 entrepreneurs over 60 who started successful businesses in honor of their steel will and spirit.

Jaswant Kular

Jaswant Kular, who is 60 years old, sought a way to meet a personal need. She wished to impart traditional Indian cooking knowledge to her daughters. Her experience led her to believe that none of the products were up to traditional Indian standards. Jaswant created her product called, Jaswant’s Kitchen Indian Spice Blends, due to her dissatisfaction with the artificial ingredients, including fillers, and too much fat.

In the beginning, her first clients were her relatives and family. But later, her business expanded exponentially, and now her products are sold in more than 100 stores after going online.  The company, which Jaswant and her three daughters own, is a prime illustration of the adage “necessity is the mother of ingenuity.”

Harland David Sanders

Nobody had Colonel Sanders in mind as a successful businessman when he first started. He doesn’t have an easy life, but he was stubborn, ready to fight, and not give up. 

He lost his father when he was a young child, often fought with his stepfather, and was sacked from several professions, including his position as a lawyer following a confrontation with his own client in court. But he was determined to keep trying, and it pays off in the end.

Sanders started a business in the neighborhood while working at a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky, because of his delicious chicken dish. Sanders had the Corbin station rebuilt as a motel and a 140-seat restaurant after it was destroyed by fire. Sanders initially franchised his “Kentucky Fried Chicken” in 1952, when he was 62. KFC now has 118 countries and over 18,800 locations with a net worth of 4.5 billion dollars.

Alexandra Dunhill

At 60, Alexandra Dunhill launched her female-focused health company Lady A. 

The company creates CBD-based goods that are made for women by women. When Dunhill first encountered CBD, she found that most goods didn’t explain the significance of CBD and that women and appropriate for female requirements produced few.

Dunhill set out to build a company that would overcome these constraints by producing goods that would maximize the health advantages of CBD for female consumers. 

The goal of Lady A is to promote the health advantages of plants and clean products, creating goods that promote CBD’s therapeutic properties and reduce stress. Lady A has so far secured £167.000 in equity money from a single funding round.

Carmen Hijosa

Carmen Hijosa, who had been looking for an eco-friendly replacement for leather since the 1990s, founded Ananas Anam in 2013 at the age of 60. Hijosa developed Piatex after being inspired by plant fibers in traditional weaving, such as in Barong Tagalog clothing. 

Ananas Anam was created while Hijosa finished his Ph.D. at the Royal College of Art and guided the business through the InnovationRCA incubator program. Ananas Anam has raised £3.05 million in investment through eight funding rounds and earned four grants totaling £276,000. Additionally, Hijosa has received recognition for her originality and ingenuity, and she has seminars at various events, including TEDx talks.

Lady Amanda Feilding

76-year-old Lady Amanda Feilding was one of the founders of Beckley Psytech when it was established in 2018. 5-MeO-DMT is a hallucinogenic substance that Beckley Psytech studies to turn into a treatment for mental health conditions like addiction and depression. Beckley Psytech has completed three finance rounds totaling £75 million to date. The business is dedicated to making patients’ lives better.

With more than 50 years of experience researching psychedelics, Feilding is confident that you can use current science to comprehend, validate, and maximize the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs. She started her own company, co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles, many of which had ground-breaking findings, and started the Beckley Foundation.

Lady Amanda Feilding

76-year-old Lady Amanda Feilding was one of the founders of Beckley Psytech when it was established in 2018. 5-MeO-DMT is a hallucinogenic substance that Beckley Psytech studies to turn into a treatment for mental health conditions like addiction and depression. Beckley Psytech has completed three finance rounds totaling £75 million to date. The business is dedicated to making patients’ lives better.

With more than 50 years of experience researching psychedelics, Feilding is confident that you can use current science to comprehend, validate, and maximize the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs. She started her own company, co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles, many of which had ground-breaking findings, and started the Beckley Foundation.

Charles Ranlett Flint

Although long deceased, Charles Ranlett Flint deserves to be on the list of entrepreneurs over 60. Before achieving his greatest success, Flint had already started several businesses in the shipping and wool industry.

At the age of 61, more specifically In 1911, Charles Flint combined four businesses to form the Computing Tabulating Recording Company. Later he changed its name to IBM in 1924. Flint also brokered the Wright Brothers’ first overseas aircraft sales. Up until his retirement in 1930, Flint was a member of the IBM board of directors. When comparing the ages of successful entrepreneurs at their founding, this is unquestionably on the higher end.

Jim Butenschoen

Jim Boutenshon is a lesser-known entrepreneur, but he deserves to be on the list because his story is quite inspiring. Jim spent 22 years in corporate sales and marketing. At 65 years of age, he no longer wanted to be in that sector. 

Jim Butenschoen didn’t give up even though he had to decide what industry to enter. After five years of research, he ultimately decided to purchase the Career Academy of Hair Design, a beauty school. A total of four schools have now been opened by Butenschoen, and the first two have been relocated to larger buildings to allow future development. Undoubtedly it’s about a beautiful business.

Mary Tennyson

Another inspiring story where the mother’s health problem was the main reason for the daughter’s business idea to grow into a valuable fashion business. 

At 63, Mary Tennyson created and began marketing stylish, stroller-friendly purses. Mary developed this company concept when her aging mother broke her hip in a fall. Due to the accident, Mary’s mother used a walker to go around. Still, she insisted on carrying her stylish bags even though none of them were walker-friendly.

Mary Tennyson decided to make her mother a bag, so she pulled out an old sewing machine. This marked the start of the StashAll bag collection and the rest is history.

Conclusion

Countless myths exist around entrepreneurship, such as the age limit, and what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. The people who made it to the list of entrepreneurs over 60 proved that age is just a number and that the entrepreneurial spirit never dies. You can establish a highly successful business at any age, whether you’re 12 or 70; it’s the vision and encouragement that drives you forward, not age. So, it’s time to discard age restrictions and prejudices about older entrepreneurs and give them space to develop their business ideas.