Leveraging work on role theory and age stereotypes, we deploy a randomized experiment that uses AI to manipulate founder age in fundraising appeals. Broadly, we find that age perceptions matter to investors. Using 949 equity crowdfunding observations, we show that entrepreneurs benefit from appearing older when seeking funding. However, these benefits wane as age perceptions increase, and age perceptions eventually become detrimental to funding efforts, resulting in an inverted-U relationship between age perceptions and funding evaluations. Perceptions of founder intelligence, creativity, energy, and experience mediate this relationship. This study opens new frontiers by introducing founder age perceptions as an important, yet overlooked factor in entrepreneurial fundraising.

利用角色理论和年龄刻板印象的研究，我们部署了一项随机实验，利用人工智能在筹款呼吁中操纵创始人的年龄。总的来说，我们发现年龄观念对投资者很重要。通过对 949 项股权众筹的观察，我们发现企业家在寻求融资时因显得年龄较大而受益。然而，随着年龄认知的增加，这些好处会减弱，而年龄认知最终会对资助工作产生不利影响，导致年龄认知和资助评估之间出现倒U型关系。对创始人智力、创造力、精力和经验的看法调节了这种关系。这项研究开辟了新的领域，将创始人年龄认知作为创业融资中一个重要但被忽视的因素。