#140: Why Midlife Is Peak Entrepreneurship Age with a "Geriatric Founder"
If you’ve ever wondered, “Is it too late for me to...” the answer’s NO—and The Uplifters is about to show you why. This space is for purpose-driven women who want to do big, brave things in the second half of their lives. I’m your host, Aransas Savas, and I’ve spent the last 20 years at the intersection of behavior change research and coaching.
This month, we’re spotlighting midlife founders. We kicked off with Rachel Giordano talking about becoming a creator in midlife. Last week, Tara Miko Ballentine shared what it takes to build mission-driven business Bright Littles. This week, we talk to Bake Me Healthy Founder, Kimberle Lau, about how to keep going when progress feels slow, how she evaluates whether to keep building or pivot, and learning to ask for help when you’re used to being the one who handles everything. Next week, you’ll meet Gita Vellanki, founder of Neeshi. Welcome to the Uplifters!
There’s this moment that happens in midlife, usually when we’re juggling more than we’ve ever juggled before, when our bodies tap us on the shoulder and say, “Hey, we need to talk.” For some of us, it’s a whisper. For others, it’s a shout. And occasionally, it becomes the catalyst for something we never saw coming: a complete reinvention.
Kimberle Lau didn’t plan to become a founder at 44. She had a thriving 20-year career in beauty. She was good at what she did, but then her body started sending signals she couldn’t ignore. First, pregnancy made her lactose and egg intolerant (yes, that’s a thing). Then, when doctors discovered she was high risk for breast cancer they advised eliminating soy from her diet.
Suddenly, the woman who’d spent decades helping others feel beautiful found herself struggling to find food that worked for her own body. And like so many resourceful women in midlife, she decided to figure out how to mange it herself. And then, like so many women on The Uplifters, she bagan to wonder how the solutions she created for her family might help others in similar situations.
At 44, an age when society suggests we should be settling into the safe and known, Kimberle decided to launch Bake Me Healthy, creating baking mixes with top-nine allergen-free and clean ingredients.
But how? Kimberle had never been a founder. She didn’t know anyone who had built a consumer packaged goods company, and she felt like she might just be too old for all of it.
“When I first started, I was like, oh gosh, can I do this? Aren’t like founders, like in their twenties, they were like straight outta college, working outta their garage. Like how many people in their forties, let alone moms or females are starting businesses?”
Then she she Googled it and discovered that the average founder age is 45. Forty-five. Not 25. Not fresh out of college. But midlife, with all the complexity, responsibility, and life experience that comes with it.
What the Research Says
Despite cultural narratives that glorify young tech bros working out of dorm rooms, data shows that founders in their 40s and 50s actually have higher success rates. Why? Because we bring decades of industry expertise, deeper networks, pattern recognition from lived experience, and, perhaps most importantly, a clearer sense of what problems actually need solving. The challenge isn’t our capability; it’s the limiting belief that we’re “too old” or that we missed our window.
5 Ways Kimberle Shows Us How to Build Our Courage Capital:
Reframe “risk-averse” as strategic — Kimberle calls herself risk-averse, which might seem contradictory for a founder. But she’s learned that being thoughtful about risk doesn’t mean avoiding it entirely. It means having a financial cushion, a supportive partner, and clear-eyed understanding of what you can afford to lose. We don’t have to be reckless to be brave.
Mine your professional expertise for personal solutions — Twenty years in beauty taught Kimberle to ask: “What’s the need state? What am I solving for?” When she couldn’t find allergen-free baking solutions that tasted good, she applied those same product development skills to a completely different industry.
Focus on the next three steps, not the entire staircase — An advisor told Kimberle: “You just need to know the destination and you just need to know the next three steps.” This gave her permission to stop trying to map out every detail five years from now (a classic type-A trap) and instead ask: “What are the next right things?” That question alone can unlock forward motion when perfectionism freezes us.
Let micro-wins be your compass — Instead of waiting for massive validation, Kimberle pays attention to “micro-wins”. They aren’t just nice moments; they’re data points that tell her whether to keep going.
Make self-care measurable and track it like revenue — Kimberle doesn’t just say “I should sleep more.” She tracks it like any other KPI. She takes care of her wellbeing with the same rigor as business metrics because she understands that every other measure of success depends on it.
Lift Her Up
Visit Join The Tryb to explore Kimberle’s allergen-free baking mixes and cookies. Use code uplifters20 for 20% off of your order! Follow @bakemehealthylove on Instagram to see what she’s creating and where you can find her products.
If you loved this story...
Start with Jenny Jing Zhu’s episode about building a $100M company after immigrating from a small village in China, then explore our conversations with women who turned personal health challenges into businesses: Konika Ray Wong’s episode (founder of Girl Power Science addressing puberty education), Sarah Krasley’s episode (transforming manufacturing education for women globally), and Kerry Brodie’s episode (founder of Emma’s Torch, training refugees in culinary arts).
What other midlife founders or creators do you love learning from?
Share in comments, so that we can follow and Uplift them too!