Most of our sprinters are 40+, and age often shows up as friction.

Why is my CV not landing?
Am I too old to start a business?
Is moving countries still realistic at this stage?

These anxieties are grounded in hard reality: leadership layers are compressing, age bias is real, the optics of entrepreneurship skew young.

Across Europe, career transitions are structurally treated as a problem to manage. Yet high workforce participation and redeployment beyond 40 are the clearest levers we have for economic growth and sustainable welfare.

At Sunny Future, I see three consistent patterns among sprinters in their 40s and 50s:

– Portfolio/fractional careers replacing traditional employment
– Business creation or acquisition, often without VC theatre
– Living across countries, rather than just choosing one

I anchor that with my own story, having followed all those paths myself:

- career change in my 30s
- Uber at 40, surrounded by people 1-2 decades younger
- multiple relocations throughout my 40s
- my first investor-backed startup close to 50

It will become the new normal. If you’re navigating this phase, or thinking about it as a founder or HR leader, reach out.