The European Social Enterprise Monitor (ESEM) is a biennial survey-based study on social enterprises (SEs) across Europe. This second ESEM thematic report explores the 2023-2024 ESEM data, collected from 1807 SEs across 30 European countries,1 from the perspective of current (2024) founder age, and seeks to illustrate the particular experiences and perspectives of ESEM SEs with either young (<35) or more senior (55-64 and 65+) founders. At the time of founding, at least 19% of ESEM SEs had young founders (<35), while only 3% had founders aged 55+. Currently, while 7% of ESEM SEs have founders who are young, 15% are aged 55+ (including 4% aged 65+).