Experience matters to a certain degree. In business there is a lot of value placed on experience than education.
I believe that an efficient hiring process is still not part of many businesses. What you put on a resume makes a lot of difference and careful selection of words and sentences helps you get into corporate doors. In fact people make hiring decisions based completely on what they see on a resume. “Oh this person has a lot of experience in sales, Oh this person generated XYZ amount of revenue for the company.” I feel that experience is worth 20% and passion, work ethic and a desire to learn worth 80% in a hiring decision.
With young entrepreneurs popping up left and right in Silicon Valley and beyond, I see a lot of pluses of being young in the game. When you’re young, you’re more of a risk taker, can take more chances and recover quickly. Sometimes past work experiences actually hinder current decisions and having learned that it did not work before, so lets not go there might even cost the company.
So if you’re a young entrepreneur, look for experience but if you can’t get any at current, then gain some experience by working on your idea. If you’re a hiring manager, don’t put over emphasis on experience and actually take a chance on young candidates.