Aug 20, 2026
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Add us on GoogleJennifer Garner’s acting career has seen her take on roles from secret agent to superhero, but one of her most memorable performances is that of Jenna Rink in 13 Going on 30, in which she plays a 13-year-old girl who magically awakens as a 30-year-old career woman.
At 54, Garner has also taken on the role of entrepreneur, and she says she’s grateful that she has the life experience behind her to know how to be a “grown-up” in the boardroom.
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Garner spoke with Forbes Talks about learning the ropes in business as a named co-founder of Once Upon a Farm, her baby food company that went public this February with a valuation of $724 million. As of Aug. 20, its market cap was nearly $750 million (although Garner wouldn’t know that — she never checks the stock price).
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“I’m learning. This is all new to me. I’d never taken an econ class, a business class. I didn’t know how to read a spreadsheet. They still really overwhelm me, but I sure as heck love the process of being the student in the room, always,” Garner said in the interview.
Entrepreneurship at any age
Garner said that she sees being over 50 as an advantage in all aspects of her professional life — in her charity work, her acting work, and with her company.
“Because I’m more fully realized as a person, because I’ve been through things, and I’ve come out on the other side of hard things, and I can reflect back on myself and think, ‘Oh, I have more empathy than I used to.’ I have less judgment than I used to. I have a better idea of when to speak up than I used to — and when to stay quiet.”
Speaking about the opportunity to work with the other co-founders of the company, Garner said that she is “so grateful to be a grown-up in that room and not a kid, because I think that I would think I need to prove myself, I need to say, ‘This is how we should do this, or this is how this should run.’ And I’m blissfully not motivated by needing to be in charge.”
When asked whether she is checking the company’s stock price daily, Garner was adamant that she is not.
“People say to me, ‘Oh, I know you’re checking it. You have to be checking it.’ And I say, ‘You underestimate my discipline,’” Garner replied.
“I have no interest in knowing day-to-day what is happening to the stock of Once Upon a Farm. I’m wholly focused on us executing against our mission, and on us doing the job that we’ve promised people that we will do and promised stockholders we’ll do. And if we do that, the stock will follow. But day-to-day, the first six months in, the first year in, I can’t know that. In the same way that I can’t know what’s written about me in tabloid media. It would break me.”
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On being part of a team
Garner approaches her role as a co-founder of the company with humility. Garner joined the company, which was founded in 2015, in 2017 as chief brand officer and was given a co-founder title, according to a separate Forbes report.
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“I don’t pretend to run Once Upon a Farm. I don’t pretend to be the person behind starting it,” Garner said in the Forbes Talks interview.
She likened the work environment to that on a film set. “It’s another team that I’m just — I’m really happy to be in there with everyone.”
“It’s like an amazing film crew that I don’t have to say goodbye to. I just adore them all so much.”
When asked what advice she would give women in their 20s and 30s who might feel like they can’t imagine their career after the age of 50, Garner says to “keep following your interests,” and “keep being part of a team.”
“Whatever that is. If it’s a dance class that you love to be part of. If it’s a recreational soccer team. Keep putting yourself in the position to be one of many. And if you do need to be the one pushing that, you know, that rock up the hill, then put your shoulder to it and find some friends to do it with you.”
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Rebecca Payne has more than a decade of experience editing and producing both local and national daily newspapers. She's worked on the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, Metro, Canada's National Observer, the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press.
