Am I too late?

Lately I've been reading lots of Hacker News, Reddit/programming and a myriad of other blogs all covering programming topics.
When reading HN, a great deal of the posts is about startups. Young people starting their own business writing code which will solve some problem we didn't know we had. I really envy them. They get to work on their personal little project all day and they get paid for it. Well that last bit isn't really true unless the startup actually succeeds.
I don't think the business world in Belgium is ready for this kind of thing. No, I really should rephrase that: I haven't encountered anyone who could be interested in (partially) funding an Internet startup. Maybe I'm just in the wrong place or I'm not networking enough.
Then again when I think of it a little harder, why would I even start a startup? I have a good job, a boss who lets me do my thing (within boundaries), great colleagues. I'm not in a position right now to be taking any big financial risks. Just bought a house, got married, the wife isn't really a fan of me doing something like that, and I completely understand.
Am I too late doing this kind of thing?
Maybe when I just got my bachelor's degree, when I was looking for a job, I could have worked on something instead of goofing off and playing video games with friends.

The itch to produce something is still there though. Maybe I can project this desire on my work...

My job right now is a one man project, writing software that automaticly tests the software my colleagues write. It's based on our internal SDK of one application, which I use to test the other application we make (client/server type of thing). I do all of my coding in C# at work, apart from a little side project for reporting for which I use Common Lisp (see my blog post about this). While C# is not my favorite programming language, it gets the work done. Most of the other coders, especially my direct colleagues write in C++.
The thing that struck me the most when I started this job was, while I thought I was a great coder when I got out of school, I'm miles away from my coworkers. I don't even come close. While I can hold my own in a technical discussion and grasp most of the concepts of what they're doing, I'm nowhere near the level of skill they have when it comes to actually writing code. At least that's what it seems like.
Granted, I haven't been 'professionally' coding for very long and I know I still have much to learn about, well, everything. Yet the same question pops up: Am I too late? I'm close to 30, should I have sharpened my coding skills earlier, never played online games or simply taken up another job that required me coding from day 1? Nearly all of my free time goes to learning more about programming, concepts, theories, language, yet I feel like it'll all be in vain. It's too little, too late. Did I blow my opportunity to be a 'great hacker' as Paul Graham calls it?
I could always join an open source project and start hacking on that, learning the chops as I go. Skill difference could be a problem again though.

OK, enough with the self-pity, here are the good sides to the situation.
I don't really have a deadline for my project at work. I can take time to figure new stuff out, ask my colleagues for help and just keep at it till I get it right.
For a lot of little things, I'm not bound to one toolkit. I can choose whatever tool (language) I want for the stuff I write. It's really nice to have this kind of freedom. (Of course I have to be able to defend why I would choose that tool.)
The atmosphere at work is great, my boss encourages me to learn new things and improve my coding.

All in all I'd say I'm in a good place to become at least a better hacker. If I'll be able to make an impact in the community of hackers, that's another question. Then again, how many coders can do that?
So yeah, maybe I am too late. But it can't hurt to try!