Millennials,

Many of the businesses Nesta backs cater to public-sector clients. Governments tend to take longer to adopt new services than private corporations or individual consumers, he says, although revenue streams can then be longerterm and more reliable.

He adds that because Nesta backs start-ups, “they are young and growing rapidly and we encourage them to reinvest what they make back into the business.” He says reinvesting, rather than looking for ways to cut costs, can help to grow the size of the business and boost a company’s revenues, thereby increasing the likelihood that it will be profit making in the long run. Like Mr. Parkinson, Mr. Elstub also notes that the social impact sector does tend to attract younger entrepreneurs: “Most of the people who come in to see us are in their early 30s.”

Tom Hooper, a 38-year-old entrepreneur, is a little older than that, but otherwise fits the profile. He is founder and chief executive of Third Space Learning, a British business that provides maths tutors to low-income and academically disadvantaged students.

“Like all good start-ups we are lossmaking,” Mr. Hooper says, adding this is because the start-up is ploughing its revenues into growing the company and that he expects to be profitable in about three years. He has his own take on the way that younger founders do business. “We are a generation that values experience over material goods,” he says.

“It is good to solve a problem in a way that you can also make money out of,” he adds. “But actually our generation is sick of consumption, of working just to have this or buy that. We also value how the use of our time makes us feel."