The thing Gen Z does well: start companies
The stereotype of a Gen Zer in the workplace is a restless, distractible, chronically online, dissatisfied idealist who would rather reshape the workplace than be caught dead following its norms. But while these traits might make us — at least occasionally — terrible employees (three out of four managers say Gen Z is the hardest generation to work with), they might also make us great entrepreneurs.
Rising competitiveness for entrylevel jobs and college admissions over the past 25 years or so has turned some of the brightest Gen Zers and millennials into multitasking, hustler generalists. These traits translate well into early-stage entrepreneurship. It’s a gritty, “do-everything” profession, where founders often code, design, market, balance the books, pitch, fundraise and hire all by themselves.
Almost two-thirds of Gen Zers claim to have started (or intend to start) their own businesses. The average age of a successful start- up founder is now 45, according to the Harvard Business Review.
Breakneck entrepreneurship
For multitaskers raised on the rapid change and flow of the internet, the working world after college can seem monotonous and bureaucratic by comparison. explains Meagan Loyst, the 26-year-old founder of Gen Z VCs. “You’re like, ‘Wait, what? You want me to do this 9-to-5 thing? Like, I can’t even sit through one meeting without my mind going blank.’”
Entrepreneurship, with its breakneck pace and daily fires to put out, keeps curious founders engaged. “I like to chase thrills. You know, I like to try new things,” says Ibrahim Rashid, a 26-year-old health-tech entrepreneur. As a former tech entrepreneur myself, I loved being in a field where my tendency to move fast and “do everything at once” was an asset.
Young entrepreneurs aren’t just trying to make big money. They want jobs that align with their moral, social or political values.
Rashid’s start-up, for example, was born from one of the worst periods of his life: a battle with long covid. He began working with his co-founder on Strong Haulers, which provides software for wearable health devices to give useful data to those with chronic illnesses.
He also has a day job in climate investing. “I’ve always had these values of social justice and trying to help other people,” he says.
Entrepreneurship offers these ambitious recent graduates something that their stable professional jobs can’t: the opportunity to make a direct and personal impact on the future.
Christina Moniodis is a GreekAmerican entrepreneur who is working on an app called Kord to connect small, diasporic cultural and faith communities across the United States, starting with her own. She has already had an impressive career. Among other things, she’s a graduate of Yale Law School, a former chief of staff at HuffPost and a former White House staffer.
But it’s the ability to make direct impact on a problem close to her heart that pushed her into entrepreneurship. She tells me, “The thing about being in professional services,” i.e., traditional tracks such as accounting or law, is that “you’re solving problems, but I don’t think you’re creating the future.”
But it’s not all perfect. The intense passion and frenzied nature of a startup are 24/7, not 9-to-5. When the problem you are trying to solve is tied to your personal identity, the start-up’s failures can feel like personal failures. Several of the ambitious founders I spoke to had their health impacted by, as Loyst says, “doing too much at work.”
At an early-stage start-up, everything depends on the founder. “If you walked away, it would just disappear” Moniodis says.
Unique strengths
Young people interested in entrepreneurship or venture capital as a future career path should remember their unique strengths in the market the next time they’re pitching themselves to others. When responding to the inevitable setbacks, they should also remember Take Your Rich BFF founder Vivian Tu’s advice: Over time, “the task stays the same, but you get better at it.”