Opinion | Why are Gen-Zers great entrepreneurs? Same reasons we’re called terrible employees.
November 30, 2023 at 2:52 p.m. EST
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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 (3 out of 4 managers say Gen Z is the hardest generation to work with), they might also make us great entrepreneurs.
Rising competitiveness for entry-level 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.
“Think about how hard it is to get into college now,” says Meagan Loyst, the 26-year-old founder of Gen Z VCs, a community of more than 27,000 Gen Zers in entrepreneurship and venture capital. She describes college admissions cases where kids do it all — founding nonprofits, raising millions for their start-ups, captaining their soccer teams and leading the band — but are still rejected from top universities. “We’re primed to think we have to do everything to be successful,” she says.
For multitaskers raised on the rapid change and flow of the internet, the working world after college can seem monotonous and bureaucratic by comparison. Loyst explains, “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.’”
In contrast to start-ups, larger, established organizations have helpful systems already set up. But entrepreneur Christina Moniodis says, in many ways, “they’re clinging to the past and [are] really infected with paradigms that prevent them from moving forward.”
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 author and 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.
Though it’s true that every new generation of youth is deemed idealistic and dreamy-eyed, Gen Zers clearly want jobs that align with their moral, social or political values. This might be why 62 percent claim to have started (or intend to start) their own businesses.
Young entrepreneurs aren’t just trying to make big money — they’re driven by deep empathy and altruism. 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.
In addition to his start-up, Rashid wrote a book about long covid and loves connecting with others who have gone through similar experiences. Rashid 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. Knowing Strong Haulers is changing lives has helped him get through entrepreneurship’s challenges.
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.
Moniodis is a Greek American 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. Moniodis 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.”
Gen Z and millennials, as digital natives, have other traits that make us ideally suited to entrepreneurship. In the world of start-ups and venture capital, what young people lack in experience can be made up for by their natural social instincts about what’s “cool” and not.
Loyst offered an example: “A lot of people naturally assume when there’s a new and emerging technology that young people will be early adopters and use it. But if you actually spent any time on TikTok during the Web3 NFT craze, everyone was making fun of NFTs.”
But it’s not all perfect. The intense passion and frenzied nature of a start-up are — as Moniodis reminds me — 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. I remember the feeling.
From my conversations with entrepreneurs this week, I want to emphasize the wonderful blend of optimism and realism, as well as confidence and humility, that they carry. They know exactly how hard it is to take a start-up from zero to one, and yet they try anyway.
As a young founder, it’s totally normal to feel as though you’re in over your head. Ibrahim reminds me, and himself, that “it’s okay that I don’t have all the answers, because I’m pretty young.” (The average age of a successful start-up founder is 45, according to the Harvard Business Review.) You have to start from somewhere.
Young people interested in entrepreneurship or venture capital as a future career path (and this includes me!) should remember their unique strengths in the market the next time they’re pitching themselves to others.
And do yourself a favor and take Your Rich BFF founder and author Vivian Tu’s advice when responding to the inevitable setbacks to come. Remember: Over time, “the task stays the same, but you get better at it.”
I want to hear from you! Respond to this week’s question, and I might include your reply in the Tuesday edition of my newsletter, which is available only via email. (It’s free!) This week, I want to know: Have you ever worked on a start-up or entrepreneurial project? What did you learn from it? Fill out our form to tell us.
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