no Zoomer Zuck in sight
Boomers Had Jobs. Millennials Had Zuck. Where Are Gen Z's Tech Founders?
Silicon Valley has long been obsessed with young, disruptive founders. But Gen Z is less sure about moving fast and breaking things.
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The Lede
Boomers had Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos. Gen X produced Sergey Brin, Elon Musk, Travis Kalanick, and Peter Thiel. Millennials boasted droves of swaggering disruptors: Mark Zuckerberg, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Brian Chesky, and, more notoriously, Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried — all of whom were upending norms, in the spotlight, and on their way to billions by their early 20s. Now the oldest members of Gen Z are 27 — yet there's no Zoomer Zuck in sight.
Key Details
- Gen Z founders are stepping into a vastly different tech world from that of their predecessors — a world where launching a unicorn is far more difficult and publicly scrutinized.
- "In order to be the next Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, you need to be a disruptor," said Kimberly Eddleston, a professor at Northeastern University. These big-name founders "either disrupted an industry or created a brand-new industry," she added.
- Entrepreneurial Gen Zers are also facing a tougher road to funding.
