Donna Fenn

The Making of an Entrepreneurial Generation

 

You might also note that these entrepreneurs are particularly savvy about serving the needs of their own generation. There are approximately 73 million people in Gen Y -- close to the number of baby boomers, and far more than Generation X, which weighs in at around 50 million. That's a huge market filled with people whose buying habits and frames of reference are far different from previous generations. Their entrepreneurial peers are capitalizing on that by starting companies with a distinctly Generation Y point of view: IceOutGear.com, Mental Floss magazine, Insomnia Cookies, myYearbook.com, Interview Stream, and Mophie are all companies whose primary customer base is, like their founders, young.

But baby boomers, take heart: this is not an ageist generation. Some of our most successful 30 Under 30 entrepreneurs realize that there's just no substitute for experience when it comes to growing a company, so they've brought on a few seasoned managers to help them navigate entrepreneurial waters. Mophie's Ben Kaufman fired himself and hired a CEO in his 40s; Benjamin Sann runs BestParking.com with his step father; the three founders of Inogen all ceded senior management roles to their older investors. The generational mix isn't always easy or comfortable, but it gives young companies gravitas, the kind of perspective on growth that might otherwise elude them for years, and the freedom to do what they do best -- keeping their companies on the cutting edge of technology and market trends and, of course, conceiving ideas for more cool companies.

  1. Ben Kaufman, Mophie
  2. Sean Belnick, BizChair.com
  3. Bo Menkiti, The Menkiti Group
  4. Sam Altman, Loopt
  5. Katie Kerrigan, Kathryn Kerrigan
  6. Byron Myers, Inogen
  7. Ali Perry, Inogen
  8. Brenton Taylor, Inogen
  9. Raj Lahoti, Online Guru
  10. Geoff Cook, myYearbook.com
  11. Dave Cook, myYearbook.com
  12. Catherine Cook, myYearbook.com
  13. Brian Taylor, Kernel Season's
  14. Miles Munz, Interview Stream
  15. Randy Bitting, Interview Stream
  16. David Levich, Icedoutgear.com
  17. Dan Gershon, Icedoutgear.com
  18. Eric Liberman, Icedoutgear.com
  19. Ben Goldhirsh, GOOD
  20. Seth Berkowitz, Insomnia Cookies
  21. Alison Barnard, in-jean-ius
  22. Will Pearson, Mental Floss
  23. Mangesh Hattikudur, Mental Floss
  24. Nick Kenner, Just Salad
  25. Rob Crespi, Just Salad
  26. Hayden Hamilton, GreenPrint
  27. Benjamin Sann, BestParking.com
  28. Jason Wright, Feed Granola Co.
  29. Jason Osborn, Feed Granola Co.
  30. Alexis Demko, Lil Bogies

Donna Fenn is a contributing editor at Inc. and the author of Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack.

 PREV  1 | 2