"At Lehman Brothers, I looked around at guys who were in their 40s, and I said, 'I don't want to be those buys. They've worked here all their lives, and they could lose it in a minute." -- Anderson Schoenrock, ScanDigital
If corporate employment looks more and more fragile, so does the world in general. GenY grew up with Amber Alerts, HIV, the Columbine shootings, the dot-com boom and its spectacular bust, the 9/11 tragedy, and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. At the same time, they were far more independent than previous generations: Three out of four grew up with working mothers, and one-quarter lived with a single parent. Throughout their young lives, the subtle and not so subtle message was clear: You're unlikely to be taken care of by institutions that were once trusted and cherished by previous generations; better look out for yourself. Armed with the self-confidence instilled in them by their parents, they have sought to do just that. And if that sometimes makes them difficult and demanding employees, it often makes them extraordinary entrepreneurs.
I started my research by casting a very wide net. Over the past few years, the burgeoning number of young entrepreneurs has spawned lists such as Inc. magazine's "30 Under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs" and BusinessWeek's "America's Best Young Entrepreneurs." I drew from these compilations, as well from the Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 lists of fastest-growing companies (my colleagues at Inc. magazine generously shared database information with me so that I could find CEOs in the GenY demographic, which I define as people born between 1977 and 1997). I also contacted such groups as the National Federation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Young and Successful, the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO), the William J. Clinton Foundation, and two organizations -- YCombinator and TechStars -- that mentor and fund young entrepreneurs. The Athena Foundation and Count Me In for Economic Independence put me in touch with young female entrepreneurs.
I also spread the word among my colleagues and my extensive professional network that I was looking for successful GenY CEOs to interview. And I made it clear to everyone I spoke to that I wasn't interested in people who had merely managed to get obscenely rich at strikingly young ages. While that may be impressive to some, it does very little to peak my curiosity. I wanted company builders -- people whose financial success was the by-product of creating something of greater economic value than a healthy bank account. I also should note here that I deliberately chose not to focus the book primarily on the superstars of the GenY entrepreneurial world. Stories about Facebook, YouTube, Digg, and other familiar brands are truly awe inspiring, but they've been told many times, and I wanted fresh material.
In no time I had a list of entrepreneurs longer than I could ever manage to make my way through in the months I had to write this book. With each interview, I inevitably added more names to the list because young entrepreneurs tend to know other young entrepreneurs -- typically lots of them -- and they are eager to draw others into projects that they find relevant and exciting. It wasn't just their sheer numbers that struck me, but their incredible diversity: I found more women and minority business owners in this generation than I've ever seen in my career.
My Excellent Social Media Adventure
I wanted to reach out to these young entrepreneurs in a way that was meaningful, relevant, and practical to them. So I dove into the world of social media by creating a Facebook page. This probably doesn't seem like such a big deal now, but when I did it a year and a half ago, joining Facebook was something that no mother of teenaged children should do without a very, very good explanation. That just goes to show you how quickly things change. I added my interviewees to my page as friends and then also invited them to join a private group on Facebook where I could ask them follow-up questions collectively and where they could meet and network with each other.
I can say unequivocally now that this would be a different book without Facebook. My private group grew to 80 or so people, and every time I sent out a message to them (e.g., "I'm working on a section about partnerships; give me a shout if you've got good stories."), at least a few responded with lightening speed. I got better and quicker responses from my Facebook messages than from e-mail, and I came to know my interviewees a little more intimately from the links they posted and the messages that appeared on my newsfeed. In some instances, I watched their entrepreneurial struggles evolve in a very public way as they shared with their Facebook friends the details of company launches, searches for capital, and partnerships gone bad. And yes, I also saw a few things that that I wish I hadn't and that gave me pause (how much Grey Goose vodka can you drink and still be able to function well enough to run a business?).
