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The Entrepreneurial Generation by Donna Fenn
December 10, 2008
The GenY Spin on Start-Ups
Posted at 9:06 AM
I’ve been interviewing young entrepreneurs for almost two years now and one of the re-emerging themes in the businesses they start is dissatisfaction with the status quo. Sure, that’s pretty much true for all entrepreneurs, but this generation of upstarts has its own way of looking at existing products and services and judging them not quite up to snuff for their own needs. Their response: I can do better. The result: businesses like Mint.com, Unigo, and Ignighter.
Mint.com, which was featured on our Inc.com 30 Under 30 Coolest Entrepreneurs list, and in our magazine feature, Cool, Determined and Under 30, was started by Aaron Patzer, who was frustrated with personal finance software like Quicken and Microsoft Money. They were “tedious and boring and failed my basic needs,” he says. For instance, they took too long to set up and didn’t categorize his expense accurately enough. So he built something more to his own liking. Mint.com is an online personal finance tool that tells you exactly how you’re spending your money, how you can save, when your credit card payment is due, and when your bank balance is low. Sounds like mom, but without the nagging. Mint.com now has 600,000 registered users and half of them are under age 30.
Unigo is a website that contains free student-generated information on over 300 colleges and universities. It’s CEO Jordan Goldman’s response to what he believes is the failure of traditional publishing companies to adequately serve the needs of prospective college students. The big guides put out by Fiske and Princeton Review have a few pages on each college and are typically light on substantive student comment. “We’re not interested in white-washing the college experience,” says Goldman. “If part of going to a particular college is going to keggers every week, it’s better that you know that ahead of time.” Amen to that. The company launched last September with 15,000 student comments, pictures and videos. In its first week, it racked up 1.5 million page views and Goldman had a long list of potential advertisers knocking at his door.
Ignighter.com is a GenY spin on Match.com. Co-founded by Adam Sachs, Dan Osit, Kevin Owocki, the site allows young singles to register in groups and arrange group dates with other groups. Did you get that the key word here is “group"? “We had friends who were beginning to explore the online dating world and they’d come back to us with horror stories,” says Sachs. “So we thought, this wouldn’t be so awkward if you could just be with your friends and still be able to meet new people.” The founders spent the summer in Boulder at a highly selective incubator/mentoring/funding program called TechStars, where they refined their website, which now has 6,000 registered groups world-wide.
By the way, all of these companies are either venture or angel-backed, so the founders aren’t the only ones who think they’re on to something by starting companies that specifically serve the needs of their generation. Do you know of other start-up companies like this, or do you have examples of established companies that are tweaking their products or services to entice GenY consumers?
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Great article Donna! Congratulations Ignighter, their product and team is amazing.
Donna,
Great article.
I absolutely love freshbooks.com (easy billing) and tripit.com (easy travel itineraries).
Not sure if they are GenY... Anyway to find out?
Take care,
Brian
Check out CrunchBase to see who the leadership of the companies are and if they are GenY if you are wondering
Yea, I know another company like these. Penn Renewables, I am 25 and I work with two older gentlemen. We do things with an engineering and financial approach, these things are an investment afterall. You guys should check us out.....
It is amazing how innovations in technology have allowed individuals to allocate resources quicker than many "out of date" corporations are structured to do. Young entrepreneurs are building companies without divisions, without self imposed 'red tape'.
check out Grooveshark.com ran by very young (21 yr olds that started when they were 18) in an attempt to change the music industry. [Disclaimer bias: poster cofounded it]
GenYs aren't cool; they are innovate. With hope and hard work they will take back the country that the "know it all" baby boomers have destroyed..
I thinks its cool to see new entrepreneur ideas.
I'm going to check out these sites today.
thanks from tony
My friend's company, Lexage Corporation, is in it's beginning stages as well. Well, he built off his dad's existing business and decided to put a twist on it. He is re-positioning binoculars by making them appealing to the younger generation with a cool line and sleek models. Sounds crazy, but it seems to be working!
Great read! Hive Media is doing the same as the above companies. They are solving the flaws in 3D computer graphics development pipelines.
I'm looking forward to more of your Gen Y articles.
I really love the Ignighter.com idea, too bad it wasn't around sooner, it would have been really helpful to me instead of marrying the skank who is now my wife who I met on Match. It would have helped me to see her with all her friends who are sex-addicted loner guys.
I also really liked the Mint.com idea because nothing enthralls me more than putting all my personal financial data online in a big database that is then marketed to everyone from the Republican Party to Homeland Security (oh wait, sorry for the redundancy there).
As a Gen Y myself, and I hate using that term because I was born in the middle and I find that we're often generalized with those born later in the generation who consume and behave completely different then us, I think this recession will really hit home.
For the most part, Gen Y never really saw recession - most of us were still young growing up in the 1990s when the previous recession really took place, this one will be interesting to see because the viability of such startups given that many get attention solely for the age of the creator. Of what you listed, Mint is the only one I've heard of and consider credible - I'm not saying the others aren't without value, but that I think the latter of that list was more based on their age, rather then the quality of the end product or service.
That's just my take on it, and I admittedly am harder on my own generation then any other.
Gen Y has unique needs, and sometimes only fellow Gen-Yers know what those needs are. I like the site www.greencandy.com .It's a money site created by some gen-y people. It addresses real problems. It has a worksheet called "How to not go broke at your friends weddngs" Hilarious. It is a good complement to Mint.com. Green Candy actually teaches skills, where Mint helps you track money.
Hey! we are also working on a new concept, go check it out at http://www.bizwave.com
dude that bizwave site took an eternity to load ..
What the hell is "gen y?" And why does that have anything to do with being an entrepreneur? Seriously, I've been in business since I was 19 years old. Paid my way through college, now grad school. Bought a house at 21, paid cash for a 5-figure dream wedding last year. And I came from the average, Memphis TN subdivision single-parent family. No business owners in this family, until me.
So does that make me Gen Y? I don't know... who cares.
I guess some of us are just "gen wtf"
Great to see these young people jumping in and making it happen!
Congratulations Ignighter. It is a great article for you guys!
GenY entrepreneurs?
I believe it has all to do with not felling at ease with the mentioned statu quo... there are so many opportunities buried waiting to be discovered! Kuddos to all those showing the rest of us the road ahead.
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