But how can we help them make good on their ambitions?
Young and old people have different opinions and tastes on everything from fashion to politics. That might sound truistic, but it really matters if we’re trying to work out what the future might look like when today’s 20-somethings are running our major institutions. This is especially true when looking at the entrepreneurs and innovators who will have an outsized impact on how we live and work.
So, we at The Enterpreneurs Network teamed up with Youth Business International to ask a simple question: What do young entrepreneurs think? How are they different from older entrepreneurs? And what can we do to best support them?
“Their business’s primary aim is to solve a social or environmental problem”
Our main finding is that young entrepreneurs, here defined as those under 35, are more altruistic than older entrepreneurs. They are twice as likely (39% vs 18%) to say that their business’s primary aim is to solve a social or environmental problem. Interestingly, that figure actually rises to 47% for the most successful entrepreneurs (founders of businesses with a turnover of over £1m).
It is unclear whether this is because young people of every generation are genuinely more altruistic, and that altruism is something they grow out of, or if this generation is actually more generous-hearted than its predecessors. I suspect both are true. Evidence suggests that adolescents are more sensitive to social pressure than children or adults and, perhaps, that young entrepreneurs in their early 20s will be less agreeable and more antisocial when they are older. But it is also clearly true that as today’s young people have aged, we have seen a rise in pro-social business practices and an increasing focus on ESG metrics and B-Corp accreditation.
