Why so many young entrepreneurs?
I was reading Entrepreneur Magazine last night when I came to a somewhat obvious conclusion - the low barrier to entry on the web is the reason for more YE's. This is fundamentally different than saying that there are more young entrepreneurs in our generation and that they choose the web because it's the easiest place to get started.
The article I was reading was talking about the relatively low cost to enter into the toy business -relatively low being at least $50k. And 10 years ago that would have been relatively low. Even in the beginning of the web, it took quite a bit of funding and a lot of programmers to do something amazing.
Now, with refined free open source platforms like PHP and MySQL, it's essentially free to compete. Toss in a phone, business cards, legal fees, domain registration, and a few other necessities and you're still spending under $1k, something almost any college student can afford.
This was just coming into play during my college years (2000 - 2004). When I first wanted to start a company, it was of the product design variety. I even remember distinctly telling a girl on a first date that my passion in life is product design...oops (although web development really isn't as far off as it seems). My partner at the time and I had no choice but to enter several business plan competitions in an attempt to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to get our products off the ground. It sucked and we failed because we didn't have the persistence to chase funding for years, develop for a few more years, and wait another 5 until the product hit the market and had success.
When I took a class in information technology and learned about web development I realized just how cheap it could be done, and I did it. Therein lies the "proof" of my point - I'm sure there were many college students before me that wanted to start businesses, saw the daunting task at hand just to get something to go to market, and then moved on to take a job and never become an entrepreneur. If I got my degree in 1994 instead of 2004 I would have been in that boat as well.
To me, that's the reason for the wave of YE's. Not the fact that we're the video game generation, not the fact that schools are teaching entrepreneurship (I believe that's a reaction to my pt, not a cause of), and not any other cultural trait you can assign to the current 18-30 demographic. Put me (or any number of YE's) twenty years back and I doubt that many of us would have still started businesses. It was just too tough back then unless you had a lot of help. Now it's a viable option for anyone who has a computer and an internet connection.
The article I was reading was talking about the relatively low cost to enter into the toy business -relatively low being at least $50k. And 10 years ago that would have been relatively low. Even in the beginning of the web, it took quite a bit of funding and a lot of programmers to do something amazing.
Now, with refined free open source platforms like PHP and MySQL, it's essentially free to compete. Toss in a phone, business cards, legal fees, domain registration, and a few other necessities and you're still spending under $1k, something almost any college student can afford.
This was just coming into play during my college years (2000 - 2004). When I first wanted to start a company, it was of the product design variety. I even remember distinctly telling a girl on a first date that my passion in life is product design...oops (although web development really isn't as far off as it seems). My partner at the time and I had no choice but to enter several business plan competitions in an attempt to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to get our products off the ground. It sucked and we failed because we didn't have the persistence to chase funding for years, develop for a few more years, and wait another 5 until the product hit the market and had success.
When I took a class in information technology and learned about web development I realized just how cheap it could be done, and I did it. Therein lies the "proof" of my point - I'm sure there were many college students before me that wanted to start businesses, saw the daunting task at hand just to get something to go to market, and then moved on to take a job and never become an entrepreneur. If I got my degree in 1994 instead of 2004 I would have been in that boat as well.
To me, that's the reason for the wave of YE's. Not the fact that we're the video game generation, not the fact that schools are teaching entrepreneurship (I believe that's a reaction to my pt, not a cause of), and not any other cultural trait you can assign to the current 18-30 demographic. Put me (or any number of YE's) twenty years back and I doubt that many of us would have still started businesses. It was just too tough back then unless you had a lot of help. Now it's a viable option for anyone who has a computer and an internet connection.
posted by Adam McFarland at
7/22/2007 07:34:00 PM
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