Young Entrepreneurs Take Over the Tech Industry

By: Alex Duck

We all know about Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, all young entrepreneurs who, despite their age, dedicated themselves to becoming successful tech innovators. As college students aspire to be the next great innovator, this dream of creating something for yourself once seemed very far off and more or less a pipe dream.

However, today, our millennial generation has started to become more independent than any prior generation. Entrepreneurs and tech-startup founders are getting younger and younger and the stereotypical picture of a mid 30’s business man in a blue blazer and slacks is quickly changing.

I asked, Dean of the Mccombs School Of Business at University of Texas,Thomas Gilligan , why he thought this is. Gilligan says that “millennials are eager to make their own pathways because they suspect the traditional ones may lead nowhere.” “Millennials see chaos, distrust of management, breaking of contracts and bad news associated with business,” he says. “They’ve watched their relatives get fired and their peers sit in cubicles and they think, ‘There has to be a better way’.”

Featured above are entrepreneurs who have overcome age and inexperience to become innovators in their field. From Logan Green, who founded the ridesharing company Lyft, at only 26 years old, or the famous David Karp, the billionaire who founded the mega successful blog platform, Tumblr. Grace Choi, at the age of 20, creating her company MINK, a 3D printing makeup company. Grace Choi, in interviews, jokes that she was the only in these corporate board meeting that couldn’t be offered a glass of wine, even though she was the boss. Ryan Schreiber, creating of Pitchfork Media, created the famous music magazine as a journalism grad project.

All of these entrepreneurs have been faced with a daunting task of taking on the work force and instead of climbing the corporate ladder, the decided to innovate on their and become their own boss. Maybe, millennials are realizing that starting a company, even if it crashes and burns, teaches them more in two years than sitting in a cubicle for 20 years.

Specifically in Austin, TX, Forbes magazine voted the Live Music Capital of The World the 5th best city in the country for tech startups. Austin’s famous start-up mentoring company/think tank at the Capital Factory is one big reason for this. Charles Haggas, founder of a variety of successful tech startups and creator of SEO and branding company Space Chimp Media, spoke to me about how to overcome age and to brand yourself in today’s industry. Haggas said, “Age is bullsh*t, your ideas are fresh and new, and the youth controls this country. Take your idea and tell everyone about it, everyone!” Capital Factory represents over 200 startups in Austin, TX and beyond. Capital Factory released a statistic that said 60% of tech startup founders that they have worked with are 27 or younger. In this growing technology age, it seems the millennials have the upper hand in independence and media literacy.

St. Edwards University’s very own Nathalie Phan has also made this list amongst young entrepreneurs. She founded Topper Radio Station and co-founded the online magazine and promotional company On Vinyl Music. Nathalie is a 21 year old Digital Media Management student at St. Edward’s and plans on going on to study digital law. Phan’s On Vinyl Music has had more than 100,000 page views since its introduction 3 months ago. She has already received backing from well-known corporations such as Spotify, Waterloo Records, Transmission Events, Tito’s Vodka, Raw Dawg Productions, and Attendance Records. Nathalie’s success is just beginning and she sat down with us in the On Vinyl Media Studio for some insight on On Vinyl Music and advice for young aspiring entrepreneurs.