Age and Entrepreneurs

George T. Wittman’s latest blog post

These days in the startup world, the entrepreneur is imagined as young and fresh-faced, straight out of college with some brilliant idea and a hip new company.  However, that doesn’t mean that age really has anything to do with a successful company, and people have tried to figure out correlations between an entrepreneur’s age when they launched their startup and whether or not said startup was successful.  Studies have been done by numerous foundations, institutions and universities.  What they have discovered is that the average entrepreneur is 40 when they launch a startup.  People over the age of 55 are twice as likely as people under 35 to launch a high-growth startup, and the average age of a successful startup with over $1 million in revenues was 39.  Ultimately, age was less of a factor in entrepreneurial success than previous startup and industry experience.

The age that successful entrepreneurs launched their companies is wide indeed, ranging from 20 (Facebook and Microsoft) to 53 (McDonald’s).  While experience is a key factor to success, it’s not required; just look at Facebook, Microsoft and Apple (none of these founders were older than 21).  The most important factor for success seems to be how invested you are in the business and how passionate you are about it.  Nonetheless, many investors will be reluctant to invest in a first-time CEO, as they tend to make a lot of mistakes.  However, there are plenty of exceptions to this rule; the largest Harry Potter fan site, Mugglenet, was founded by a 12 year-old, yet has over 10 million unique visitors a month.

While age might not necessarily matter for entrepreneurial success, experience does, and that comes with age.  Smart entrepreneurs who might lack experience could benefit from surrounding themselves with experienced mentors.

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Success With Generation Z

George T. Wittman’s latest blog post

There’s been a lot of talk about millennials these days, as they graduate from college, go out into the workforce and make a name for themselves.  Businesses have been working to accommodate these millennials, but a truly mindful entrepreneur will be looking even more toward the future, to the so-called “Generation Z”.  I recently came across an article about how businesses can prepare to accommodate and profit from this new generation.  This is especially important, since many of them are starting to come of age as consumers.  One big thing that the article focused on was the importance of online shopping, but there were other points that they addressed.

One thing that the author pointed out was that Generation Z will most likely not have any brand loyalty.  They tend to lean toward companies with superior goods and services, and tend to rely more on their peers’ opinions and recommendations than ads.  While this is problematic for big companies with multi-million-dollar marketing budgets, it’s good news for smaller companies.  The article discusses some of the good business strategies for people trying to get Generation Z on their side.

More so than Millennials, Generation Z will be completely reliant on social media and mobile devices for content consumption, browsing, shopping and interaction with friends.  Because of this, your business strategy needs to focus on this market.  This will include having a mobile-friendly website and a good strategy that will consistently engage with customers through social media.

If you can create a value in your products through superior-quality design and manufacturing, this will elevate the reputation of your company, which is an important attribute to Generation Z.  It won’t be enough any more to create value just through branding, since they will see through this and ultimately call you out.

Generation Z will demand that companies be honest and transparent with them.  Between social media a peer reviews, companies won’t be able to hide from negative press or controversies.  Rather, they should be ready to face these challenges head-on with a well thought out, expedited strategy for dealing with the inevitable conflicts.

What’s unique about Generation Z is that they appreciate individuality while also placing a great emphasis on group acceptance.  It’s a complicated balance, that baffles plenty of people.  Nonetheless, you have to learn to use it.  Embrace new and unique tastes to help your company connect better with this generation.  Your company should think about hiring and listening to individuals from his generation as part of your marketing (when they’re old enough).

You should never assume that the same conveniences of your generation will be enough for Generation Z.  They’ll be demanding the convenience to browse, shop and receive customer service through mobile and social media channels, so that your strategy, whether it’s marketing, operations or human-resource management, needs to keep it in mind.

The collection and use of extensive data has been a big topic recently.  While plenty of companies regularly collect and use customer data to tailor shopping experiences, Generation Z will be a lot more tech-savvy, with a better understanding of how to control the data that they share.  Because of this, businesses will need to respect privacy to a greater extent, otherwise they could risk losing customers to other companies who will.

One example of a successful company working to take advantage of younger generations is Under Armor.  When they started, their goal was to overtake Nike as the top sporting goods company, which was no easy task.  Instead of trying to compete with them head-to-head, Under Armor instead went after youths who had not yet developed a brand loyalty to Nike.  By aggressively going after youth sports, then growing with their consumers to help supply college teams and eventually professional sports teams, they nurtured a large and loyal base of customers, while also making exceptional products.  Many businessmen are concerned about the challenges that Generation Z will pose, but companies with the patience to deal with them properly will benefit greatly from it.

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Argentina Welcomed Home

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Despite its loss on Sunday, the next day Argentina’s team was welcomed home the next day by thousands of fans celebrating their home country’s performance in the World Cup final.  The team arrived in Buenos Aires on a plane painted with images of the players and large sign reading: “Thank you Argentina”.  They were greeted by a horde of emotional fans wearing the white and sky-blue striped jerseys of their national team, who flooded the road leading from the airport to the football association complex.

The Argentine soccer team.

President Kirchner personally greeted the players, and praised them for “courage, passion and bringing everything you have and more to the field”.  While Lionel Messi seemed upset about the loss, he was appreciative of the positive feedback.  Messi, along with everybody else, still made some great strides in being able to bring their team to the finals.  It seems like every time Argentina plays in the finals, they’re up against the Germans.  The last time they made it to a final in 1990, they lost to West Germany.  Four years before that, they had beaten the Germans in the final.

After Sunday’s final, thousands of sad but proud Argentines gathered at the Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires to applaud their team’s exceptional World Cup performance.  While the gathering was originally peaceful, violence broke out later that night, forcing riot police to use tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse vandals that destroyed store fronts, tore down street lights, threw rocks and broke into buildings.  According to National Security secretary Sergio Berni, 120 people were arrested Sunday night.  The Buenos Aires emergency medical services reported on 70 people were treated for injuries on Monday, including 15 police officers.

Despite Argentina’s recent troubles, such as one of the highest inflation rates in the world, an encroaching debt crisis and a deep corruption scandal, the shot at the World Cup final was able to unite Argentines.  Kirchner, whose approval rating has been plummeting in recent months, kept a low profile during the tournament.  She declined an invitation to attend the final match, preferring instead to rest in anticipation of a Tuesday summit with leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Lionel Messi Disappointed

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As his final act in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Lionel Messi lifted a free kick over the bar, wasting his home country’s last chance to tie against Germany.  This was no good finish for the four-time world player of the year.  Much in the same way that the 1986 World Cup belonged to Argentina’s Diego Maradona, this was supposed to be Messi’s World Cup.  However, after carrying his team through the group stage with four goals, Messi seemed to have lost his touch.  In the final match on Sunday, he had some chances but lacked the finishing touch to turn the game for Argentina.  As he collected the trophy for the tournament’s best player in the aftermath of the 1-0 loss, his face screamed disappointment.

While Lionel Messi was strong at the beginning of the World Cup, his strength and power seemed to fade with time.

While Messi has won almost everything there is to win playing with club team Barcelona, many people think a World Cup title is what he needs to be considered one of soccer’s all-time greats.  Through the group stage, Messi stood out in a mostly mediocre Argentine team, garnering goals against Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran and Nigeria.  While his early playing was exceptional, his skill started to wane as the tournament went on.  His impact was minimal in the Swiss game until extra time.  Against Belgium, he helped Argentina maintain possession of the ball as the Belgians tried to level the score.  In semifinal against the Netherlands, however, he struggled to find any space, since Nigel de Jong kept him firmly in his sight.  Besides a few runs and skillful passes against Germany, he ultimately didn’t have a very big impact on the final.