At Forbes' Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia this past week, the spotlight was on Generation Y, with millennials on the older end of the demographic taking much of the top billing.
The world's youngest self-made woman billionaire, 31-year-old chemical engineer Elizabeth Holmes, was handed the event's annual Doers Award while 30-year-old Aaron Levie, CEO of enterprise cloud company
But participating on panels, pitching their startups and sitting in the audience were members of Generation Z: today's teens and early twentysomethings, the entrepreneurs who'll be leading billion-dollar companies a decade from now -- if not sooner.
Tavi Gevinson first made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list at age 15, when her Rookie media empire was in its infancy. Now 19, Gevinson oversees the popular online magazine and publishing company. She's also an accomplished film and stage actress -- and a freshman at New York University.
Gevinson preached the virtues of do-it-yourself business building, having started from scratch as a blogger at age 11. “Now Rookie is four years old, we have an office in Brooklyn and our fourth book is coming out this month," she said, adding: "I still own everything."
Social media star Cameron Dallas, 21, spoke on the same panel as Gevinson at the Under 30 Summit. He told the audience of 1,500 young achievers how he's capitalized on the changing ways his generation consumes entertainment.
"Nowadays you can be a fan of someone that’s not an actor or artist," he said. "You can be a fan of someone that makes YouTube videos."
With a combined 22 million-plus fans and followers across Instagram, Twitter and Vine, Dallas realized he could monetize his internet fame, launching Magcon, a touring convention that charges teens and tweens big bucks to meet their web idols.
On day two of the Under 30 summit, Forbes introduced six finalists for a social impact competition for entrepreneurs that yielded over 2,500 submissions. The prize: a chance to win $1 million to change the world. Of the final six, two stood out for their relative youth: 22-year-old Daniel Yu of Reliefwatch and 23-year-old Paul Duan of Bayes Impact.
Yu's Reliefwatch works with health centers in the developing world to manage inventory using simple mobile phones. The World Health Organization estimates that 40% of the 1 million such centers are stocked out of supplies or medications.
Duan's Bayes Impact is using big data to help governments and non-profit organizations operate more efficiently. First up? The French national unemployment agency – Pole Emploi.
Both lost out to grand prize winner Kiah Williams of Sirum, which matches unopened, unexpired surplus medication with in-need patients. But both won $100,000 apiece to grow their companies. And as Forbes' editor-in-chief Randall Lane noted, at 22 and 23, Yu and Duan have plenty of time.
Some of the Under 30 Summit's youngest leaders were in the audience. At just 20, Megan Grassell is the founder and CEO of Yellowberry, a lingerie company for young girls that she started at age 17 after a frustrating shopping trip with her 13-year-old sister.
Yellowberry's cute, comfortable bras and underwear for teens and tweens has an anti-Victoria's Secret aesthetic that's already landed Grassell a collaboration with American Eagle's intimates offshoot Aerie.
"As a young person setting the growth strategy for Yellowberry, hearing real stories of failures and success was extremely valuable," Grassell said of her time at the Summit. "The people I met and heard discuss real time issues are paving the way for 20-year-olds like me. These experts are my newest role models."
She offered some advice for her fellow Gen Z-ers who are thinking of starting a business.
"I always say, if the worst answer someone can give you is no, then you should always ask the question," she said. "For me, that meant picking up the phone to call anyone and everyone I thought could help me start Yellowberry. I had to show, as a young person, I could follow thorough with an idea and wanted to be taken seriously."
