According to a recent piece from The Atlantic, startups are losing their luster and — as is customary these days — the lion’s share of the blame is being directed at millennials.
“A lack of personal savings, competition from abroad, and the threat of another economic downturn make it harder for Millennials to thrive as entrepreneurs,” the story said, adding that the “share of people under 30 who own a business has fallen to almost a quarter-century low.”
Those numbers seem to be reflective of the psyche of our oft-maligned generation, too. As the story noted, a recent survey “found that more Millennials believed they could have a successful career by staying at one company and attempting to climb the ladder than by founding a new one.”
But the story was also quick to mention that it’s a general money problem, not necessarily a generational one: even those of us that do have the itch to start something new are having trouble securing the funds to do so, whether it be through VCs, personal savings, or interpersonal loans.
As a result, the story said, the opportunities for young people “to start compelling start-ups… has vastly shrunk,” prompting one former Y-Combinator executive to say that they’re “a lot less cool than they used to be.”
And while companies like Apple and Google might be happy with the new landscape, the story did say that “there is plenty of cause for concern” — “in a world with less pressure from start-ups” it’s probably fair to question whether the established players will “have any reason to innovate.”
Read more at The Atlantic.
