In high school, Kenan Saleh watched the movie Social networks, Drama account of the early days Facebook. He decided, then and there, that he would one day start a company of his own. “This was the first movie I saw that showed that you can be young and still be the most successful person in the room,” he said. “I definitely simulated Mark Zuckerberg in some way.”
In true Zuckerbergian fashion, Saleh founded the company from his dorm room at the University of Pennsylvania. He raised $500,000 as he prepared for the final and then sell the company to Lyft 2019, the year he graduated. Along the way, Saleh realized she needed a new role model. He no longer wanted to be like Zuckerberg, who by then had been embroiled in a series of scandals. Many people like Steve Jobs, but Jobs is dead, and reading his biography is as engaging as “reading a history book.” Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Bill Gates are still alive, but their contributions to Silicon Valley are already like ancient history. Saleh wanted a hero who was making history.
Young people like to idolize their seniors. Jobs has been Silicon Valley’s idol of choice for decades, but to the next generation of startup founders, his legacy seems as old as Web 1.0. Geniuses like Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel, who became billionaires at the age of 25, have fallen out of favor. So there are tech tycoons like Jeff Bezos. Marc Baghadjian, the 22-year-old founder of a dating startup, said: “We don’t take these idiots for granted. “Just because you’re a billionaire doesn’t mean you’re actively creating change.”
Instead, both Baghadjian and Saleh now worship Elon Musk, who they see as a billionaire on a moral mission. “He showed that you can do the best for the world and reap multiple benefits at the same time,” said Saleh, who started watching videos of Musk while in college.
WIRED asked more than a dozen young startup founders between the ages of 15 and 30 who inspires them. More than half have fostered Musk. Others refer to tech optimists like Sam Altman and Patrick Collison, who seem to believe that technology can solve the world’s biggest problems, or business-philanthropists with lesser known startups. None of them have read books about the history of Apple, Google, or Amazon; they say they are more inspired by forward-looking companies trying to solve the world’s biggest problems.
Olav Sorenson, who has taught entrepreneurship at UCLA and at Yale, says his students tend to admire people who have “successful without selling.” Some people cite Seth Goldman – founder of Honest Tea, now chairman of Beyond Meat’s board – as an inspiration because “he has focused his energies on investing and supporting businesses with an ethical mission,” says Sorenson.
“This generation is looking at all the problems and trying to say, ‘How can we start to be part of the solution to these problems,’ said Lori Rosenkopf, vice dean of entrepreneurship at the University. the problem that the older generation has created for us?’ of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Rosenkopf says that in the last few years, she’s noticed a shift in the way students talk about entrepreneurship — not just as a career alternative to banking or consulting, but also as a way to get started start a business with “a much larger social perspective”.
For many young entrepreneurs, Musk exemplifies this mindset. Baghadjian, who has read Ashlee Vance’s, said: “Elon Musk is really looking for the mistakes that other generations have made. Musk’s biography in high school and have considered him a hero ever since. Baghadjian says that while companies like Amazon and Apple have made big innovations, Musk’s work with electric cars and solar power is much more important.
Other young people have been inspired by the words of the founder of the startup, who are struggling on the road to success. One person mentioned Musk sleeping on the floor in Tesla headquarters, which they said showed grit. Some people also mentioned the story of Airbnb founder Brian Chesky, who maxed out his credit cards and ramen in the early days of his startup.
