There’s a new generation of founders on the rise — and they’re not old enough to vote.
Generation Alpha was born between 2010 and 2024, making the oldest members 16 years old. That’s the age Stripe’s John Collison cofounded his first company, and when Mike Kittredge set the stage for Yankee Candle.
Let’s face it: Gen Alpha founders are coming in hot. Many VCs have already been pitched by them; others will be soon.
“What I’ve noticed about Gen Alpha is they seem to have a ton of hustle,” said Sarah Catanzaro, a general partner at Amplify. “They tend to have an advantage in markets where execution may be more important than experience.”
Business Insider asked five venture capitalists to share their advice for Gen Alpha entrepreneurs. They spoke about AI, social media — and that pesky college question.
The ChatGPT generation
When ChatGPT premiered in 2022, the oldest of Gen Alpha were 12.
Gen Alpha has had AI tools since middle school, if not earlier. They’ve used AI to write their essays and cheat on tests. They’ve also used it to build new products.
Catanzaro thinks critical thinking could take a hit. She’s seen it in Gen Z already: they grew up with the internet and could look up answers to their problems rather than thinking them through.
“I worry a little bit about that type of cognitive offloading for Gen Alpha,” she said.
It’s too early to know exactly how, or even if, AI will change our thinking patterns. Researchers told Business Insider they observed alarming patterns while studying how humans solve math equations and write essays.
On the other hand, Catanzaro said Gen Alpha might be able to wield AI more effectively, precisely because they grew up with it. Zeno partner Jake Jolis agrees: the barriers to entry have never been lower, and Gen Alpha will know how to climb them.
“You don’t have to raise a trillion dollars to build your own superintelligence,” Jolis said. “You can rent it for 20 bucks a month.”
To college or not to college
Before his VC days, Jolis dropped out of Stanford to found his first company.
He knows young founders are itching to drop out of college or forgo it altogether. Jolis had built his product while at Stanford and left to pursue it full-time. This, he said, was a good reason for Gen Alpha to skip higher education: if they have a clear plan and some customers.
Beyond those specific cases, Jolis said college grads will be happier in the long run. “I would encourage people to think of their life as a whole, more than just this particular startup,” he said.
There’s an anti-college movement ripping through Silicon Valley these days. Palantir has a fellowship for high schoolers; Andreessen Horowitz backed a college alternative.
Mo Shaikh, the cofounder of Maximum Frequency Ventures, heard pitches from some Gen Alpha founders at the Alpha School, an AI-focused network of institutions. He came away impressed: “Some of these kids have six-figure businesses already.”
Still, Shaikh sees value in the college degree, especially from a place like Stanford. College is for “cross-pollination,” he said: founders see other worldviews and can then understand them in their customers.
Be online — but don’t fall for the clout trap
How should a 16-year-old get their startup off the ground? Shaikh said get online.
Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are where founders are “looking for signals,” Shaikh said. Gen Alpha has grown up with these platforms. It’s the generation of brain rot.
Kristina Simmons, the founder of Overwater Ventures, has watched the rise of the influencer-turned-founder. She’s interested in it: these founders might have insight into their audience that others don’t, Simmons said.
Still, Simmons had a word of caution. “It’s not just having followers,” she said. “They’ll come.”
For Claire Zau, a partner at Lightspeed, becoming famous on social media can be a “trap” for Gen Alpha founders. These 15-year-olds look for social media clout, she said, and sometimes disregard the nuts and bolts of building.
Zau knows that Gen Alpha grew up on smash successes like MrBeast and Alix Earle. They can help a young founder, she said — but not in the way you might expect.
“The lesson there is not necessarily the ‘get famous’ part,” Zau said. “It’s that there’s so much importance in obsessing over product.”
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