NextGen a.k.a. Gen Z. What makes them different is how they connect with people. They’re not just selling a product—they’re selling a feeling, a vibe, a mission, and often healing people while at it. They’re driven by expertise, personal brand, and self-transformation. We’re entering an era where a 28-year-old is the enterprise. A coach with a smartphone and an audience can impact more lives in a month than a Fortune 500 company in a year. Expertise, packaged well, is scalable.
The catalyst for my decision: Covid. When the world shut down, the rules changed for good. Startups with burn rates bigger than their missions collapsed overnight. Instead, the experts thrived: coaches, consultants, therapists, trainers—people with real knowledge and a message. They picked up their phones, fired up Zoom, and started serving customers directly. Suddenly, investing in IP didn’t mean patents anymore, but ‘personal insights’.
I taught a class called Young Millionaires in 2011, attended by 18 to 22-year-olds. A few years ago, they started their own businesses, and thanked me for teaching them and giving them the courage. Meanwhile, baby boomers are still hoarding wealth, power, and the land—and wondering why you can’t buy a house on minimum wage. Gen X is the ghost generation raised by neglect; fluent in sarcasm, quietly holding everything together while no one notices. Fax machines still fear them. Gen Y built startups to fix their parents’ emotional baggage; now, they’re over-worked, over-anxious, and over-subscribed to mindfulness apps.
Gen Z is emotionally fluent, digitally native, and allergic to BS. Fighting capitalism, climate collapse, and bad Wi-Fi, simultaneously and, somehow, winning. Gen Z entrepreneurs are like a new species. They aren’t just ‘younger Millennials’ or tech-savvy Gen X. They’ve grown up on a burning planet with a thrashed economy and dying institutions. They don’t build businesses for fun—they build to survive and make a difference. They’ve seen enough of the old systems to know they don’t work, and they’re not interested in fixing them. They’re creating something entirely new, living online 24/7, making content, growing communities, and selling their ideas at incredible speed. But that constant visibility takes a toll. It’s hard to keep your sense of self when you’re always performing.
They’re emotionally intelligent, but burnt out and skeptical. They won’t follow you just because you’re older or richer—they need to believe in what you stand for. If you earn their trust, they’ll go all in and aren’t afraid to fail. In fact, they’ll do it in front of everyone, learn from it, and come back stronger.
Gen Z builds from the middle—with communities, networks, and shared ownership, not with hierarchies and titles. If you want to work with them, don’t hand them a rulebook. Show up, be real, and build with them. They don’t want permission—they want purpose. And if you don’t get it, they’ll quickly leave you behind, even if they don’t know where they’re going. Because they’re unapologetically personal and build their business from their identity, they know how to attract attention better than any CMO.
They fear not being recognised or validated, and desire the world. They are well-meaning, multi-hyphenate, mission-driven souls; armchair philosophers and part-time meme lords, able to do it all themselves for the moment, and with nowhere to go.
So what’s the plan? Is there one? To see the best of NextGen needs a clear strategy. I’ll be sharing mine soon.
Dato’ Joey Yap is the founder and chief consultant of the Joey Yap Group based in Malaysia and Singapore. Engage with him live in person at NEXTGEN 2025, July 25 to 27 in Kuala Lumpur. Tap here now to save your seat.
5 NextGen Entrepreneurs to check out
Marie Forleo, Life Coach & Online Business Creator
Nataly Kogan, Emotional Fitness Pioneer
Cynthia Johnson, Personal Branding & Digital Marketing Strategist
Daymond John, Brand-Building Icon and Educator (NextGen forefather)
