HackerNoon: What is your company in 2–5 words?
Meagan Loyst: Community for next-gen innovators.
Why is now the time for your company to exist?
Gen Z is coming into our peak spending/working years and we want to make an impact in several areas of our lives -- venture capital and entrepreneurship are two ways to do exactly that, creating impact at scale by founding and investing in the companies of the future that we'll interact with every day... in healthcare, education, finance, tech, climate, and beyond. Who better to solve problems our generation is facing than us -- the people who know the depth of these problems first-hand and can approach it with a new perspective!
What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?
Gen Z VCs has 28,000+ members from 80 countries, all founders, VCs, operators, and students. It's a hyper collaborative ecosystem where we all aim to support one another as we elevate our careers, all with a central mission to make our industry more accessible and transparent for those who come after us.
If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?
Writing! I have a monthly column in The Times focused on highlighting strategies founders and startups are using to reach Gen Z, and I absolutely love it. I'm also a content creator with 200K+ followers across Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok... but got my start in content creation through writing deep dives on investment themes like EdTech, PetTech, emerging tech like the metaverse, and more. Content has opened up doors to consulting with orgs like FIFA, Sony Pictures, and UEFA, public speaking opportunities, and more -- it's such a huge unlock for young people looking to find their footing and make their voices heard.
At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics?
Each of our initiatives measure impact tangibly -- for example, our marketplace with discounts for Gen Z founders has saved them over $8M on their startup stack when they're first starting out. Many Gen Z founders are first-time founders figuring things out, so we're happy to be their partners helping them navigate the early days of getting off the ground. Our VC 101 course helps educate the next generation of investors for free with content specifically geared towards young analysts, associates, and students -- 1,300 people have taken our course, and it's helping the next-generation break into investing.
In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom?
Community, education, and services for the next generation of founders, investors, students, and operators. We have a global Slack group with 450K+ messages and 28K+ members, VC 101 course, discount marketplace for founders, job board, student fellowship, and host events in several cities.
What’s most exciting about your traction to date?
The way we've reframed the conversation around the place young people hold in the VC space, which has historically been reserved for people with more experience (ie: former founders, long-time operators, etc.). That's not to say we're replacing anyone or that experience in this industry isn't highly valuable to founders (it absolutely is!). However, when it comes to investing and supporting founders, diversity is important and that includes age, especially when those founders are building for the next-generation.
We're effectively serving as the voice of the customer on the board, and can support on different issues from our GPs. We've proven our skillsets can be complementary to that of broader investment teams with more years of experience.
Where do you think your growth will be next year?
I'm currently at the University of Oxford doing research into ways to create systemic change in venture capital, creating new incentive structures to help young people begin to build wealth and simultaneously create impact. The potential solution is a new type of fund vehicle, which could take shape via Gen Z VCs!
Tell us about your first paying customer and revenue expectations over the next year.
Gen Z VCs doesn't have paying customers, as our community is focused on accessibility and thus our initiatives are free as is our community. We offer resources!
What’s your biggest threat?
People who choose not to look at the VC industry with an open-mind and are receptive to change.