Has content creation officially replaced entrepreneurship for the next generation?
If you look at the youngest self-made millionaires today, they aren’t building software or manufacturing products. They’re streamers, YouTubers, and gamers.
The reality is that "real" entrepreneurship has become heavily gatekept. To build a serious startup, you usually need a trust fund, an Ivy League degree, or a massive network of VCs. Even the "business" advice sold to young people online, like dropshipping or AI automation, is mostly a scam where the only ones getting rich are the people selling the courses.
Content creation is the only path left with zero barrier to entry. You don't need capital or permission to start; you just need a phone. It’s one of the few fields where your success isn't tied to who you know or where you went to school.
Ultimately, has the entertainment industry become more meritocratic than the business world? While entrepreneurship now requires institutional backing and resources most people don't have, content creation just requires you to show up and perform. Is a YouTube channel now a more logical bet for a young person than a traditional business?
Kai Cenat is a young guy who started with nothing and built an eight-figure empire just by being entertaining. It’s pure merit, the audience chose him. On the flip side, Alexandr Wang became a 20-something billionaire, but he was the son of wealthy PhD physicists and went to MIT.
Not really, no.
This statement is comical. Most of the famous influencers you've seen online come from incredibly privileged backgrounds that afforded them the opportunity to actually pursue content creation full time. Also, with YouTube you're competing with way more people and way less opportunity to stand out.
Most startups never receive VC funding. By a long shot. Also, the assumption you need an ivy league degree is wrong. You see it be common place that VCs do fund ivy league people, but VC stats usually show that they far prefer to fund people with decades of experience and a strong technical background. Some examples might be a supply chain tech firm. A VC would not fund a student to run this, but a person with a decade of experience in supply chain management and optimization would 100% get funding from someone.
This general assumption seems to stem from the idea that most "serious" startups are the ones you hear about in the news, but if you reach crunchbase you'll see 95% of "serious" startups sell before ever getting to a multi billion dollar point, as most are happy to simply cash in a couple hundred million dollars.
Dropshipping and Ai stuff is dumb, but there are serious businesses out there making people really good money that are just not very fancy.
This is some insane selection bias. Kai Cenat has been exceptionally lucky to end up where he has. I'm not saying he isn't hard working and talented, but the idea that in a million alternative worlds, he'd re-create this success, is wrong. Alexandr Wang is an extreme case of being in the right place at the right time. For every Alexandr and Scale, there are 100 small b2b SAAS companies making a couple hundred million making software for extremely niche problems.
It's hard to tell exact statics on failure rate of startups vs influencers, but I would bet a whole lot that you're more likely to consistently be successful in entrepreneurship than in influencing.
Isn't being a content creator in some ways being an entrepreneur?
I didn’t read the majority of your post so if my response is off then that’s why but no. Look at the trades, I know more folks in my hometown / adjacent who own their own plumbing/electrician/welding/landscaping companies who make $500k in a good year, and $200k in others. They have introduced management and are in seriously good financial spots. Is it founding the next Apple? No. Does it provide more societal value? Yes.
Of course, but here I’m talking about millions of dollars, while still being young.
Ah fair - then I’d say it’s been consolidated to entertainment/influencing but some innovation in tech adjacent sectors
This notion is wrong and therefore your entire premise is wrong. There are low barrier to entry industries out there (at least in terms of financial capital), that young people are using to make solid incomes. In fact those industries include dropshipping and AI automation. The only reason they were sold as courses is because for some people out there they worked. For some. There is an industry for selling info and an industry for being a dropshipper. Just like there is an industry of IB and an industry of selling IB recruitment advice (even though not everyone breaks into IB).
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