Utah millennials finding success launching entrepreneurial endeavors

“With $100 and a laptop, you can start an e-commerce website,” said another millennial entrepreneur, Mark Pittman, 26, founder and CEO at Blyncsy, which provides a fast service platform through which he sells data on the movement of people.

Imagine being 24 years old and selling your business for $54 million.

That was the case for Garrett Gee, a former student and soccer player at BYU, who sold his iPhone app called Scan to Snapchat, a video-messaging application company, two years ago. Gee, like some other young entrepreneurs, attributes their success to some of the characteristics and resources — ease with the Internet, for example — that are quintessentially millennial.

About four years ago, after Gee got home from his LDS mission, he bought a smartphone and tried to find a good scanner app so that he could scan QR codes and bar codes, but he wasn’t pleased with what the market had to offer. He decided he would build his own app with the help of Google and a couple of classmates.

“For me, it was just Googling it and doing research for it on my own, and then finding other students who were starting to do the same thing,” Gee said.

“Something that is new to the millennial generation is that from my dorm room I could think of an idea, design it and build it myself, and then sell to anyone in the world for anyone to download or purchase.”

As Gee sees it, a degree has become less and less important compared to his developed skills. After he sold his app and soccer season had ended, Gee dropped out of school and is now traveling the world with his family. With a laptop handy, he is able to continue to develop software and apps while on the go.

“With $100 and a laptop, you can start an e-commerce website,” said another millennial entrepreneur, Mark Pittman, 26, founder and CEO at Blyncsy, which provides a fast service platform through which he sells data on the movement of people.

Pittman works with cities in particular, to provide them with traffic data, allowing them to synchronize traffic lights more effectively, and for business development purposes. Some of his clients are the University of Utah and the city of Park City. He plans to cover the majority of the Wasatch Front with his Blyncs censors this year.

He said the barriers to starting a business have become very minimal, and the support from the University of Utah was equally crucial for Pittman.

“I would have not started the company without the University of Utah and the Lassonde Institute,” he said, referring to the nationally ranked business incubator geared toward business innovation. He received a scholarship to build a business while a student through hands-on learning and also benefited from a grant through the university’s program called “Get Seeded.” It gave him the capital to start his business. He received $10,000.

Pittman said that the most important characteristic setting apart his generation from his parents’ is “the mentality and the mindset.”

“I think differently than they do,” he said. “They grew up in a generation where you found a career and you entered that career, and I have the mentality that if there is something I want to do, then I’m doing that.”

Pittman went to law school but decided not to be a lawyer. He didn’t like a Fortune 500 gig that he was going to get as an MBA student, so he decided to do something different and take a risk.

The question in his mind was never, “Can I do this and is this a risk I can take?” he said. “It was more like, ‘How do I do it?’” He believes this is one of the most important mentality differences of the millennial generation.

Another millennial who took a risk is David Toledo. The 27-year-old co-founded Power Practical, a company that produces portable power solutions and whose flagship product is the Powerpot, which can charge mobile devices through a USB port by heating water in a lightweight pot.

The technology received over $100,000 on Kickstarter, $250,000 through Mark Cuban companies on “Shark Tank,” and a lot of mentorship and support through the Lassonde Institute. His success includes having his product sold in Cabela’s, REI and similar stores.

“The single most useful tool that we have, that previous generations didn’t, is the Internet and Google, which allows you to become an expert in many, many things that normally we just wouldn’t have access to,” Toledo said. “By being able to Google, ‘I want to start into this industry, how do you do that?’ you can do the research and find out.”

Toledo’s path included earning his degree in engineering at the University of Utah in 2010 and pursuing his Ph.D. in engineering at Cornell University. However, he decided to take a leave of absence and came back to Salt Lake City when Power Practical’s first product launched into retail.

“Why I wanted to become an entrepreneur was that I was in graduate school. I felt like if I was to work as hard for myself as an entrepreneur, I could do more in the same amount of time that I could spending it in graduate school, and, ultimately have more freedom in life after that,” he said.

“For myself, as a millennial, and for other people who are in my generation, it’s kind of this idea of freedom and being able to do what you want. Whether or not starting a company really gives you very much freedom is another argument. It is the impression.

“You are on the Internet, which is something that’s big in our generation and not previously. And, you see these lifestyles people are living and the idea of what freedom really is, and traveling. Again, [it’s] doing what you want and not being a part of a corporate machine, so to speak, that was definitely the big attraction for me,” explained Toledo.

Troy D’Ambrosio, executive director of the Lassonde Institute, said that he has seen a big increase in the number of students entering the entrepreneurial programs at the University of Utah over the past 12 years.

“There has been a big change in attitude among the millennial generation, driven by the desire to have more control over their career,” he said, attributing the attitude change to millennials watching the previous generation experience the misfortunes of the recession.

D’Ambrosio said he cannot determine if millennial entrepreneurs are willing to take more risks than those in previous generations or if the entrepreneurial climate is just less risky, with less capital needed to start a business, thanks to advances in software.

Similarly, he said it is too early to determine whether the millennial entrepreneurs are more successful than the generations prior.

“It depends on how you measure success, whether or not they are looking to build a billion-dollar company, or just control their destiny and future,” he said.

As for millennials’ reputation of feeling entitled, Gee sees that as a positive because that attitude has empowered him as an entrepreneur.

“I definitely feel entitled, but not necessarily in a spoiled way — more so in an inner-confidence way. Like, anything is possible, and if anything is possible, then why don’t I deserve to create anything, to accomplish anything, to achieve anything?” he said.

“So it’s more of a virtuous trait — to change the world for the better, because I am a special person and everyone is a special person. So, when people say, ‘Millennials are entitled,’ I totally agree with them, but I think it’s a good thing.”

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