New Report: What matters to Singapore’s Gen-Z founders?

Posted: 17 November, 2021

What will make today’s founders the leaders of the future?

Singapore’s next generation of founders are diverse, but they have a few things in common. Having grown up under the shadows of the 2008 financial crisis, seismic shifts in Southeast Asia, and a global pandemic, the up-and-coming generation are re-evaluating their career prospects. Importantly, they’re no longer content with the status quo – or to climb the corporate ladders used by generations before.

They’re driven to make a difference.

We wanted to understand these future founders’ perspectives on entrepreneurship. We wanted to know what challenges they faced; where there ambitions are; and where there are areas of leverage in the ecosystem.

We worked with international data and research group YouGov to conduct an online survey with emerging and aspiring entrepreneurs based in Singapore.

This is what we discovered.

Singapore's Future Founders

Our Key Findings

  • Passion is overrated: Gen Z’s list passion last on their list of key founder traits. Instead, 76% chose ‘problem solving’ as most important, followed by vision (74%) and risk-taking (68%).
  • Time is on our side: Nearly 9 out of 10 (89%) Singaporean founders are first-timers with 2 in 3 (61%) having spent less than 4 years in the working world before launching their startup.
  • Foundations of a functioning society matter: Founders are targeting industries in Food and Agriculture, Finance, Education, Entertainment, and Clean Technology.
  • It is not just about the money: 64% of Gen Z equally value their autonomy
  • Who you build with can make or break the company: 57% of Gen Z founders believe that finding a compatible co-founder matters the most.
Read the full report
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