50% of Gen Z Wants To Be Entrepreneurs
A readout from Female Founder's Day, where women are leading the way.
I spent this morning with the Female Founder Collective at their ‘Female Founder’s Day,’ which featured some of the most iconic and successful female entrepreneurs of this decade. Women from all over the country flocked to the Brooklyn event, which included keynote speakers like Spanx and Sneex’s Sara Blakely, and panels with Hill House’s Nell Diamond, Blavity Inc.’s Morgan DeBaun, and Romanek Design Studio’s Brigette Romanek.
The Female Founder Collective was started in 2018 by Rebecca Minkoff and Ali Koplar Wyatt to support and create a network for female founders. At a time when the gender war is playing out in national politics and DEI budgets are being slashed left and right, the Female Founder Collective has doubled down on its mission to back female entrepreneurs. Female founders, especially young ones, are too often overlooked in venture funding. Our current VC environment doesn't reflect the fact that women are building their own businesses in droves (including me 🙋🏼♀️) and 50% of Gen Z says they want to be an entrepreneur.
I was particularly interested to hear how these savvy entrepreneurs are thinking about their shifting audiences and consumer base toward Gen Z.
In a conversation centered on how to scale, Diamond, DeBaun, and Romanek all discussed the way they interface with their consumers and audiences. I was struck by how often the concept of community came up.
Hill House’s viral nap dress took off during the pandemic because it gave women something to look forward to wearing while stuck in lockdown, and something to share with other women (of all ages) – on and offline. I’ve long admired Nell Diamond’s social media strategy: she takes followers behind the scenes of her life as a founder, but also as a mother, a daughter, a friend. Asked how she gets to know her community of consumers, Diamond said she listens to them and meets them in real life. But she also engages online. “I stalk them. We DM them.”
Diamond’s community grew out of the pandemic and the hunger for connection at the time. She said her community “found each other through a feeling,” described as a desire to “put on a pretty dress,” “feel snatched,” and “to feel good,” despite it sometimes feeling “frivolous” – unique to the moment in time. “We are the stewards of this community,” she said, adding, “we didn’t create it, we’re really lucky to have it.” Part of her success comes from being a part of that community herself: “I feel I’m a deep part of it.”
All that was echoed by Morgan DeBaun who emphasized that part of her brand success is “being an in-person events business and having a live events business.” She identified a key component of the consumer experience in 2025: “People have always wanted to feel a sense of belonging.” And while the events may be expensive to produce and don’t always break even, she’s learned to accept that not every part of her business has to have a “crazy profit margin,” so long as it creates impact.
Inspired by the conversation on building community with consumers, I asked my Instagram followers what comes to mind when they think of good and authentic brand-led community engagement. I was struck by the mention of Cocokind, a sensitive skincare company founded by Priscilla Tsai, who was also at Female Founder Day, leading a workshop on “cultivating community.” That same follower mentioned brands that use tyb, aka ‘Try Your Best,’ a community-based rewards app that incentivizes purchases through audience engagement. The platform allows brands to create challenges that promote and prize participation. Companies can engage with their consumers on the app, cultivating a relationship that gives fans autonomy and creates a sense of intimacy with their favorite brands. Users can earn coins and shop directly from their favorites on the platform. The top markets on the platform so far are beauty and skincare, fashion, lifestyle and wellness, and food and beverage.
The main takeaway: Brand loyalty is literally all about community, agency, and connection – and that’s part of the whole ethos behind Female Founder Collective. Younger consumers and audiences are looking for what they feel is a personalized interaction with the brands they’re buying; they like to feel as though they’re shaping the product. Adopting a community-first mindset is what it takes to be an industry leader. Those who lean into that will have a leg up.
Noteworthy reads
‘Gen Z’ the label hurts young people at work – and ‘Gen Beta’ is even more doomed if nothing changes, Dia Gallo for Fortune
Celebrity Nepo Babies Are Doing Amazing Things on TikTok: Here’s a Rundown, Lucy Dolan-Zalaznick for Vogue
A Magazine Gets a New Life – Just as Cool as Its Old Life, Jacob Gallagher for The New York Times
Op-ed: Can Gen Z Truly Opt Out of Capitalism?, Erin Lowry for Bloomberg
5 non-boring NYC influencers to follow, Laura Pitcher for Dazed
Sounds like an awesome event! I love the takeaway about community and in person events, that's what we focus on at The DOTTIE Club and I am glad to hear it's paying off!