MILLENNIAL BASHING? NOT SO FAST, BOOMER

via rocksarehard.com

Baby Boomers need to stop Millennial bashing for the sake of all.

Remember the generation too lazy to work, to loaded to care, and too free to stick around?

Were those millennials or boomers?

Self pampered boomers look at millennials today with everything from disgust to loathing, especially since they raised them. They are experts at millennial bashing.

Too much adulation of kids? Too much emphasis on winning a trophy handed to everyone? Millennials have heard it all, with boomers in the lead.

If everybody needs someone to look down on, boomers have found their target.

Time Magazine ran a column about smart boomers needing millennials to represent them in presentations, business presentations. Why? Well it isn’t ageism, is it? Is it subtle millennial bashing?

Or maybe no one trusts anyone over thirty. Still.

A smart business man gets hired and told he’s all the company hoped for, but that he’d need a mouthpiece to make his message stick.

Millennial mouthpiece to the rescue.

It probably works, but what is that dynamic? I checked in with a local businessman.

– What would you think of someone your kid’s age speaking for you in front of venture capitalists with open wallets?

+ I wouldn’t mind, but I’ve got a problem with start-ups in general.

– Like Uber and AirBnB?

+ Good examples. I’m sure they make money, but how much? Enough to go public? Seems not.

– They are valued in the billions.

+ Valued by who? I saw a Portland company story, Puppet Labs, in the Oregonian. Valued at a billion and they’re getting ready for their IPO. Not billions, just one billion.

– Sounds like a lot of money.

+ It’ll always be a lot of money, but think about a smaller scale. Imagine I’m your Angel Investor. You come to me asking for half a million for your start-up. It’s either you or your millennial mouthpiece. I write the check and you walk away with $500,000.

– Thank you.

+ Maybe you pay yourself $100,000, put $50,000 into promotions, and bank the rest. You’ve got a three or four year window to get more money, make money, or go down.

– I’m motivated to kick ass hard enough to get to an IPO.

+ And I’m motivated too. If I can sell my stake in your company for double the money I’ll feel good. I’m not in for the long haul.

– Or you might lose all of your investment.

+ Happens all the time. Before you go broke you push your profile, sell some advertising, get your millennials to beat the brush for a new round of funding. And they do. But you’re not making enough money to break even.

– I need better millennials?

+ That’s not it. Too many start-ups are flash and dash. Here and gone. The valuations jump up, then the whole show closes and disappears. People with lots of money to spend because other investments are down, the market is flat, and interest rates low, so they invest in new technology hoping for a jackpot.

– That’s how it works?

+ Too often. In the dot bomb era I ran a department in a big company. We had a training section. One day I have an appointment with an online training company who would do the same thing my straining section did. All it would take is a quarter million dollars to start.

– Did you do it?

+ The answer to every question was, “Because we’re on the internet. It’s the future.” No I didn’t cut that check. Because something is online doesn’t make it better or more worthy.

– Like having a millennial mouthpiece?

+ There’s a correlation there.