NextUp by LvlUp Ventures: Accelerating and Investing In The Next Generation of Transformative Technology Startups, Led by Generation Z

We are in a pivotal time to move the world towards a brighter future. Over the next 10 years, advancements and startups in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Quantum Computing, Web3, Sustainability, and Future of Work will positively transform how people live and work in almost unimaginable ways across every industry interaction from property, health maintenance and improvement, to travel planning, financial services operations, education, and beyond. Who will create many of these startups, and just as importantly, who will lead the adoption the products and services which they create? The answer: Generation Z (Gen Z).

Over the past few decades, according to data from the Harvard Business Review and others, about 41% of startups valued at over $1,000,000,000 were founded by those in the same age bracket as Gen Z is in today and will be over the next 14 years. At the same time, adoption of technology -- one of the most important benchmarks of emerging tech success -- is moving from millennials, who used to be the primary adopters for the past 15 years, to Gen Z. Research from Ernst & Young and Dell Technologies shows that over 80% of its members have a desire to work with cutting-edge technology and 45% aspire to create a business. With this coming to fruition and the rapid advancements in AI, Web3, and other technologies, the development of emerging technology startups, and their impact on work and personal lives will sky rocket, for the positive, largely being led and adopted by Gen Z.

One of the main ways which emerging technologies will affect the world is radically transforming how enterprises operate. This could lead to a 2-digit transition in low-level and mid-level staff in many companies, particularly across finance, medicine, and technology, and largely affecting Gen Z. This generation will make up almost one-third of the workforce by 2030 and due to their young age, will fill most of the positions at the low-and-mid-levels and many at the executive grade. As a result, Gen Z will not only be one of the largest recipients of a gradual mass job transition, but also one of the major drivers of how emerging technology will be used to make that happen and create millions of new roles. A large number of today's jobs are largely focused on completing manual tasks. We see these manual task-oriented positions as Generation 1 jobs. With emerging technology advancements, manual tasks will less often require human completion and be executed by technology. Initially, intervention in these technologies will be required through maintenance and software and hardware improvements. Eventually, maintenance and hands-on improvement roles will no longer be necessary, as products and services will be created that enable technology like AI to develop robust software based on human desires and eventually its own decisions on what bug fixes and improvements to make. While software and hardware development guidance is still necessary, people will be in creative roles that require them to come up with the ideas behind improvements and prompt engineering roles which will aim to provide instructions to AI developers.

Creativity-focused roles are Generation 2 jobs: roles that simply require skills that only humans have: intellect and emotions. These will be positions that are creativity-centered and many of those whose Generation 1 jobs will unfortunately be cut will obtain and create Generation 2 jobs.

Effects of this on the applications of technology will be widespread, from technology service providers, to the medical industry, government, financial services, nonprofit organizations, and more. Software development will become a niche occupation as startups develop technologies and tools which reduce the need for people to create technology themselves, but rather direct these interfaces to create hardware and software. Machine Learning will be able to detect diseases with a higher accuracy than humans and will therefore be used across the medical industry. Human Financial Analysis and Modeling will become unnecessary, taught in Colleges and Universities to those who require knowledge about them purely in order to better understand the technology which completes them. Sustainability will transform, as AI will be able to develop ingenious solutions to solving environmental issues, as well as create plans to execute them based on data and an understanding of psychology which most humans cannot grasp today. Quantum Computing will allow AI to do what it can't today, pushing the bounds of problem solving, solution creation, and game theory. Robotics in many fields and Multi-Planetary exploration and settlement will become substantially easier to envision than they are today. This is a result of the expansion of thought and analysis of ideas that quantum computing will provide for, aiding humans in creativity. The advancements and development of new emerging technologies, just a small number of the ones to come which we can imagine, and the ones which we can't, will enable people to spend more time doing things which make greater use of their natural capabilities and interests.

In addition to major changes to work, most of which will be highly positive, the personal lives of billions of people will drastically change for the better. Ventures will be created to address pain points in radically impactful ways through emerging technology. This will include every step of a process. For example, when traveling, people need to find where to go, what to do, how to get there, what risks to attempt to mitigate, and how/if to share their experiences. Products and services are emerging which make each of these steps, collectively and individually, much easier through innovative approaches. Companies will create consumer-facing and enterprise-facing products and services, from applications, to AI-driven infrastructure, to reimagined travel, to make the world a more connected place and increase people's ability to make use of that change. The way in which people will monitor and aim to improve their health will become highly advanced across many use cases including exercise, food consumption and creation, examinations, and supplements. Financial Technology startups will be developed that deliver more diverse and effective products by utilizing substantially more datapoints and shared services-powered algorithms which will enable small and large startups to tap into resources like Quantum Computing.

With technology and its rapid adoption advancing in radical ways, and Gen Z emerging as a leading force, NextUp by LvlUp Ventures is dedicated to helping turn this vision into reality as of today. One where human lifespan will increase, the environment will become cleaner, and travel will be able to become better and more frequent if desired through greater intra-and-inter-country connectivity. NextUp is the first and only Gen Z-led-and-focused accelerator or venture studio in the world, helping bring transformative startups to market and investing in the most promising ones which moves humankind forward for the better by advancing industries and technologies in AI, Future of Work, Consumer, Sustainability, and Emerging Technology Infrastructure.

We help accelerate and invest in game-changing, pre-launch emerging technology startups through a unique individualized, strategic, and hands-on approach with a focus on Gen Z and a sub-focus on non-Gen Z founders who we aim to assist in developing an effective market adoption strategy. Our team comprises of a diverse and experienced group spanning generations from Gen Z to Baby Boomer, boasting a track record of over 400 investments, numerous successful exits, and IPOs. As a serial Gen Z entrepreneur and investor myself, I am honored to lead this group. With a team of experts in our focus industries, startups, Venture Capital, and Gen Z adoption and trends, thousands of deals annually from our inbound applications, 700 venture scouts, and deal flow network partners like GoAhead Ventures and Capchase, we aim to find and nourish the next generation of game-changing, socially-impactful startups.

Written by Aaron Golbin, Founding Partner and Head of NextUp at LvlUp Ventures.

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