Meagan Loyst has always been career oriented. In high school, she was a self-described “mega-mega-overachiever.” She volunteered at a hospital. She worked at a law firm, did a stint at Citibank, and decided that she enjoyed business strategy. As a student majoring in finance and information systems at Boston College, she fell into the investing world. (She has a picture of herself meeting Warren Buffett.) After college, she worked for the growth equity firm General Atlantic, and then moved to Lerer Hippeau, an early-stage venture capital company.
After tweeting about her desire to meet more Gen Z venture capitalists (meaning those who are younger than 26), Loyst decided to make her wish a reality and created the open Slack group Gen Z VCs. Today, it’s a thriving community of more than 20,000 and Loyst’s full-time job. She was included on the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Still, when Loyst reflects, she feels like her career was relatively unplanned, taking a series of twists and turns.
In conversation, the 25-year-old is a triple threat. She has an easy confidence, excellent storytelling skills—the transcript of our conversation was rarely punctuated by an “um” or “er”—and an innate media savvy. She kicked off our interview by asking me about my background, my passions, and how she could be a helpful resource. (Usually, I ask the questions.) She was wearing a blazer, but in a delightful touch sported a hair ribbon tied in a bow—which summed up the essence of our conversation: professional to the core with a healthy splash of fun.
We chatted about her career journey and the Gen Z VC community. (The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.)
Fast Company: What trends are you seeing in terms of how members of Gen Z are becoming VCs?
Meagan Loyst: For some people, it’s through angel investing, which has become much more accessible in recent years through platforms like Republic that offer different ways to get involved than having a lot of money to be able to deploy. But also, entrepreneurship is becoming a bigger focus on college campuses, versus just the traditional banking, consulting, accounting. Some people are even doing it through content creation. They’re building TikTok accounts and creating content, which is opening up doors to venture funds that are looking for that type of experience.
But then you still see the traditional people who do banking transition into investing; same thing with consulting. Broadly, I think Gen Zers are opening up the doors and showing what’s possible, and that no traditional background is required to do a job like this.
What are some common characteristics you’ve noticed in Gen Z VCs?
A really interesting one is the blending of entrepreneurship and venture. Many young people want to start their own funds one day; it’s something like north of 70% or 80% of Gen Z investors. That’s very different from what has happened in the industry historically. People view venture as an apprenticeship model where you’re learning from the best.
Gen Zers, in general, are very entrepreneurial and creative and interested in side hustles and following your passion. Gen Z VCs was my side hustle for two years, and it’s now become my full-time job. You see a lot of young people who start communities start event series to help them elevate their personal brand, in addition to the work that they’re doing at their respective funds. I’m a very big believer that the future of VC is creator-led, and Gen Z are very much paving the way in that regard.
What are some of the biggest challenges you and other Gen Z VCs face?
I think when you are the youngest person in the room, sometimes the only woman in the room, there are always hurdles that you have to jump [over] because people don’t take you seriously. In venture capital, in particular, there’s this notion that the best VCs are former founders, which I very much believe to be true. But by the same token, diverse investing teams create better returns, and people often miss the diversity and age piece. Oftentimes, the perspective that’s missing around the table is the Gen Z perspective. As a Gen Z VC, I’m the voice of the customer. I think about community building through TikTok in a very different way than my managing partners.
I had to validate that [that type of] work adds value to win deals to get founders to talk to me, and basically just get people to take me seriously despite my age. Before I started, the community people were not very forthcoming about being Gen Z. Now people literally have “Gen Z VC” in their bios. The biggest hurdle was really that it was changing the narrative for not only myself but my entire generation: We have a voice that really matters when it comes to innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital.
What topics tend to get the most traction and conversation in your Slack community?
Many different things. Hiring is a big one: open roles. Sometimes it’s just conversations around mentorship. But oftentimes people will introduce themselves and they’ll get a flood of DMs from people who want to chat. Those friendships move offline, which is great. That’s why Gen Z VCs exists. It’s to meet and find your people and trade notes. You’ll see founders post and they’ll find angel investors. It’s a great place to share information and find connections.
What are things that the other age groups could be doing better to accommodate Gen Z, or things that you feel like we’re just sort of misunderstanding as a society?
Creating space for feedback from Gen Z and for elevating the ideas of young people versus just squashing them down to fit your narrative. That’s probably the most important thing that needs to happen. There are companies that are doing a really good job of that. Estée Lauder has a reverse mentorship program, where Gen Z are actually mentoring the CEOs of their different beauty divisions.
Gen Z is the most diverse generation in terms of sexual orientation, gender, race. We represent 35% of the global population, $143 billion in spending power, we are a [segment of] workers and consumers that is very hard to ignore. And if you’re not sort of speaking to this generation and adapting to the way that we think or at least . . . taking [those things] into consideration, . . . you miss out on a lot. It’s smart business to be thinking about proactively bringing these Gen Z voices around the table to be able to make proactive decisions versus react.
What structures could we be building into our education system to make VC more accessible?
Talking about it in different classes, not just business school. We need to dispel the myth that you have to have a degree or special qualifications to become an investor. It’s also focusing on the actual skill sets around what it takes to become a successful investor and teaching that. Awareness is also a big factor: I don’t think the average person cares about venture capital as it stands—but they do care about Glossier. Glossier is about venture capital. There are ways to bring investing into the conversation that grabs people’s attention and makes them get excited.
People hear finance and they are like, “Oh, that’s not for me, I’m not really a numbers person,” or “I don’t want to sit behind my desk all day.” Venture capital is technically a finance career, right? But that is not what your day looks like. You’re out meeting founders, you’re talking to people, you’re going to events. Yes, you’re doing some work and financial models, but the earlier you go, there are no financial models. There need to be more conversations around what it’s actually like to be in the job versus thinking that it’s a career in finance.
Is there anything else you want to add that we didn’t cover?
One of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned is like, you kind of have to be open to serendipity and putting your ideas out in the world, which can feel really scary as a young person. When I started at Lerer Hippeau, I had not really tweeted before. I had 50 followers on Twitter. I did not do anything on LinkedIn.
Gen Z VCs started from literally just a tweet. Now I have 40,000 followers on Twitter. I’m a LinkedIn top voice and one of the top 10 Gen Z creators on LinkedIn. And that all stems from literally just being like, Hey, there’s a missing perspective out there. How can I add my perspective to the equation, and elevate my peers along the way, and make it feel larger than just myself? If you have a great idea, don’t be afraid to use your voice and make it a reality.
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