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How I created a social enterprise for Gen Z

Jenk Z founder StarterSky

Social Enterprise

London

19 Years

Hi, I’m Jenk, 19 years old from London. I am the Founder and CEO of Thred Media. A social enterprise that focuses on publishing, media, and consulting, all of which is aimed at Gen Z.

What is Thred Media?

What inspired you to start your own business?

When I was eight years old, I presented an ordinary show-and-tell at school. Surprisingly, it changed my life.

 

It took three years to make my presentation a reality. Named iCoolKid, it was a website that provided young people with interesting things to do. What was amazing to me was that young people began to reach out and share their personal stories. Each of the messages gave me a unique insight into Gen Z. It forced me into a realisation that the people who were talking to me faced very real difficulties and yet these were never described as such to me before.

 

To be confronted with gay Russian teenagers confiding their suicidal thoughts having tried to come out to their parents or having girls talking about makeshift period products out of litter, were extraordinary experiences for someone at age 11. These conversations traversed a spectrum of social change issues and opened a curiosity to the outside world, which was striking for someone having grown up in a safe, middle-class household. Perhaps earlier than most people, I was led to question how I could take my incipient platform and actually help young people.

 

Initially, I thought the best means of doing this was to share my experiences in the hopes it would help others to recognise their potential. Then I encountered the work of Raj Chetty and realised a harsh reality: most young people face barriers which prevent them from bringing their ideas to life.

 

This led me to restructure iCoolKid and in July 2020, Thred.com went live housing daily news coverage on all aspects of social change. For me, Thred was my opportunity to communicate with the people behind the messages, and in turn, they helped ignite my motivations. It helped me to find my purpose: to inform, inspire, and impact as many like-minded people as possible to act locally to affect global change at scale.

 

Details of restructuring:

In 2019- embarked on a new journey that involved 4 steps:

  • 1st- Renamed iCoolKid to Thred

  • 2nd- Refocused the content to be 100% social change, not just part, but the whole thing.

  • 3rd- Repositioned the demographic, moving from 8-13-year-olds, upward to 16-24+

  • Lastly, Restructured the company to include consulting alongside the publishing vertical

Finally, in July 2020 we hard launched Thred.com – a whole new website that was 100% social change focused and thredmedia.com hard launched Jan 2023.

How did you go from idea to product? Take us through your process of starting and building your business.

Step 1 - Define our comparative advantage and then become the best at one thing based on our advantage- Gen Z and social change already had good tailwinds…

 

In our case:

  1. Structure- Publisher + Community of Gen Z Influencers + Consulting Agency = Three pillars under one roof

  2. Content-Type- Solely focused on Gen Z & Social Change 100% of the time

  3. Language/Reach- Gen Z in 17 languages and reach 220 countries and territories

  4. Audience Insights- No need to rent an audience- we have one that’s 200k+ strong- real-time

 

Step 2 - Market our unique structure and expertise to brands/agencies/research houses who believe our value-add relative to their existing in-house offering. For example, we just became the primary Gen Z arm of Ogilvy Consulting after working with them for 18 months on both white-labelled projects and public projects such as co-authoring public research.

 

Step 3 - Target brands where we think we can truly add value:1) aging badly into Gen Z; 2) companies looking to make social change part of their operating system.


Process of launching:

Public Speaking (best place to get clients), Press (offer up commentary on your area of specialisation to research houses and journalists), LinkedIn outreach (follow and qualitative comments) and promotion across social media- content is king. Promote Skills/Perspective/Experience. 

 

Skills:

  • Gen Z consultant by profession

  • Able to listen closely to the client, will be able to fully understand the brief and be able to go away and work independently while staying focused on the task at hand.

  • Work collaboratively with other Gen Zers in order to achieve the most value-added outcome for the client.

  • Deliver an experienced, digestible and actionable approach to understanding the beliefs and behaviours of Gen Z and how to implement them using co-creation strategies.

 

Perspective:

  • Speak from a ‘we’ voice rather than an ‘I’ voice- bring my personal perspective to the table but more importantly, I can bring a perspective from across a wider range of youth rich micro-communities.

  • That perspective includes behavioural insights that reflect a combination of both demographic and psychographic trends and transformational forces creating the change in consumer habits before they hit an apex point.

 

Experience:

  • Consulting for both legacy and heritage brands looking to gain share of mind and thus share of wallet for several years.

  • Google’s 1st Gen Z Council, working with them for 4-5 hours per week on youth media platform usage and search habits at a time when TikTok was stealing search volume.

  • Worked closely with several food and beverage brands- Coca-Cola on both the Coke/Jack Daniels and Absolute/Sprite research.

  • Primary research and creative campaign work for Dunkin Doughnuts on their competitive positioning relative to Starbucks.

  • Most recently, working with Hilton brands globally as Gen Z food and travel trends have evolved so meaningfully.

 

Case Studies:

  • Google- Gen Z Council- 4 months, 2x week, homework, 15 people US + UK

  • Coke- focus groups for Coke/Jack Daniels and Sprite/Absolute- habits around canned alcoholic beverages

  • Ford- European management day- key note plus 16 breakout groups focused around Gen Z consumer habits- especially round mobility

  • Hilton- corporate influencer program- 20 luxury travel & food experts- 1-on-1 confidential interviews

  • Dunkin- primary research report on food and beverage habits- 20x 90 minutes interviews around Dunkin’s 5 main pillars/beliefs

  • Ogilvy- primary Gen Z research arm- 3 published Gen Z reports- newest one ‘Gen Z’s Workforce Reality: A Generational Opportunity for Brands- How Brands Can Respond to Gen Z’s Shifting Education & Employment Paradigm’ - focus how brands can lean into what the syllabus left out- filling the skills gap

  • Canvas8- co-authored 3 reports around Gen Z consumer habits and future casting Gen Z trends

What are the lessons you have learned? 

  • Time management, scheduling and not saying YES to everything!!

  • Secondly, I would say learning to understand people.

  • Hiring becomes your best asset but they walk out the door every night so you better stay close to them and understand their goals, what drives their fulfillment and purpose for being there.

How are you funding your startup? 

Internally through consulting work, public speaking and help from my parents when needed. We don't disclose revenues but it's 6 figures per year.

Jenk young founder Startersky

How did you grow your business? How do you get your customers?

Back in July 2020, I founded Thred Media- a social enterprise that focuses on 4 things: Publishing, Media, Consulting and Production aimed at Gen Z. I currently employ 10 people who work in our London office and 20 remote writers.

 

We have 3 main pillars that triangulate to form Thred Media:

1st Pillar- Publishing- website Thred.com

  • The central tenet of the publishing pillar is the 100% social change-focused website where we house daily coverage and analysis on all aspects of positive social change.

  • The website is available in 17 languages and reaches people in 220+ countries/ territories​

 

2nd Pillar- Thred Media Community- Zero & First-party data insights

Six community pools come together to form the basis of our insights:

website readers- social media followers- newsletter subscribers- change maker directory & network- discord channel

​

3rd Pillar- Consulting- website ThredMedia.com

We use Gen Z behavioural insights and the power of social change to build a stronger future for people + planet + brands

  • Top-down (companies & Govs) and Bottom Up (education, personal lifestyle & NGOs)

  • We grow companies/brands by helping them understand the beliefs, behaviours and transformational forces motivating Gen Z employees & consumers

What advice do you have for budding founders?

‘Don’t fear failure, but be very terrified of regret’

  • Failure is very cheap relative to a life of regret

  • Do you want to be the person who thought about it or the person who did it?

Are you looking to hire anyone?

  • Remote Writers - Gen Z journalists stationed around the globe, on the ground, shining a light on genuine issues.

  • Sales - outreach to brands and account coverage.

What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve learned about entrepreneurship?

It's much harder than you could ever have imagined. The competition is relentless and you feel like you are never moving forward or have time to celebrate the small wins.

What role has your family or support system played in your entrepreneurial journey?

  • My parents have been 100% supportive and mentors have been 100% necessary given my age and lack of experience starting out. So Yes and Yes!

  • The benefits of having mentors in my life cannot be overstated. I feel like they have been integral and pivotal in helping me think through so many issues.

  • They don’t need to be professionals, they just need to be people who are great listeners, give sound advice and want to partner with you on your journey.

  • It’s really empowering to have people around you who are prepared to give you their time, advice and encouragement on everything from personal matters to academics to career choices. They’ve helped me set goals and explore opportunities that never crossed my mind.

  • There is nothing a good chat can’t solve so start now and surround yourself with mentors going forward.

 

I want to give everyone a few astonishing facts that should make you reach out and get a mentor right now:

  1. Mentees are promoted 5x more often than those not in a mentoring program

  2. 40% more likely to achieve goals if you write them down- which increases to 70% if your goals are shared with a mentor

  3. 84% said mentors had helped them avoid costly career mistakes and lastly…

 

  • Start with one mentor and look to build your team of mentors over time.

  • Look at your circle of extended family, friends, teachers, work colleagues, and people you have a connection to who may be working in the industry/sector most closely aligned with your discussion points.

  • Secondly, look at more formal programs that are on offer with your employer, job centres, charities, and recognised commercial organisations providing this type of service in your area.

  • Ultimately, you are trying to create your very own ‘Life, Idea or Career - Board of Directors’

Where can we find you?

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