According to The Business Journals earlier this month, new data reveals that Gen Z workers prioritize their wellness over a higher salary and are more interested in health benefits and flexible work than bigger paychecks. In that same survey, 51% of Gen Zers say they aspire to start their own business.
A June 2026 Deloitte survey found that over half of Gen Z and millennial participants are delaying typical milestones like buying houses and starting families because of their finances, actively choosing stability over tradition. The report claims that younger generations are “accelerating where the opportunity is theirs to control—moving forward thoughtfully, selectively, and on their own terms,” and that’s due to growing economic uncertainty.
The recent and rising interest in entrepreneurship among younger generations isn’t surprising when their preference is to move forward ‘on their own terms.’ The current job market is likely adding to the appeal of business ownership, according to Rick Smith, director of the Human Capital Development Lab at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.
“For many job seekers, this type of job market can be rather discouraging, and the notion of landing a job and working for a company may not have the same appeal as it did a generation or two ago,” he says. “The low-hire, low-fire job market cycle means low volume of hiring, promotions, and general job movement, which may create a sense of stagnation for the existing workforce - especially for early career workers.”
Charting your own adventure
Mitch Turley, a student in Carey’s Flexible MBA program, jumped into entrepreneurship well before the job market took a turn, but he says it’s because he wanted to “chart his own adventure,” consistent with the broader sentiment of his generation, according to the data.
30-year-old Turley applied his engineering background to co-found Somnair in 2024, a startup company developing a lightweight, non-invasive medical device to treat sleep apnea. He previously worked as a research engineer for a medical equipment manufacturer.
As someone who has experienced both career paths, Turley had a positive sentiment toward his 9-5 but realized he wanted more autonomy. “I wanted to have more of an ability to select or chart my own adventure, pick what I thought was really going to matter to patients, and transform their lives—and then also understand the commercial and the business side of things,” he said. “Being rewarded for my own success was the other component of it.”
As an entrepreneur, he also found more of a community and professional network compared to what he experienced in a salaried position.
“Entrepreneurship is a unique space because everyone wants to help each other,” he said. “Other entrepreneurs around Baltimore—around Hopkins—have been really incredible people to meet and become friends with and lean on as we grow our company. I wouldn’t get that with a 9-5 job.”
How an MBA can support startup dreams
Turley describes his entrepreneurial journey as an “all-sided learning experience” that demanded not only his engineering and technical expertise but also required him to gain skills in business management and finance.
“As an entrepreneur, we wear every hat,” Turley said. “For example, I was doing our company accounting and finances and had no idea how to do it or what mattered.”
Through the Johns Hopkins President’s Venture Fellowship, Turley had an opportunity to enroll in the Carey Business School’s Flexible MBA program, which he did eagerly, knowing it could help Somnair succeed.
“I really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to come to Carey because of the fact that my role as president and CTO of the company is overseeing the tech development, but it's also making a lot of business decisions,” he said. “I didn’t necessarily know initially what funders were looking for, what risks they wanted to see mitigated, what questions they were going to ask.”
Turley said that two courses at Carey have helped him run his business: Corporate Finance and Intro to Angel- and Venture Investing.
Somnair has raised about $5 million total in dilutive and non-dilutive funding. The sleep apnea device could earn FDA approval and enter the market as early as 2028.
Learning in a ‘no-risk environment’
Entrepreneurial endeavors, even in the age of social media and AI, come with financial risk that has historically deterred individuals from choosing this path.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20-24% of businesses fail within their first year of operating.
But Turley said overcoming the risk of going all in on a start-up was something his business school education helped him navigate.
“I was someone that had an entrepreneurship inclination,” Turley said. “But I don't think I would have been able to take that leap without the amount of support from Hopkins, both in terms of curriculum and programs.”
“I was someone that had an entrepreneurship inclination,” Turley said. “But I don't think I would have been able to take that leap without the amount of support from Hopkins, both in terms of curriculum and programs.”
When it came to securing funding, Turley and his team practiced big pitches in what he referred to as a low-stakes environment.
“There have been some extracurricular aspects of the collaboration and partnership with Carey that have been really cool to help us learn in a no-risk environment,” he said. “We can gain a lot from really, really bright students picking our company apart, but we have nothing to lose, and that's not the case when you're talking to an investor. The Hopkins ecosystem has given us dry run opportunities, if you will, to understand how investors are going to respond to us.”
Turley noted that partners like Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures and The Pava Marie La Pere Center for Entrepreneurship have been vital to Somnair’s funding success.
“They were integral as we were closing out our seed round of funding,” he said. “We raised about $4 million in venture funding, and we were able to do that with their support, connections, and mentorship.”
The employer’s POV
If younger talent like Turley are leaving the traditional 9-5 to chase their entrepreneurial dreams, where does that leave employers and the labor economy?
Employers at large have slowed on hiring, with data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that job searches are taking longer than at any other point in the past four years. Smith warns that eventually, the low-fire, low-hire market will change and employers will have to adapt.
“This will force employers to re-think talent attraction and career management plans - to develop more compelling value propositions to employees,” Smith said. “Once the job market changes and there is more demand for workers, employers will develop solutions to obtain the talent needed - even if it means acquiring new firms.”
Smith acknowledges that more workers today place a higher value on work flexibility, which tends to appeal especially to younger workers. Increased flexibility for where and when employees work may be one way for companies to attract and retain younger talent, he says.
