The real bottleneck for Gen Z entrepreneurs: many innovative ideas, but lack the courage to make decisions

Acclaimed American venture capital firm 500 Global led a seed round investment in Zeabur, a Taiwanese AI startup that was featured in the startup accelerator program. Zeabur’s founder graduated with a thesis project that became the starting point for their $64 million funding.

Additionally, a popular team model among Gen Z entrepreneurs is the solo founder plus an AI assistant, forming a 1.5-person team.

You’re not lacking ideas; you’re just lacking the resolve to validate them.

Group A mainly consists of early-stage founders exploring directions, new markets, or still in ideation. Their challenges include uncertainty about whether their current path is correct, and too many assumptions to verify where to start.

“Become a determined patient.” This means that when you’re still searching for a direction, what you believe in may not yet be favored by the market. But that doesn’t matter. What’s important is having the resolve to go all-in. Believe in your ideas enough to start. Only with a start can the market help validate your ideas. Without that resolve, your ideas remain just ideas.

Tofus shares that the most inspiring lesson is: we must acknowledge our current situation and then decide to go all-in and give our best effort to achieve what we want.

One example is a team wanting to develop an English learning app. They spent a lot of time researching technical architecture, only to realize: why focus on coding first? Why not directly find someone to teach face-to-face and validate whether the teaching method works? The problem was their obsession with “building an app,” but users only care about “learning English” as the outcome.

Topus emphasizes: abandon the form, and you can better meet the actual need.

Another perspective is that no matter how unique your idea is, it doesn’t matter. What matters is execution and the speed of product iteration. Because only when you turn your idea into a product will people know about it and use it. Ultimately, “still searching for a direction” often isn’t about lacking a direction but about not daring to commit to one.

You’re not lacking exposure methods; you just can’t decide which one to go all-in on.

Inspiration and meaningful relationships often form when there’s no specific purpose.

Group C’s projects mainly require collaboration, but they struggle with how to express themselves and build connections. The key question: how to establish effective networks?

Someone shared their experience of finding partners: many say they want to start a business together, but after talking, they realize they just want to get into grad school or learn something. If you approach networking with a strong commercial purpose, relationships tend to be short-lived. After three months with no collaboration, the connection fades.

The point is: don’t approach people solely for benefits. For example, one participant mentioned that they find it easier to come up with ideas and meet the right people during yoga or jogging. Relaxed states foster more genuine connections than forced socializing.

If you’re a student, approach others with “I want to learn.” Don’t start with “Can you help me with…?” A non-benefit-driven attitude makes it easier to build lasting relationships. But that’s a decision—you must first choose to let go of ulterior motives to truly connect.

The 1.5-person startup model among Gen Z entrepreneurs often gets stuck in details.

Group D’s projects mostly face technical issues: payment integration failures, META disallowing ads, web crawlers being blocked, high costs, tight schedules, deadlines chasing. Interestingly, most teams are just one founder plus an AI assistant—making it a 1.5-person team. Tofus points out that such small teams often get bogged down in details because no one is stepping back to see the bigger picture.

This “1.5-person team” easily falls into a trap of focusing on minutiae, lacking someone to elevate the perspective and guide overall direction. One founder shared that while developing a ticketing platform, they were stuck on feature details until a partner repeatedly asked, “What are you doing tomorrow? What will this product become in three years?” Only then did they realize the problem wasn’t technical but a lack of clear long-term vision.

Another discussion focused on “using product design to filter users.” A team building a KOL matching platform tried to persuade some users to share social data, but they refused, citing the high value of their Facebook assets. The team then adjusted their strategy, using product workflows and thresholds to filter such users instead of ongoing communication. Not all traffic is valuable; for early-stage products, precise targeting is more important than scale—“less is more.”

Overall, Group D agrees that many entrepreneurs are trapped in details not because of lack of ability but because they haven’t clarified what truly matters. In an era where AI can supplement execution, the biggest bottleneck for small teams isn’t “can we do it,” but “should we do it.” Choosing the right direction is replacing technical difficulty as the most critical early-stage decision.

The author adds: Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, once predicted that in the AI era, taste will become even more important. When anyone can produce anything, the real difference lies in what you choose to create. Coincidentally, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman recently said: “Taste” is a new core skill. Why do these heavyweights emphasize “taste,” and why is it becoming a key value in the AI age?

Recommended reading: In the AI era, “Taste” becomes a core skill! Even if you can use AI, lacking taste will still lead to淘汰.

The core issue for Gen Z entrepreneurs is: do you dare to make decisions?

Organizer Tofus summarizes that although these four groups are at different stages and discuss finding directions, marketing, networking, and technical problems, at the core, it’s the same question: do you have that unwavering resolve?

Those still searching for a direction fear not making the right choice but not daring to choose. Those who have made a product fear not being recognized but fear facing the market’s choices. Those trying to build relationships fear not knowing people but fear showing their true selves. Those stuck in details fear not the difficulty but the inability to look three years ahead. Each group’s dilemma is different, but the starting point for solutions is the same: acknowledge your current situation and then dive in wholeheartedly.

This article’s core message: The real bottleneck for Gen Z entrepreneurs isn’t lack of ideas but the courage to decide.

First published on Chain News ABMedia.