Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Candace Walker, Founder and CEO of Generation Connect, Inc., located in Tarzana, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Generation Connect is a social impact startup bringing together teens with seasoned adults for engagement, enhancement, and entertainment services. We offer two products, 1) award-winning intergenerational programs whereby local high schoolers connect with older adults to provide tech support, online gaming, and common interest bonding during a seven-session program. In return, our teens receive mentorship, soft skills training, and community service hours, which can help with college applications and other post-high school options. And 2) our new initiative, GC Help, a 1-Click, On-Demand Teen Tech Support service for Seasoned Adults, which can also include a refurbished Chromebook. This product addresses a recent AARP study that finds two in five adults 50-plus don't feel technology is designed with them in mind.

Tell us about yourself

The concept of Generation Connect arose from my own family, where I am sandwiched between my teens and my mom in our multigenerational household. As a single mother, I leaned on my widowed mother to help me with my children and my children to help me with my mom. And what I witnessed – was this arrangement added more years to my mom's life and more life to my teens' years. Virtual programming was not the original idea of Generation Connect, but its value was soon validated. We began our operations during the shutdown of 2020 through a pilot program partnering with a Senior Center and nearby public and private high schools as part of our grad school's capstone project. We facilitated virtual meetings between the two generations, which offered tech support, online gaming, and common interest bonding over seven sessions culminating in an online gaming tournament.

Along with earning community service hours, teens received mentorship from seasoned adults. Surveys and interviews showed how the impact of Generation Connect aligned with numerous studies proving Generativity (the act of receiving personal gain from investing in members of another generation) combats degenerative health conditions in seasoned adults while improving developmental skills in teens, such as problem-solving and leadership. The success of the virtual pilot led us to win a contract from the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which allowed us to gain even more insights, revealing a real unmet need in the underserved senior market. Today, our goal is to democratize technology and make it accessible, affordable, and understandable by everyone, especially seasoned adults who are eager to learn and benefit from it most, yet are facing design shortcomings and feelings of exclusion in many of the tech offerings.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

The story of Generation Connect is one of nothing but accomplishments, beginning with its inception. I decided to pursue a master's degree as a 50+-year-old even though I was a single mom with teens, taking care of my aging widowed mother. But then, graduating after completing a successful pilot program for Generation Connect, and getting the company incorporated, was a major feat. It took a year of self-funding and bootstrapping before we would land our biggest contract to date with the Los Angeles County Office of Education to provide enrichment programming for their Community Schools initiative. Not only would the company receive its first big revenue from this contract, but also provide a huge boost in credibility. We won this contract after competing in a rigorous RFP process against some of the biggest names in youth programming. This accomplishment led to our new partnership with the Best Buy Teen Tech Center, a program to provide tech access, training, and mentorship to young people in disinvested communities.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

I've learned that the number one job of a CEO is keeping the doors open, despite the nearly insurmountable odds of coming up short in the first two years of operation. But, if you can muster the strength to stay the course and get over the hump, opportunities begin to emerge. Most recently, I learned about the numerous resources available at my local Economic Development Corporation, from accounting and legal services to grants and loans, not to mention a community of like-minded entrepreneurs on the same trek.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Once you define your "why," make it your mantra. Write it down, make it your meditation chant, say it every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to bed, print it on a T-shirt, and run it by everyone whose opinion you value. Make it ever present in your life so when doubt creeps in and uncertainty threatens to rob your joy, you won't have to ask yourself, "What the hell am I doing?"
  2. Get a business coach, accountability partner, therapist, or anyone you can talk to on a regular basis about your business and the decisions you're contemplating. It's so helpful to explain and articulate your strategies out loud.
  3. Start by offering one product or service that solves one major problem. Then, refine the solution based on user feedback. Next, get more user feedback and refine the product again. Do this even if you have to give the product/service away until it becomes something customers will pay for. Finally, when the product/service is ready for the marketplace, release it with a proven marketing strategy that'll drive sales.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://generationconnect.io/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GenxConnect
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/genxconnect/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/genxconnect
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/genxconnect/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.