Most business advice flows one way, from older founders to younger ones. Maverick1000<\/a> has reversed it.<\/p>\n Every year, Maverick NEXT<\/a>, an under-30 community network of entrepreneurs, investors and exited founders curated by Yanik Silver and Sophia Umanski, spends a week on Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson, sharing the insights and tactics that have allowed them to outgrow businesses run by people twice their age.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re under 30, you could join them. The Maverick NEXT Impact Award sends five founders to the British Virgin Islands each year, all expenses paid. If you feel like you belong in a group that describes itself as\u00a0 \u201cweirdos and misfits who believe that business can be the greatest lever for good,\u201d go\u00a0here to learn more and apply<\/a>\u00a0before the November 30 deadline. (If you\u2019re over 30, you can nominate a great entrepreneur, too!)<\/p>\n We asked five members of the group to share their best advice for new founders looking to make a big impact. Here\u2019s what they shared, and what they\u2019re building.<\/p>\n Tim Highnam, 26<\/strong><\/p>\n Sean Meer, 27<\/strong><\/p>\n Jess Cox, 28<\/strong><\/p>\n Bailey Farren, 28<\/strong><\/p>\n Jade Sprake, 22<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIf you start this company, you will destroy your reputation before turning 25.\u201d That\u2019s what one investor told me at 22, when I started pitching my public safety company. Others said what I wanted to build was impossible, let alone by someone like me. However, inexperience turned out to be an advantage. When you don\u2019t know an industry\u2019s limits, you\u2019re not afraid to challenge them, and that\u2019s why our customers love us. Today, Perimeter is used by agencies across 17 US states.<\/p>\n I\u2019m glad I never cut back on lattes and avocado toast. Before I started Impact Loop, I had those coffees in hotel lobbies or cafes near family office symposiums and conferences, with the intention of listening and learning how I could provide value. It\u2019s where I met my first mentor and two of my current clients, and coming from a small town in New Zealand, changing my environment and spending money to get into different rooms is how I got ahead.<\/p>\n I was told to keep my plans to myself until they were ready. Instead, I posted everything about building my handyman company, including the highs and lows. Within 5 months, I had an offer to buy it. Since then, family offices, backers and business partners have reached out after following me online. By the time we meet, it feels like we\u2019ve already been on a few dates. They\u2019ve watched me follow through for months, so they trust me before we\u2019ve even shaken hands.<\/p>\n Remember the system only one employee understood, and nobody could fix after they left? AI is the same thing, 10x worse. I see owners spend tens of thousands on AI that was never going to make them money. The valuable uses are boring: work that already drives revenue, done faster and cheaper. Before any AI build, ask 2 questions. Does this work already make us money? Could I hand the process to a new hire on one page? If either answer is no, don\u2019t build it yet.<\/p>\n Try <\/strong><\/em>Tim\u2019s AI calculator<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n I have a finance degree, not a computer science one, and I built our payroll compliance software myself with Claude. It reads every timesheet, flags every missed meal break and works out what we owe each employee. In California, one missed break costs an hour of extra pay, and a pattern of them can turn into a lawsuit that ends a company. Most owners find out about wage problems from a lawyer\u2019s letter. We find out every day at 10 AM, and the employee is paid by 11 AM. It has protected us from hundreds of thousands in liability and saves 10 admin hours a week.<\/p>\n I tell the internet exactly what I\u2019m trying to do: buy trades businesses. The louder I say it, the more the right people find me. You have to be strong enough not to let other people\u2019s opinions get to you. Behind the scenes, AI does a lot of my heavy lifting, so my time goes to conversations. I now talk with 30 to 40 trades owners a month about selling.<\/p>\n Everyone I\u2019ve ever hired has been older than me. By 25, I\u2019d hired 25 of them, and most had mortgages I was responsible for. In every interview, there was a slight hesitation when the candidate first saw me: is this kid really the owner? I learned to open with what we\u2019d built and where we were going, then turn the conversation to them. By the end, they were the one trying to impress me. Whenever someone underestimates you, lead with what you\u2019ve built, then make it about them.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a young woman selling software to fire departments, and at 22 years old, I had no track record in this industry. Early on, an executive at a similar company told me no one would ever take me seriously in public safety. He wasn\u2019t alone. So we decided to optimize for learning, hire industry experts, and design a company to massively overdeliver for our customers. Today, we\u2019ve supported thousands of public safety agencies and millions of users.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve lost deals because of my age. Owners told me they liked me and thought I was warm, but it came down to one question: is a 22-year-old experienced enough to take care of what they built? I get that nervousness. I\u2019m still learning. I could say all the right words, but words are only as good as the way they\u2019re held. Taking action and letting it speak for me is what got me here. Talk is cheap. Action is the r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n My family and I have been evacuated from five wildfires, so I\u2019ve had lots of exposure to the technology people use during disasters. First responders rely on technology to protect lives and property, yet most vendors simply repackage old software that\u2019s hard to use. Firefighters like my dad deserve better. Building something better takes an upfront investment, but we believe doing good keeps customers for the long haul. At Perimeter, we\u2019ve had a 100% renewal rate for the past 2 years.<\/p>\n Most of the commercial cleaning industry runs on cheap subcontractors with no insurance. I employ every cleaner directly. It costs more on every job, but more than 80% of my cleaners have stayed, so property managers get the same cleaner in the same building every night. One luxury car dealership still describes its seven-year-old showroom as \u201cin grand opening shape.\u201d I filmed myself eating a steak dinner off that floor. That\u2019s why we win more bids than we lose.<\/p>\n Watch: <\/strong>Sean eating a steak dinner off a showroom floor<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Consumers care how their communities and environment are affected, and they buy or boycott accordingly. If your business had to operate with complete transparency tomorrow, what would change public perception? Good or bad? Leverage that into a story of change, and that\u2019s where I\u2019ve seen the biggest jumps in revenue. I see it in Maverick all the time: people who\u2019ve built businesses off the back of doing tremendous good in the world, like Alex Schulze (4Ocean) and Camille Rebelo (EcoPlanet Bamboo).<\/p>\n At a Maverick event on Necker, Richard told us how he started Virgin Atlantic: with a deal to hand the plane back to Boeing if it failed. He capped his downside before he committed. I\u2019m not buying planes (yet!), but I do the same with three questions before any new idea: How many hours of my time will it take to test? How many days or weeks until I get real feedback? How much money, including team time, will it take? Usually I find a faster, cheaper way to test it. Just as often, I realize I shouldn\u2019t do it at all, and nothing is cheaper than that.<\/p>\n As a 2026 Impact Award fellow, I sat next to Richard Branson at dinner on Necker. We had a long conversation, and he confirmed something I\u2019d built my company, Cleantech, on without having the words for it: look after your people and they\u2019ll look after your customers. That\u2019s how Virgin was built. As I expand beyond cleaning into other commercial services, every company I build will stand on that same foundation.<\/p>\n Sliding down a water slide at a $160 million estate the first time I went to the British Virgin Islands showed me how much money is in the world. It changed how big I think and how much I ask for. We have investors looking to put a minimum of $30 million into clean energy infrastructure who can\u2019t find projects to back. Impact work almost always thinks smaller than the money available to it. Being around people who want to see you succeed \u2014 and can fund it\u2014 made me ask a better question: how do I 10x this?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Most business advice flows one way, from older founders to younger ones. Maverick1000<\/a> has reversed it.<\/p>\n Every year, Maverick NEXT<\/a>, an under-30 community network of entrepreneurs, investors and exited founders curated by Yanik Silver and Sophia Umanski, spends a week on Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson, sharing the insights and tactics that have allowed them to outgrow businesses run by people twice their age.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re under 30, you could join them. The Maverick NEXT Impact Award sends five founders to the British Virgin Islands each year, all expenses paid. If you feel like you belong in a group that describes itself as\u00a0 \u201cweirdos and misfits who believe that business can be the greatest lever for good,\u201d go\u00a0here to learn more and apply<\/a>\u00a0before the November 30 deadline. (If you\u2019re over 30, you can nominate a great entrepreneur, too!)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nThe Founders<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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1. The advice we chose to ignore, and what happened<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Bailey Farren<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jessica Cox<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jade Sprake<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. What we\u2019re doing that most established owners aren\u2019t<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Tim Highnam<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Sean Meer<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jade Sprake<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Where being under 30 has worked against us, and how we got around it<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Tim Highnam<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Bailey Farren<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jade Sprake<\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. How doing good drives revenue<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Bailey Farren<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Sean Meer<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jessica Cox<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5. What being around Richard Branson and the Maverick community changed<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Tim Highnam<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Sean Meer<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jessica Cox<\/strong><\/h3>\n