Forbes, July 11, 2016 -- Every upcoming generation is something of a mystery to those who born a decade or so earlier. Thus, baby boomers scratched their heads and wondered what to make of so-called “Generation X” and today anyone who is over thirty five is probably coming to terms with a world that is increasingly dominated by “millennials.”

If you’re a marketer, you’re probably trying to work out the best way to reach a generation that doesn’t play by the same media consumption rules as its predecessors. If you’re an employer, someone may well have told you that 18 to 30 years old are coming to the workplace with a new and unfamiliar set of expectations. So how exactly to you attract and (perhaps more importantly) retain the best young talent? And if you’re a business owner, how do you design products that will appeal to the hearts, minds and wallets of the first generation of exclusively digital age consumers?

But let’s look at it from another perspective. The millennial generation is not simply comprised of consumers and employees. The startup culture that is so much part of modern life is increasingly dominated by those who are still less than ten or fifteen years out from university or school. If you run an established business, it is increasingly millennials you will be buying from or partnering with. If you are an investor, they represent your opportunity.