The Next Cultural Powerhouse: Why Gen Alpha Can’t Be Ignored
For Gen Alpha, value accrues to those who actively co-create the joke, the trend, the lore – not just recognize it.
Here we’re sharing with you with the conversations happening across team Maveron — including what’s now & what’s next, perspectives beyond the boardroom, and the long view on consumer shifts we believe will stick around for the years ahead.
Gen Z has been a fascinating generation to study. While their behaviors and preferences continue to shape much of culture, now it’s time to turn our attention to Gen Alpha — the eldest in their teens. We’re already seeing that their fingerprints are all over platforms, products, and brands shaping consumer behavior.
Gen Alpha is quietly rewriting the playbook of consumer and cultural behavior. Born between 2010 and 2024, they’re chronically online, skincare-obsessed, nutrition-literate, and more at home on YouTube, TikTok, Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite than anywhere on Meta’s apps. Collectively, this cohort already wields over $100 billion in spending power, and they’re just getting started.
The Evolution of Social Currency
Every generation redefines what counts as “influence.” Millennials built social capital through careful curation: polished Instagram grids, minimalism, and aspirational aesthetics. Brands like Everlane and Warby Parker embodied this era of taste-driven consumerism. Gen Z flipped the script with a demand for authenticity and irony. “Ugly is cute” became the mantra, popularizing Crocs, Starface, and meme-born products that thrived in chaos rather than curation. Platforms like Depop captured this ethos perfectly—part thrift-store hunt, part social feed—a blend that keeps it magnetic for the next generation, as Casey Lewis, writer of the popular teen-culture Substack After School, notes.
Gen Alpha is pushing the next evolution: participation. It’s not enough to get the joke. You need to remix it, clip it, meme it, launch the next viral wave. Humor itself has become a form of capital. The funniest voice in the room wins attention, status, and algorithmic reach. Internet fluency and comedic timing now define influence as much as beauty or aesthetics once did. Brands thriving here lean into this logic—embracing “unhinged” marketing, real-time banter, and community-driven chaos. Platforms like Discord and Roblox aren’t side channels; they’re the main stage for cultural creation. .
We’re living in the era where companies with true native internet fluency shine. Gen Alpha’s world is digital-first, endlessly remixable, and humor-forward. To resonate, companies must operate in that language: building brands that thrive in TikTok comments, Roblox worlds, and Discord communities.
That’s already visible in today’s most exciting consumer startups. At Maveron, we’ve backed companies like CoStar and Snif because they understand cultural currents as much as market opportunity. Legacy brand Nike is using Roblox to reach younger audiences with “NIKELAND.” Teams that will succeed are taking their understanding of Gen Alpha to a new level: hiring meme-literate employees, treating community managers like product managers, and valuing “shitposting” as much as performance marketing. This isn’t frivolous. It’s the scaffolding of how Gen Alpha connects, consumes, and co-creates.
We’ve seen it before and we’ve seen it again: the winners here are going to be those who are the most adaptable and most authentic to the new generation. These will be the outliers that become symbols of Gen Alpha. Everlane and Warby Parker were some of the first brands that understood Instagram curation. New brands are going to pop up, and the ones that do this for Gen Alpha will be the big winners.
On Being Customer-Obsessed
“We look at net promoter score across 34 markets, globally. Our NPS is 74, comparing favorably to companies like Netflix, Nike, Starbucks… We guard that with everything we’ve got. Jessica is constantly combing through customer feedback on products, thinking about how we improve a product or whether we need to sub out a product to make sure this is a better experience.”
– Rod Morris, cofounder and President of Lovevery, discussing on the DTC Podcast how they keep customers satisfied.