![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ricardo-Amper-Oficina538-e1769798678900.jpg?w=2048\")
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Leaders like Goldman Sachs\u2019 David Solomon say experience trumps everything in business\u2014including brains. But Ricardo Amper, the founder and CEO of $1.25 billion software company Incode Technologies, believes Gen Z\u2019s naivety is a professional blessing rather than a career curse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy belief [is] that coming out with a fresh mind, first principles, is important. That\u2019s why young people are particularly helpful in tech, because they\u2019re less biased,\u201d he tells Fortune. <\/em>\u201cI think too much knowledge is actually bad in tech: you\u2019re biased.\u201d<\/p>\n The Gen X entrepreneur knows exactly what talent he needs after spending more than two decades founding and leading companies to unicorn status. In 2000, Amper founded social network company La Burbuja Networks.\u00a0<\/p>\n And just a couple of years later, he had a hit on his hands: the Mexico City-raised businessman launched functional beverage company Amco Foods in 2003, and scaled it to a top market contender. The biggest bread company in the world, $263 billion titan Grupo Bimbo, acquired AMCO in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ampers marked his third stint as a founder in 2015 when he launched AI-powered identity verification business Incode. For the past 25 years, he\u2019s had a front-row seat in testing out what employee qualities drive success.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCharacter is more important than experience\u2026Now, with [generative] AI and ChatGPT, it\u2019s more true,\u201d Amper continues. \u201cWhat I look for is grit\u2026People who have a proven ability to have integrity and character is something that I really care about, because entrepreneurship is mostly about perseverance and character and adversity, and so you need people like that around you.\u201d<\/p>\n While Amper is a big proponent of young workers in tech, he isn\u2019t completely blind to the generation\u2019s drawbacks. Tech-savvy Gen Zers can leverage the fact that they\u2019re new to the workforce\u2014they\u2019re fresh-faced and completely oblivious to industry intricacies, allowing them to be laser-focused on the task at hand. But the Incode CEO stipulates that young staffers\u2019 naivety needs to be counterbalanced in a well-oiled company.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easier to find people who are unbiased as young people, but you have to balance that, because also you\u2019re going to find people who are less emotionally proficient. Those capabilities are developed through experiences,\u201d Amper explains. \u201cSo it\u2019s a combination. You hire young people, but you also have to hire older [employees].\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can find people who\u2019ve gone through tough things and bring that to the company, and also younger people who might not have had that, but they have this other side,\u201d he continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amper\u2019s assertion that young, inexperienced Gen Zers are the secret sauce for tech companies is actually playing out in real time. Last year, one Gen Z-powered AI company stepped onto the scene and energized the war rooms of U.S. tech billionaires: DeepSeek. The Chinese powerhouse, led by CEO Liang Wenfeng, credits its success to its young talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are pursuing short-term goals, it is right to find people with ready experience,\u201d Liang said in a 2023 interview with Chinese media outlet 36Kr<\/em>. \u201cBut if you look at the long-term, experience is not that important. Basic skills, creativity, and passion are much more important.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike his computer science-hungry competitors, the millennial DeepSeek founder is looking to Gen Z and humanities majors to spearhead his revolutionary AI. Liang even added, unconventionally, that work experience isn\u2019t at the top of his list when considering whom to hire at the unicorn company.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHaving done a similar job before doesn\u2019t mean you can do this job,\u201d the CEO insisted, adding that younger inexperienced workers are more innovative than seasoned AI experts who can get bogged down by their own knowledge. \u201cWhen doing something, experienced people will tell you without hesitation that you should do it one way. But inexperienced people will repeatedly explore and think seriously about how to do it, and then find a solution that suits the current actual situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Even Fortune <\/em>500 companies making a fortune outside of tech are embracing Gen Z workers, instead of casting them aside. The $62 billion retail giant Colgate-Palmolive is leaning on the young digital natives to help the heritage brand grow; Sally Massey, chief human resources officer at Colgate, told Fortune <\/em>that Gen Zers come with in-demand skillsets and fresh perspectives on the future of work.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Gen Z] have grown up with technology. They\u2019ve grown up in a very different way than some of the other generations in the organization,\u201d Massey recently <\/em>said.<\/em> \u201cThey bring with them new ideas, new perspectives, curiosity\u2026They\u2019re pushing us to get better and to do things differently\u2014I think it\u2019s great.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Arrow #Button #Icon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leaders like Goldman Sachs\u2019 Da… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[3816,266,3817,624,8174,779,2006,1083,666,300,2007,3818,3410,522,1055,2010,454,2297,2009,953,4937,342,2299,2300],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Balancing unbiased Gen Zers with emotionally mature, older staffers<\/h2>\n
The CEOs who see young workers as the next unlock<\/h2>\n