“My belief [is] that coming out with a fresh mind, first principles, is important. That’s why young people are particularly helpful in tech, because they’re less biased,” he tells Fortune. “I think too much knowledge is actually bad in tech: you’re biased.”
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’s had a front-row seat in testing out what employee qualities drive success.
“Character is more important than experience…Now, with [generative] AI and ChatGPT, it’s more true,” Amper continues. “What I look for is grit…People 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.”
While Amper is a big proponent of young workers in tech, he isn’t completely blind to the generation’s drawbacks. Tech-savvy Gen Zers can leverage the fact that they’re new to the workforce—they’re 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’ naivety needs to be counterbalanced in a well-oiled company.
“It’s easier to find people who are unbiased as young people, but you have to balance that, because also you’re going to find people who are less emotionally proficient. Those capabilities are developed through experiences,” Amper explains. “So it’s a combination. You hire young people, but you also have to hire older [employees].”
“You can find people who’ve 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,” he continues.
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’t at the top of his list when considering whom to hire at the unicorn company.
“Having done a similar job before doesn’t mean you can do this job,” the CEO insisted, adding that younger inexperienced workers are more innovative than seasoned AI experts who can get bogged down by their own knowledge. “When 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.”
