How This Gen-Z Founder is Reshaping Marketing and Challenging The Status Quo
Meet Shaina Zafar, a young entrepreneur, whose groundbreaking marketing agency is disrupting norms, by amplifying the voices of underrepresented groups.
By Haneen Elmeswari
Zafar started as Chief of Staff at JUV Consulting [Image: courtesy Shaina Zafar]
In the bustling halls of the University of Pennsylvania, freshman Shaina Zafar, 19, has embarked on the seemingly ordinary journey of joining her school's Model UN—a familiar path often taken by ambitious students. However, little did she know that this decision would ignite a remarkable chain of events.
It was in the exhilarating whirlwind of debates and diplomacy, that Zafar, the oldest daughter of Pakistani immigrants, unexpectedly crossed paths with her future co-founder and eventual best friend, Ziad Ahmed. Together, they birthed a revolutionary marketing agency, JUV Consulting, a cross between the words juvenile and rejuvenate. This agency would then capture the essence of Generation Z like never before. Their mission? To illuminate the vibrant stories and cultural tapestry of their generation, and reshape the marketing landscape.
As a young person, the question "Can I speak to your boss?" is often asked. However, for Zafar, she always had the certainty that she would be the boss.
A go-getter since childhood, she had aspirations of shaping a future at the United Nations and creating a meaningful impact in her community. Throughout high school, she tirelessly pursued various avenues, seamlessly transitioning between summer programs, such as the Bank of America Student Leaders Program, and seizing every scholarship opportunity available, all in an earnest effort to put herself out there.
“I also applied to a lot of things that weren’t meant for 14, 15, 16-year-olds,” she says, “but I would just click ‘other’ for the age question and submit an application.”
As a result, she soon found herself in intimidating spaces, such as the UN and World Bank, at a very young age, but surrounded by kids just like her, hungry for an opportunity to make a difference. It was at a Model UN event at Harvard that she met Ahmed, who would become CEO and co-founder of what is now JUV Consulting.
“I won first, he won second, and then after he came up to me and said you should come work at this company I’m building” Zafar explains, “ I said shut up, you’re literally a freshman in college. What do you know about building a company?”
Yet despite her suspicions, Zafar decided to take that leap of faith, joining Zaid, and with a group of like-minded friends, they built an agency that now works with Fortune 500 companies such as Jansport and North Face, on the marketing campaigns of the future.
Looking back, she said, “I decided to just give it a chance. I didn’t have anything else figured out. I was a first-gen low-income college student.”
JUV Consulting, a cutting-edge digital marketing agency of the Gen Z era, is dedicated to empowering clients by forging genuine connections with young audiences. Starting off by renting out a loft in Brooklyn for the summer, today it's been featured in publications such as Bloomberg, BBC, Business Insider, and Forbes. However, it was first spent brainstorming and performing outreach, trying to get anyone and everyone to talk about JUV.
By the end of the summer, they got their first feature in The New York Times. “It was something that gave us proof of concept and made us feel legit” she recalls. This was a turning point for JUV, as they were finally starting to grab the attention of the business community.
Building a start-up in your first few years of college can be a daunting experience, often forcing you to make up the steps and rules as you go. Plus the JUV founding team was only doing this part-time, taking the necessary time to study and commit to school when required. Zafar got a taste of every position and role, wearing what sometimes felt like ten different hats at once.
She ultimately took the title of Chief Marketing Officer, overseeing the company’s community-building work, fostering client relationships, and managing JUV’s online newsletter —called Screenshot, with over 500+ business subscribers.
The foundation of JUV is community, making the emphasis to not “just ask research questions to the people who will be your consumers, but co-create with them,” explains Zafar. She envisions a future where brands adopt a community-first approach, prioritizing the community as the primary stakeholder. The goal is to foster a collaborative partnership that empowers and serves the involved communities, ultimately creating something greater than any individual.
Being CMO means that Zafar is constantly meeting new people, young people and those who have been in the industry for years. Her favorite part of the job are these interactions, where she gets to speak with people who share similar values but also help her to step out of her echo-chamber. By collaborating with fellow youth, Zafar is steadily inching closer to her ultimate goal: ensuring that young people have a rightful place at the table from the very beginning.
“There’s still a level of apprehension that people have with Gen Z, that we’re lazy, we’re apathetic, that we don’t want to work. Which she adds, “is not necessarily true.”
Through building JUV, Zafar has not only formed her closest friendships but also found her co-founder within her circle. Despite being part of a generation that strives to separate work and personal life, Zafar experiences the opposite. The individuals she collaborates with often turn out to be her companions on Friday nights as well.
“I can’t tell if I’m catching up with a friend or if it's a potential business meeting.” she says. “Because so much of the work done at JUV is about a sense of identity and who you are, that can often make it difficult to make the distinction between a personal or professional conversation.”
Despite the blurred lines, Zafar wouldn't exchange her experiences for anything. Nevertheless, she recognizes the significance of establishing boundaries for herself and her team. Within her company, there are individuals who embrace a similar philosophy, balancing their commitment to JUV while maintaining personal limits. They may attend occasional company events but consciously avoid allowing JUV to dominate a substantial portion of their lives.
With setting boundaries comes the importance of also maintaining one’s sense of self and what they hold close to them. In her time at JUV, Zafar has entered gray zones in her personal and professional life, something that she has found to help guide her through it is her morals. As a Muslim, she identifies very closely with her faith, and checks in with it in moments of transition or hardship.
“There’s this idea of Tawaqal,” she explains the Islamic concept of the reliance on God or trusting in God's plan, “Tawaqal has helped me find success and happiness in work in the sense that if something doesn’t work out for me, it wasn’t meant for me,” she says.
With the combination of Tawaqal and a passion for what she does, Zafar has found unusual fulfillment in building JUV. Through JUV, she's been able to carve a path for herself to achieve her dreams of becoming a force of change. She finds profound satisfaction in handing the microphone to underrepresented groups of people.
So what does it take for an aspiring entrepreneur to reach the level of success that JUV has had? Zafar says it's simple.“You need to have the confidence of a mediocre white man.” You have to walk into a room as if it were tailor-made for you, despite the reality that for many minorities, it may be the opposite. The basics are important; who you are, what you’re passionate about, an interesting fact about you, and a story only you can tell.
Zafar stresses the importance of embracing discomfort and confronting one's fears as the key to fostering personal and professional growth. She believes that progress can only be achieved by stepping into unfamiliar territory and taking on challenges that may seem daunting. This principle holds true for JUV as well, as the company recognizes the significance of assembling the right team to navigate these uncomfortable situations.
It was Zafar’s team that helped her get as far as she has. They encouraged her to step out of her comfort zone, advocating for JUV's cause and compelling the attention of multi-million dollar companies.
Finally, the foundation of success is mentorship. For Zafar, she found her best mentors from people who resonated with her lived experiences, yet helped her break out of her comfort zone. Most of the people that she holds to be true mentors are the female educators at her schools, often of Pakistani heritage as well. They have become physical beacons of just how far people like her could go and how much potential they have.
Orginally Published in Founders Club
