Everyone wanted to be a rock star in the 1960s. The “rock star” career path of this decade seems to be entrepreneurship.

As the sixth annual Global Entrepreneurship Week gets underway today, several metrics show that both the number of startup entrepreneurs and the community of mentors across the world are growing at an exponential rate.

In 2012, the number of startups that participated in startup-management company YouNoodle's pitch competitions and hackathons more than doubled, jumping to 11,000 from 5,000 the year prior. At the same time, Startup Weekend – a nonprofit that produces entrepreneurship events – recorded 8,000 startup participants in 2012, an increase from 5,000 the year before.

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"Founders are starting earlier, launching pilots with fewer resources than even a few years ago,” said Torsten Kolind, the CEO of YouNoodle, in a statement. “Young people all over the world are looking at the startup career path as a way out of the gloomy years their parents have brought upon them since the financial crisis started.”

Younger generations today are also better suited to entrepreneurship than their predecessors given that they communicate more and travel internationally more frequently, Kolind said.

Young entrepreneurs are benefiting from a growing community of entrepreneurship experts looking to give back, too. YouNoodle recorded almost 5,000 expert volunteers in 2012, up from only 1,900 the year prior. Startup Weekend had 4,000 expert volunteers in 2012, up from nearly 2,600 a year prior.

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