The article presents an analysis of the innovative potential of young people, following the research of young innovators in managing their start-up projects. The conclusions of the article are based on informal interviews with young innovators running start-up projects in Russian industrial regions. Two main approaches to the study of the problems of innovation potential are highlighted. The first one is associated with the analysis of the external institutional conditions of innovation in economic-territorial systems of various scale, while the second - taken by the authors - focuses on the study of internal socio-cultural factors of development and implementation of the innovative potential of social groups, including youth. The chosen approach considers an innovative potential of young people as the complex of their abilities to perceive, introduce and master innovations, as well as generate their own creative ideas, develop and promote their projects. According to the author's concept, the social moods of people - optimism or pessimism - create a certain motivational context that can facilitate or hinder the choice of life strategies that involve the implementation of innovative potential. The study has shown that life goals of young innovators go beyond utilitarianism and are focused either on self-development, or changing the surrounding reality. Thus, the structure of life goals of young innovators correlates with the post-materialistic values of the information society, which makes this group of young people special. The authors recorded an imbalance between the internal motivating factors to implement innovative potential (positive social well-being and optimism) and external institutional conditions associated with ineffective interaction between government agencies, businesses and universities.