A Student's Guide to Startups
21 hours ago
- Graduates now have a third option beyond jobs and grad school: starting a startup, which may become as popular as grad school.
- Starting a startup in college has a built-in 'escape hatch' that reduces motivation; graduation removes this excuse, making failure more significant.
- Peer opinion is a powerful motivator for startup founders, often stronger than the goal of getting rich.
- Graduation changes the 'prevailing winds' of peer pressure, making it harder to start a startup later due to increased stakes.
- Young founders have advantages: stamina, poverty, rootlessness, colleagues from school, and ignorance that can lead to innovation.
- Poverty allows founders to live cheaply and think cheaply, which is critical for startup survival and evolution.
- Rootlessness enables mobility, which is important as many startups require moving to startup hubs like the Bay Area.
- Undergrads have an edge in finding co-founders because they are surrounded by ambitious, technically minded peers in school.
- Ignorance can be useful as it prevents intimidation and can lead to innovative reinventions, as seen with Steve Wozniak.
- Young founders often build 'class projects' that lack iterative problem definition and intensity, which are key in real startups.
- Work experience teaches the elimination of the 'flake reflex' and the harsh reality of the work-money relationship.
- To prepare for a startup in college, learn from startups by observing or working at one, build skills like user understanding, and leverage the co-founder-rich environment.