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Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

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Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#21

Post by frederickcook »

e1ven wrote: post #9

I'd advise against taking on any debt in your own name- It's a very tempting offer, particularly if you have good credit coming out of school, but it will mean that if the business does go south for whatever reason, even if it is outside your control, you may be paying it off for decades. Instead, build something that can raise profits immediately, and start building from there. That will help to keep you focused on…

Along the same lines here, I would say just don't make mistakes or large commitments in general that will tie you down. Don't get arrested for underage drinking (or DUI), don't risk having kids, don't take stupid chances with your life or health, don't screw up your credit, don't take on lots of college loans if you can avoid it, etc. Being able to live anywhere and on almost no money will make it a lot easier.

Additionally, do talk to a potential long-term partners about the entrepreneur lifestyle (and not having a high-paying job for a few years), do read as many blogs and books on entrepreneurship as you can (you won't have time once you actually start a company), do go out of your way to meet as many people as possible, and stay in touch with the smart ones.

Also, TAKE PROGRAMMING CLASSES.

Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#22

Post by shaddi »

As a current college student, I'd recommend they try their hand at starting a student organization that does something entreprenurial (a microfinance organization, or a group providing tech services to the poor, for example). I suppose I don't have the experience to compare it to launching a startup, but from what I've understood about startups there are a lot of similarities:

- You are the one in charge, you have to make stuff happen

- You have to figure out where money is going to come from and how to make it last (if you don't have a legitimate budget sheet you're doing it wrong)

- You have to think about recruitment and retention of members (hard when payment is not an option)

- You have to manage and motivate people

- You have to set goals, develop a vision, and convey that to your members

- You have to find organizations who can help you, and learn how to form mutually beneficial partnerships

- You face hard times and good times, but have to keep going regardless

- You learn your strengths and weaknesses as a leader (good for knowing what to look for in a co-founder)

- If you are really passionate about what you're doing, you'll learn what it's like to really devote yourself to an organization

- Somewhat trivially, you'll need to learn how to handle lots of emails, personal contacts, and competing time commitments.

The nice thing is that the cost of failure is pretty much 0 in a student organization. If it doesn't work, no one will really care that much. But if it does, you've made a mark on your university and probably learned a lot in the process.

Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#23

Post by shaddi »

ptn wrote: post #18

I'm a college student who wants to start a business, these are the questions that I'd like answered: - do it full-time or on the side? - what kind of advice should I not listen to? - My skills are programming and designing, what kind of stuff should I learn? - do I really need to move to a technology-rich country? (For the effects of your talk, maybe you should change country for city .) - how do you get customers an…

Ditto. I would emphasize the second to last one -- sales and marketing are parts of the business stack that I have little experience in, so they are the most daunting to me. I'd imagine that's the case for a lot of other technical people as well.

Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#24

Post by chadarimura »

Those are great topics, and I would add: "Choosing your team wisely".

A former college entrepreneur myself, it was easy in the early stages to ignore "feelings" that our founding team didn't mesh well, but as the company grew in size and responsibility, those initial feelings became show stoppers.

Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#25

Post by jacquesm »

ptn wrote: post #18

I'm a college student who wants to start a business, these are the questions that I'd like answered: - do it full-time or on the side? - what kind of advice should I not listen to? - My skills are programming and designing, what kind of stuff should I learn? - do I really need to move to a technology-rich country? (For the effects of your talk, maybe you should change country for city .) - how do you get customers an…

> do it full-time or on the side?

What's worth doing is worth doing well, consider your college education over and done with when you start down this path. A startup is time consuming, the first year is the hardest, it takes usually about three years to become established, though of course that changes from case to case.

> what kind of advice should I not listen to?

You should weigh every advice you get (including this!), as to applicability, sanity and whether it chimes in with your gut feelings or not.

> My skills are programming and designing, what kind of stuff should I learn?

If your skills are programming and designing you want to become very good at dealing with people. That's probably more important than either of the other two.

> do I really need to move to a technology-rich country?

No, you don't need to move to a technology rich country, but it helps if you intend to fish in a larger pool of talent, and it may make it easier to divest. Plenty of people have done this from 'non technology rich' countries, there are challenges and advantages there.

> how do you get customers and do sales if you are an introvert geek?

Better change that or you will not be doing well. That's the number one challenge you face I think.

> what to look for in a cofounder?

Trustworthiness, dependability and adaptability.

Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#26

Post by jacquesm »

shaddi wrote: post #23
ptn wrote: post #18

I'm a college student who wants to start a business, these are the questions that I'd like answered: - do it full-time or on the side? - what kind of advice should I not listen to? - My skills are programming and designing, what kind of stuff should I learn? - do I really need to move to a technology-rich country? (For the effects of your talk, maybe you should change country for city .) - how do you get customers an…

Ditto. I would emphasize the second to last one -- sales and marketing are parts of the business stack that I have little experience in, so they are the most daunting to me. I'd imagine that's the case for a lot of other technical people as well.

Excellent sales and marketing applied to a medium product -> microsoft

Lousy sales and marketing applied to great stuff -> DEC, SGI and plenty of others, now defunct.

The technology is but a very small part of all of this.

Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#27

Post by shaddi »

jacquesm wrote: post #26
shaddi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto. I would emphasize the second to last one -- sales and marketing are parts of the business stack that I have little experience in, so they are the most daunting to me. I'd imagine that's the case for a lot of other technical people as well.

Excellent sales and marketing applied to a medium product -> microsoft Lousy sales and marketing applied to great stuff -> DEC, SGI and plenty of others, now defunct. The technology is but a very small part of all of this.

That I do not doubt! Hence my desire to learn.

Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#28

Post by waxman »

- Don't be afraid to seek out resources at your school (alumni, entrepreneurship programs, professors, fellow students, etc.)

- Don't spend too much time planning; think through some basics, then build a prototype, and launch it. From then on it's all about listening to your users and iterating. I think this is tough for college students, who are used to overanalyzing things, and not used to just doing things.

- Don't waste away your college years over a start-up. It's great to start a company in school. But college is a one-shot opportunity. Don't forget that.

Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#29

Post by jacquesm »

shaddi wrote: post #27
jacquesm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent sales and marketing applied to a medium product -> microsoft Lousy sales and marketing applied to great stuff -> DEC, SGI and plenty of others, now defunct. The technology is but a very small part of all of this.

That I do not doubt! Hence my desire to learn.

I think one of the quickest ways to learn this is to jump in on the 'hard' end of sales, cold calls and approaching strangers.

Have a look at this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUct4NlxE0

There's a lifetime of experience in there, not quite 'cold calling' but he's got amazing talent.

Re: Ask HN: What advice would you give college students about starting a business?

#30

Post by ecaron »

From all I've seen, I would bring home these points:

1) Have a full-time job and do the startup on the side until you're simply not able to anymore.

2) Read, read, read about modern successes and failures. Studying management of the 80s doesn't make you a good manager - it makes you a historian. Find people you look up to, and learn what you don't want to do.

3) Don't make a copy of something until you've tried to fix what you don't like of the original.

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