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Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice

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Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice

#1

Post by abiek »

Thanks in advance for any advice you give.

I don't know how to program but I love startups and am dedicated to becoming an entrepreneur.

I have read all of PGs essays (some many times) and "Founders at Work". I came to realize that the hackers are the core of any good startup team. Thus, I want to learn. I have tried and am making progress but it has been a slow and hard process. I am not to the point where I can actually make stuff yet.

But, I have an idea that I really like. I feel like Sabeer Bhatia of Hotmail (excepts I can't program). I have my best friend signed on and he is so behind the idea (and not into high school) that he is willing to drop out to pursue this idea full time. He is ahead of me on the hacking learning curve but is still in the process of learning.

I don't know if we are the rock star founding team that PG talks about but we have heart, are incredibly optimistic and want to work like hell to make it happen. I don't want to wait until finishing college. I don't even want to wait until finishing high school.

I have always been somewhat interested in startups but my interest has grown this summer. I now know entrepreneurship is my calling. I am doing a 3 week internship and am meeting really cool people and doing research. It has probably been the best 3 weeks of my life.

So my tentative plan is to apply to Y-combinator and similar programs for next summer's session after spending a year trying to get as far as possible in the development of the project.

My co-founder and I will split the coding (he will probably do more) and he will do the design interface and I will do the market research and corporate stuff. We have a lot of focus on product vision (even though we are yet to have a product).

So does our plan make sense? Any advice.

Re: Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice

#2

Post by shafqat »

Dude, you are only 17 so go for it. I would NOT drop out of school yet. You're doing the rightthing, apply for programs for next summer, but I would add one task between now and next year. Learn how to code! Its fun, you seem like you guys both want to be hackers, so just jump in. Even though knowing how to code is not a game breaker, it certainly helps when you are lean and small, so just take the leap of faith.

Re: Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice

#3

Post by [deleted] »

shafqat wrote: post #2

Dude, you are only 17 so go for it. I would NOT drop out of school yet. You're doing the rightthing, apply for programs for next summer, but I would add one task between now and next year. Learn how to code! Its fun, you seem like you guys both want to be hackers, so just jump in. Even though knowing how to code is not a game breaker, it certainly helps when you are lean and small, so just take the leap of faith.

[deleted]

Re: Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice

#4

Post by e1ven »

Sounds like a lot of fun; I wish you a lot of luck.

I would highly advise that you work on the startup outside of existing school hours- While I can certainly understand why you might not find finishing HS as fulfilling as the potential of a startup, there are several mitigating factors:

1) Highschool is not (easily) deferrable. You can put off a Master's degree, or even a Bachelor's.. You can put off taking a new job, and find a new one later. Highschool is not deferrable in the same way though. Once you're out of the system, it's very difficult-to-impossible to re-enter.

2) Most startups fail, even ultra-determined ones.

I understand that some entrepreneurs might advocate throwing yourself into the wind and hoping for the best- The theory behind their advice is that if you eliminate your backup plan, you have no choice but to succeed. The difficulty comes in that many shortfalls are outside of your control- The market could change dramatically, you could become sick, or burned out, or a major player could release a stronger, slicker, competitor. It's not to say that you couldn't work around these problems, but you shouldn't ensure that you have to.

3) Many people, not only future jobs, but VCs and Angels included, view HS graduation as a necessary filter. Unfortunately, you're age will make it more difficult to get meetings with a great many investors- Not finishing HS will further exacerbate this.

4) You don't yet have the background you need to go full-time on the project. Right now, your team needs to beef up their programming skill. You're job, as the producer and business guy will be to make sure that happens, even when it's boring for both of you.

You're other job is to be looking out for the long-term survival of the partnership and the company; Everyone else might panic from moment to moment and want to rush into things, but you're the one with the calm, reasoned plan, and the wherewithall to see it through.

As annoying as it is, that means that you probably should focus on developing your programming skill and finishing the degree. They'll both be crucial later.

You should each work to pick up whatever language you're going to be writing in; Even if he'll be doing most of the coding, you can't do a reasonable job of helping where necessary, and eliminating roadblocks if you don't understand what's going on.

I find that pair-programming, or at least reviewing together and discussing design together, will greatly improve the quality of the code, as well as making sure that any design decisions get a second set of eyes.

I think you're on the right track with your plan, but would recommend that you take the time while you're each in school to focus on getting to KNOW the technology.. Not just "I sort of understand it", but really knowing it, and knowing it's limitations.

Again, as the business-guy, one of the things that you'll need to do is think three steps ahead of where the code is right now- You want to make sure that your programming language/framework won't cause you major problems, and then you want to start to tackle the business planning and revenue side.

If everything goes well, the two of you should be able to put together a prototype just before graduation, at which point you'll be in Great shape to apply to YC, Techstars, and CloneOfTheWeek.

Best of luck to you and the team- You sound like you've figured out what you want to do, now it's matter of executing.

Re: Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice

#5

Post by swombat »

Don't drop out of school. You've got all the time in the world, what's the rush? Your early twenties (let alone the time before you're even 20) are there to be enjoyed, not spent hacking away at a start-up 15-hours a day.

Here's how it will happen if you start up now. Your first start-up will be an unmitigated disaster. Your second one will be slightly less so, but still fail. Your third will break even. Your fourth will finally make you a reasonable sum of money. Then your fifth will make you rich. Allow for 1-3 years per start-up - with this, you'll probably be very wealthy by the time you're 27. However, you'll also have wasted the best years of your life working your ass off.

Wait a little, and chances are you might even be able to skip one of those failed start-up - after all, life experience does count for something. Finish school. Go to a cool university. Learn lots of interesting stuff. Meet lots of really interesting people (that you'll be able to recruit into your future ventures, among other things - but more importantly, some of them will be your best friends for the rest of your life - money cannot buy that). Sleep with lots of girls. Get drunk. Enjoy life. Wear sun-screen. Erm. Anyway, you can always start up after uni. If anything, it will be easier, since a) you'll be wiser to the ways of the world; at the moment your inexperience pretty much guarantees dismal failure, b) maybe we won't be in the middle of a credit crunch then.

Re: Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice

#6

Post by abiek »

shafqat wrote: post #2

Dude, you are only 17 so go for it. I would NOT drop out of school yet. You're doing the rightthing, apply for programs for next summer, but I would add one task between now and next year. Learn how to code! Its fun, you seem like you guys both want to be hackers, so just jump in. Even though knowing how to code is not a game breaker, it certainly helps when you are lean and small, so just take the leap of faith.

Thanks for the encouragement.

I am taking the leap. I am working on learning to code but am having some difficulty but I will persevere.

If my co-founder dropped out he would get his GED and could always go the community college transfer route.

Re: Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice

#7

Post by abiek »

e1ven wrote: post #4

Sounds like a lot of fun; I wish you a lot of luck. I would highly advise that you work on the startup outside of existing school hours- While I can certainly understand why you might not find finishing HS as fulfilling as the potential of a startup, there are several mitigating factors: 1) Highschool is not (easily) deferrable. You can put off a Master's degree, or even a Bachelor's.. You can put off taking a new jo…

1) Despite high school not being easily deferrable he can get a GED instead and go to community college

2) We are not most startups. We may still fail and we accept that. We believe the process has inherent learning value. So we win regardless of financial gain.

3) Due to our youth we will have to prove our competence in other ways. We will work extra hard to make people take us seriously. Age is only a biological number. Maturity is different.

4) I am making sure we both work hard to learn. Learning is part of the process. There is always more to do so we want to work as hard as possible.

I will do my best to remain calm and keep the team level headed. That is some important insight.

I agree with you about the importance of collaboration on the different elements and we will check and help each other.

Time to execute

Re: Nontechnical 17 year old startup founder with chutzpah is asking for advice

#9

Post by abiek »

swombat wrote: post #5

Don't drop out of school. You've got all the time in the world, what's the rush? Your early twenties (let alone the time before you're even 20) are there to be enjoyed, not spent hacking away at a start-up 15-hours a day. Here's how it will happen if you start up now. Your first start-up will be an unmitigated disaster. Your second one will be slightly less so, but still fail. Your third will break even. Your fourth…

We will work that much harder to prove doubters wrong.

The rush is to learn. If we fail now, oh well. We are that much closer and had a reason and motivation to learn.

A startup doesn't mean we can't have fun.

A credit crunch has very little effect on our idea.

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