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

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

#11

Post by jkent »

abiek wrote: post #7
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 nu…

I started up when I was 18, and ended up going to uni when I was in my mid 20s - "these people are so much younger than me!". It was a mistake (for me) not to go when I was 18.

But in your heart you know what it is you want to do. You can always change track later. Richard Branson didn't finish high school.

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

#12

Post by jasonlbaptiste »

drop out only if it can quantify something. odds are you can finish high school. dont just drop out because "gates and jobs" did it. Yes, I "stopped out" of college with one semester left. Before, you call me hypocritical realize that I had spent a good 2 years working up to that point. Take it one step at a time, fuck up a lot, learn from it, go fuck up some more, learn more, and eventually it will work out well. As long as you don't factor in "give up" into those plans, you will be fine. Hope this helps.

give up means, give up all together. odds are your first idea or vision or even company will not be "what makes it". Flexible people never get bent out of shape.

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

#13

Post by e1ven »

abiek wrote: post #9
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.

You're spending a lot of time arguing against any negative opinion that's given. It's great to see that you have a positive attitude, but you did post asking for advice ;)

Perhaps you have your mind made up already- But part of the criticism process is taking in what everyone says; I hope you wouldn't just argue against an opinion because it disagrees with what you've already decided.

I do hope things work out well for you and the startup.

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

#14

Post by menloparkbum »

Public high school in the USA is indeed a waste of time. And, there is no time like the present to start a company. However dropping out can really mess up your life, and I don't mean 5 years down the road. I mean it can immediately mess up your life. A hacker friend of mine in high school did just what you are proposing, but 10 years ago. As soon as he dropped out of high school his parents kicked him out of the house. Being homeless at age 16 really puts a damper on getting anywhere with your startup.

I'm voting for finishing up high school. But, if you're going to drop out anyway, be sure you have some plan to cover all the basic life essentials type stuff.

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

#15

Post by azharcs »

First ask yourself do you really need 24 hours in a day, if not go back to school. You should have a very good reason to drop out. If you are not interested in education or if you think you can survive without it, then drop out. Remember it is all about knowledge, you will have to know more than an educated guy and always be a step ahead of the college educated people to win. If you are lucky you might hire some of the more educated people to work for you.

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

#16

Post by wallflower »

> We will work that much harder to prove doubters wrong.

I imagine you may be getting a far amount of backlash from older people in your life, namely your parents. I am much older than you and I entertain a fantasy of quitting my job and going to Latin America. At one low point during work, I almost booked non-refundable tickets with a co-conspirator. To show how serious I am about this fantasy (to my family and to myself), I am indulging in 3-5 hours a week of private tutoring in Spanish. The odd thing is that I can foresee myself in a middle ground of not quitting my job but learning Spanish in the States and taking the initiative socially.

I do not think your plan makes sense. The odds of success are against you. Most businesses on the Internet are unfortunately or fortunately, all about marketing, only partially about innovation. I'd like to advise you against it, as an older and not necessarily wiser person. Life does not always have to be dive-in, you can dip your toes in the water, wade - if you dive-in, you can drown. In this country, unfortunately, a GED degree is condescended upon and will hurt your academic prospects.

Build your startup part time. You have one of the most important ingredients, chutzpah, faith in yourself. But at the same time, L'Chaim ("To Life"). There is more than life than saying "I did it". If your parents are serious about you not leaving school, they will cut off funding. And in this country, money is important to maintain a lifestyle. And, if you do drop out and go back to school, you'll fall behind (disconnect with/lose your peer year/cohorts).

Maybe some of us are wrong. And we'll read about you in the 3rd edition of Founders at Work. But if we aren't wrong, you might be torpedoing your long-term life with short-term half-constructed disconnected realities.

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

#17

Post by Maro »

If you're smart enough for starting-up, then the time spent on school is pretty much the time spent at school. Also, if you're smart, you've probably taken a lot of extra classes the first 2 years, so you only have 5 or less classes now? Seems to me you can be at home and coding by 1-2PM, leaving a lot of time. Plus weekends. If you think I'm provocative, I'm just trying to convince you not to drop out of HS.

Also, talk to people about your idea. You can probably even post it here. Ideas are supposed to be worthless anyways. Per your description of yourself, you're young and not a programer, so an older and wiser programer may be able to tell you in 5 minutes that your idea stinks (for real) or has been tried n times before.

I was involved in a startup when I was 17, and let me tell you, it was chaotic. Dropping out of any school over it would have been a huge mistake. Fortunately I didn't.

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

#18

Post by SwellJoe »

Finish high school...but feel free to work on your startup after hours and on weekends. You'll probably never have more free time for the purpose...unless/until you raise money in order to pursue a startup full-time (which, let's face it, is going to be a major uphill battle for a 17 year old). You'll probably also be better served by going to college--maybe taking a light load--and using the opportunity to meet additional co-founded and people you can work with to bring your vision to life.

You know far less than you think you do at 17. Confidence is wonderful, and I certainly encourage you to start a startup right away...today (I had a business in high school, and I learned a lot from it). But don't let it get in the way of having fun, going to college, and learning some stuff. Travel is also probably wise.

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

#19

Post by ars »

>I came to realize that the hackers are the core of any good startup team.

Only software startups need them, but there are many kinds of startups.

First think of your idea, then see if you need programmers.

By reading those sites you are causing yourself to ignore all the other kinds of businesses in the world, and especially since you are not a programmer, that's a mistake.

Those sites are written by hackers, so they will of course laud hackers, but it's perfectly possible to create a startup that does not need hackers. Just a hired, regular, programmer or two.

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

#20

Post by astrec »

Don't drop out of high school: Hack nights. Hack early mornings. Hack at lunchtime. Allot some time to party/chase girls/work out. Most of all make sure you're having fun.

Before long you'll find you've built something of substance. It might be something people want. It might not. Either way you'll have both a startup and have/be-on-your-way-to a high school diploma.

Best of all you'll have options.

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