To start up or not while in college

Once upon a time, colleges were meant solely to gain academic knowledge, get a degree and go out into the job market in search of a career. Things have changed and now job is just one of the options after college for many. Industry is abuzz with under 20 kids becoming CEOs for million and billion dollar companies that they had found while in college.

Most students now face a dilemma between choosing entrepreneurship path and other options. There are several advantages and disadvantages to starting up from college and analyzing all the relevant factors listed below will help in making an informed choice. Entrepreneurship is not just an option for any student. Some individuals have this deep desire and passion to create something of their own and not working for someone.

Although rebellious thinkers such as this are often cited in the success stories in the media, hundreds of stories go untold where a student or a team of students ventured aspiring for the same and not being able to achieve what they have set out for.

Typical causes for failures include team dynamics failing, lack of funding, financial responsibilities and family and personal obligations of the founders. With this context, lets examine why one should pursue this path before we get to why one shouldn’t pursue this path while in college.

Advantage of starting up from college:
More than any advantage, college is a playground where you can put your ideas to test with all the spare time you have on your hand. Along with this, you have plenty of support and encouragement from your friends and faculty to support you in your direction.

These two allow you to pivot, iterate in a manner that is just not possible from outside. Apart from time, these days there are so many opportunities that the startup ecosystem provides for that student have several avenues to showcase their idea and take it forward.

The institutes themselves are not setup with entrepreneurship cells to encourage and incubate ideas on campus. These are all awesome avenues for a student who is in his or her early twenties to explore, experiment and exploit.

Another reason why one should consider starting up from college is that college provides for a very flexible test bed for your product or idea before you can take it to scale. Facebook was born on campus of Harvard and then spread through to other university campuses before it was released to public. Many entrepreneurs started their pilots inside the college funded from their allowance and friends' support and made it big. Finding a mentor or an advisor is also easier on campus than outside.

Why you shouldn't startup from campus:
Despite several success stories of startups found on campus, for every success story there will at least be hundreds or thousands of failed attempts. But these stories mostly go untold. It will be wise to learn about such stories to take a reading from them to correct your course.

One of the fundamental reason why startups fail when found on college is the lack of clarity in the vision and lack of synergy in the founding team. With limited or no experience, students often imagine solutions for imaginary problems and build products for them only to realize that market does not exist. Almost all the times, your co-founders end up being your roommates and friends on college.

Even of the idea had potential and even if you had built a product, there comes a point when all the founding team members have to give up their placement opportunities to join the bandwagon. This is where most founding teams disband as not everyone has appetite for risk to decline high paying job offers and struggle in a startup.

An entrepreneurial bug is more of a trait than timing. So, if you have the itch you may participate in all entrepreneurial initiatives on the campus but the perspective you earn from working in the real world changes your view of business and idea in a whole new way.

This is very essential for you to understand what it is to be in a professional setting and even better you may discover some gross inefficiencies in your workplace and may trigger some new ideas in your head. This experience is extremely valuable not to learn the business nor get a taster of the professional world but to understand human dynamics in a professional setting.

Every young entrepreneur acknowledges the fact that startup has been easy but not the organizational behavior part. And this is acquired, learnt and developed from a real world working experience. Another important reason for you to wait is to not fail and let that kill your confidence and fire in college. Some individuals give up after one or two failed attempts and if you are a person like that, all your fuel and risk appetite are burnt too early and you may lose belief in your own strengths. Don’t let that happen.

To summarize, take a holistic view of the options in front of you and look at the strengths of your team and their commitment. Be prepared to go for a marathon without pay and with building pressure from family. Ensure your team is on board for a similar journey.

More than everything, don’t build a product sitting inside your hostel rooms and think you are building a startup. Get out there into the world, identify a problem that you like to solve and bring a team together to validate the problem before you venture. But once you have validated the problem and think you are ready, then don’t stop. Ever.