A Student's Guide to Startups

paulgraham.com

Startups

27 min read → 75 sec

A case for when students should start startups, why the mid-twenties may be the sweet spot, and what young founders gain and lack. It argues that co-founders, low burn, startup hubs, and user focus matter more than credentials.

Most students should wait until after graduation to start a startup

The best founder age is probably mid-twenties, between student advantages and work experience

Young founders have five main advantages over older ones

Stamina, poverty, rootlessness, colleagues, and ignorance

Long hours are universal in successful startups, and younger founders need them because they are less efficient

Low burn rate matters because most startups fail by running out of money before recovering from mistakes

Poor founders often build cheaper products because their own cost instincts match where technology is heading

The scarcest startup ingredient is co-founders, and school is the best place to find them

Successful startups are almost never started by one person. They usually begin with two people deciding to try

By age 30, many strong potential co-founders are tied down by jobs and harder to recruit

The biggest weakness of student founders is building class projects instead of solving real user problems

Work experience mainly removes childish habits, especially the flake reflex and indifference to user needs

Customers judge the distance remaining to what they need, not the effort you put in

Graduation removes the built-in excuse of being a student, which makes failure feel more real

Peer opinion drives founders more day to day than distant wealth, so social pressure changes outcomes

Startup success is such a close call that small extra forces can push a company into failure

Startup opportunities have historically increased over time, so waiting rarely means missing the last chance

The most useful startup preparation in college

INDEX

If you work before founding, avoid writing startup code while employed, or investors may reject the company

Google appears to be a startup black hole, because people like working there too much to leave