

Ask HN: Advice on founding startup during PhD? - anthonye

I&#x27;m in a CS PhD program at a decent school. My eventual goal is to launch a start-up.  I&#x27;m also just getting by financially (I support my family).<p>I know of people who&#x27;ve launched a startup <i>after</i> their PhD, but anyone have advice on how to launch one during?<p>Reasons:
- money
- want my ideas to come to market quickly, not stagnate in conferences forever
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jtfairbank
I can't say as a PhD, but I started my current company as a senior in college.
I spent two years working on it as a side project (including building the
alpha and talking to users), then jumped the bridge as soon as I was able.

In short, my grades suffered. But school as a whole is less important to me- I
am doing what I wanted to after school, just a bit sooner.

If you want to start a company during your PhD, be prepared to give in one way
or the other. Wrap up your PhD with as little work as possible and as quickly
as possible. Bonus points for aligning your PhD work with your startup work,
but be careful about allowing the school to make claims on the startup. If you
choose the PhD over the startup, maybe don't go full startup yet but begin
quietly building the product and talking to people in your free time. Then
launch and grow as soon as your PhD is done.

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quantisan
Make use of your school's network and resources while you're a student. I
would start by contacting your school's venture/entrepreneurship/tech transfer
office.

Also your profs might know of people that have done the same. Ask those people
for advice as they probably know about things beneficial to you in particular
that random people on the internet don't.

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Warewolf-ESB
I've never done a PhD but I have (and do) run a start up. To do it
successfully you will more than likely spend 90% of your waking hours
obsessing, thinking, working, planning and doing stuff that your start up
needs. I can't imaging having anything else big, like a PhD to focus on at the
same time. There is also a good chance that your family will be missing out on
time with you, because of the above. While it is VERY fulfilling, and
certainly has the ability to bring in rewards far bigger than a "job", think
about it carefully. You need to really want this, it is not always easy and
can be risky. Good luck!

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sideproject
It's hard to do both, so I have to say it's going to more likely either-or-
case.

I tried doing a side-project during PhD, but quickly stopped because it was
eating up my progress in PhD.

I guess, for me, my desire to finish PhD was greater than trying to do a
startup.

What about you? How much more do you want to do PhD than startup (and vice
versa)?

I have to say, completing PhD is.. an extremely rewarding and worthwhile
experience, albeit... a tremendously stressful thing to do. :)

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anthonye
Which do I want more? That is a good question, will have to ponder that. I see
value in both at this point. I see what you're saying about stress though,
startups and a PhD are both very stressful, which is why I'm trying to use
this time to research stuff for my future startup. Thanks for the advice!

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FiatLuxDave
I've balanced school and work/startup before - I launched a startup in
undergrad, and worked at a corporation while doing my Masters. I think that if
you are going to do two things which consume so much time and energy, that the
most important thing is to make sure that your focus is the same for both.
Then you get benefits on both sides. For example, I did my Master's thesis
while I was a product manager, and the thesis was related to the product. This
meant that my knowledge from work informed my research, and I could go far
more in depth into questions about product behavior than a product manager
could normally spend time on.

So, if your startup and your dissertation are focused on the same basic
problem, then it's not really splitting your focus, but it is adding more "to-
do's" to your list. The hard part with a startup is finding a way to get all
those to-do's done in limited time and money. This is always a challenge, just
realize that school is going to take time away and budget time and money
accordingly. For example, if you could do something for your customers in a
month without school, maybe you should not promise anything in less than 3
months. If you don't budget time appropriately, you will need to ship
something the week before finals, and something's got to give.

Of course, if you do this, watch out for intellectual property issues with
your school. Depending on your school and what you are doing, this may or may
not be an issue. Usually, you can talk to the school's commercialization
office, and they have a process for evaluating whether the school has an
interest. You might think it's better to fly under their radar, but using the
process grants you either a) institutional support, which is great, or b) a
declaration that the school doesn't have an interest, which is also great.

If you don't already kind of know what you want to do for your dissertation
and/or startup, then you aren't ready. For either, really. Do not attempt
either a startup or PhD, and especially not both, without some passion. If
they're not both the same passion, and you feel more for one than the other,
then you already know what your decision should be. This isn't meant to be
harsh, just as advice.

A startup can be a way to get around the issue of having your ideas get stuck
in academic neglect. However, be aware that there are downsides to trying and
failing. The academic route is long and not glamorous, but you are also
unlikely to end up living in a car with your significant other leaving you.
That is a possibility with failed startups, if you let it be (trust me on
this). Have an exit strategy for if it doesn't work out. If academics is your
plan B, make sure you keep publishing and retain your contacts in the academic
world.

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joeclark77
Not everybody finishes their PhD. I believe there are a lot of successful
people who started something during their PhD that turned out to be more than
just a dissertation. You could simply shift gears and go ahead with the
startup, hoping to finish the thesis later (maybe using your startup as a
research site or data source?) or you could focus on the PhD project now and
monetize it after you graduate. Reflect on this question: do you really want
to be a professor, or primarily value the sheepskin?

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anthonye
I don't really want to be a prof, I'd rather be in industry. I like making
things too much :)

I see value in doing the PhD though, so it might very well come down to one
off the other.

The timing of the startup is going too be really important, so that will
likely drive things. Thanks!

