

Ask HN: At what stage of your start-up would you quit college? - celebration

Leaving University/College is not a decision to be taken lightly, especially if one is near the end of a course and has accumulated substantial debt. Even if you have great personal belief in your start-up it would be unwise to quit without some initial traction. What would be the key trigger in your decision? For anyone who did decide to drop-out, at what stage in your growth did you decide to take the plunge?
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mindcrime
If I could do it all over again:

1\. I'd try everything in my power to avoid taking on any debt, much less
"significant debt." Go to a State school, go to a school near home so you can
stay with mom & dad, work a part-time job during school, etc. Actually, I did
all of these things, and did manage to avoid taking on a large amount of debt
($3k was all I ever borrowed).

2\. Given (1) above, I'd drop out of school at the drop of a hat... in
practical terms, that probably would mean "if I could find one other person
crazy enough to work on the startup with me" then I'd drop out and do the
startup. If we could hack nights and weekends for a while, get a prototype out
and demonstrate some traction first, so much the better.

3\. If (big IF) funding were available (outside investors, a paying customer,
etc.) then it would be a no-brainer to me to quit and do the startup.

Looking back, I _did_ drop out, just not for a "startup" per se, and I've
never really regretted it. The only reason I'd go back and finish my degree at
this point is just so I could say I did it (I actually do prefer to finish
things I start).

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shrig94
I just personally made this decision and here is what I think:

Quitting school is a hard decision. And I am only leaving knowing that I have
the safety net of being able to go back to school in the case that things work
out.

Having that safety net makes me feel a lot more comfortable. And with that
net, I was able to make the choice when I realized that other people who were
not biased and had no reason to comfort me believed in my idea and my team;
here, those people were an accelerator. Had I not been accepted into the
accelerator, I probably would have left upon completion of an MVP, seeing that
I had unbiased users.

To summarize, I personally left when I felt that I could confirm with an
unbiased source that I wasn't bluffing myself, that the product I'm developing
can succeed and has value.

