

Ask HN: Ideal path after college for a technical founder? - hella

I'm a CS major at a decent college. I know I want to start my own web startup in the future. (I'm working on a couple things now.) But I'm not sure what to do immediately after college?<p>For instance, I know I'll work fervently on a side project. But should I go to grad school? (And where? Stanford for CS? NYU for ITP?) Or do I try my hand at Y-Combinator? Or do I work for a $big_company?<p>If it matters, I'll be 20, and will have money saved up.
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rms
After hanging around the startup community for a while, it's become clear to
me that the best thing for personal development and expected value is getting
in as an early employee/founder at a company that will both give you a big
equity stake and pay you a slightly below market to market salary.

I don't particularly recommend grad school unless you know exactly why you
want to go.

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fourk
Work at a startup. Personally I learned more, in a shorter period of time,
while working at a startup than I did during any comparable stretch of time
spent in college. That experience will be indispensable regardless of what
path you later follow.

~~~
bkrausz
I would agree even if it weren't self-serving ( _cough_ gazehawk.com/jobs/
_cough_ )...I worked in industry for a year before starting my own company,
and I'm really grateful for it (my team was awesome!). At the same time, my
experiences at larger companies (internships), while useful, didn't give me
nearly the experience and exposure to different parts of businesses that
smaller companies do.

My theory is the smaller the better, but I only have ~3 data points to support
that.

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mikeyur
Learn on someone else's dime. Find a job at a company that has an interesting
product, try to pick the smallest company possible. You'll learn a lot of
stuff, work on something that kinda/sorta interests you, meet new people
(possible co-founders, investors) and get a paycheck to do it.

I'm a marketing guy and I got my start in a jr marketing position at a small
company (~40 employees). I got to play around with their money and resources
to build up my own skill set. I use those skills now on my own projects and
client work, and I picked up a ton of tips on things like running a
business/hiring/sales techniques/etc. I also met a ton of awesome people, some
of which I'm still really good friends with.

Go in with an open mind and try it out for at least a couple months, if you
really don't like it then you can always leave and find another place or get
to work on your own idea. P.S. Don't burn bridges, ALWAYS bites you in the ass
(had to learn the hard way).

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ssx
There is no set path for these things, but if there was an ideal path it would
probably be working as an early employee < 15-20 at a startup. While at the
Startup you get real-life experience working at a company, you meet new people
and mature. Maybe you stay 1,2, or 3 years, then you go off and do something
on your own. Meeting/Networking is crucial because your co-founders have to be
good matches.

Grad school would be great if there is a purpose. ITP would be good if you
want to be a founder that leans product/design. Stanford/MIT would be good if
you want to lean more in technical.

Y-combinator is the startup-MBA. It is an amazing program that I would
recommend to any entrepreneur at any stage (college undergrad, grad, 1-10
year, or older). My issue with someone from college jumping right into YC is
lack of life experience and technical experience. There are exceptions to that
rule, and PG does a great job in picking those young entrepreneurs that can
handle it. So if you feel you have what it takes, apply.

~~~
ssx
I just realized, I only gave you descriptions for your options, although I did
give my suggestion (work at small startup).

If you have a great idea and feel comfortable with the entire web stack, apply
to YC or other comparable programs. If that doesn't work out, then work at a
small startup. If you can't get that, maybe you go to grad school. Thats
probably my best advice.

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andrewacove
at 20? Isn't there the Peter Thiel program?

Do you have an idea worth submitting to YC? Do you have a good network of
people to mine for cofounders?

I'd say that if you've got other people to work with, and an idea to pursue,
then try your hand at it and go after YC and similar programs.

If you don't, I'd pick the opportunity that will add the most valuable people
to your network (other people who want to do start ups, people who complement
your skills, people who could become your best friends/people you'll be
willing to go through hell with). That's not necessarily a startup, something
like APM at Google would be killer for your network and experience, and bigger
companies => more people to connect with.

Final pro-startup caveat: If you find the right people to work with, join a
startup. You're only 20, and you're not short on cash. There might never be a
better time.

~~~
edge17
_Final pro-startup caveat: If you find the right people to work with, join a
startup. You're only 20, and you're not short on cash. There might never be a
better time._

Really agree with this. There's two things you should know which you might not
figure out till you're out in the workforce.

\- This first is that, despite all the news about the economy blowing up and
unemployment on the rails, your industry is still aggressively looking for
smart people to hire. I get emails almost weekly from companies looking for
people to interview. It's a hard feeling to digest sometimes (I'm in my mid
twenties), but you won't be left out to dry with your skills even if you go do
a startup, burn all your cash, and fail miserably.

\- Understand working capital for what it is. Your age counts for a lot; lots
of young people will never realize that youth is working capital that should
be spent while they still have it.

I guess the last thing you want to be weary about is burnout, and understand
what it is. People love to throw the word around, but they never quite put it
into terms, so here it is -

 _What I learned is that burning out isn’t just about work load, it’s about
work load being greater than the motivation to do work. It was relatively easy
to drag myself to classes when I thought I was working for my own betterment.
It was hard to sit at a laptop and crank out slides when all I seemed to be
accomplishing was the transfer of wealth from my client to my company._

written by a former consultant of a large firm -
<http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N18/dubai.html>

~~~
andrewacove
> you won't be left out to dry with your skills even if you > go do a startup,
> burn all your cash, and fail miserably.

That's true, but you might develop a distaste for 'regular' jobs. Not that
those will be your only option, but it might be harder to go back.

> lots of young people will never realize that youth is working > capital that
> should be spent while they still have it.

I'm in my mid twenties too, and I'm sure I'll sound like an idiot when I say
that youth is also social capital that shouldn't be wasted. I've spent most of
my 20s with my head down on work, and I would take a lot of it back to do some
more living. I'm not saying that your youth isn't working capital - it is. But
always work smarter, not just harder and longer. There's no immediate prize
for effort.

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robyates
Thanks for asking this question! I don't have an answer for you, but I just
want to say you're not alone. I'm 24 and after college, I decided to work for
$big_company. Now I really think I should have worked for a startup instead.
Perhaps do what rms said and form an early stage startup yourself or join
someone else's.

Or try what friends of mine have told me, and just work on as many potential
startup projects as you can in your free time until one of them becomes
successful. A quote I saw recently: "Have multiple sticks in the fire because
you never know which one is going to bring you luck." I think that's a good
rule to live by.

P.S. If your interested, feel free to contact me if you want to work on
something together.

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wizardishungry
ITP is a joke coming from a CS background. It's good for internet fameball
self-promoter types and people from an design/art background.

~~~
msutherl
Word. If you're interested in this kind of work, look to MIT (Media Lab),
Georgia Tech, Stanford (CCRMA), the UC schools (CNMAT, UCLA design, UCSD,
UCSB, etc.), McGill (music tech|CIM|SRE) & Concordia (SIP|comp. arts), RPI
(empac), and others. ITP is for beginners.

~~~
andrewacove
Presumably, a CS person isn't going to ITP for the tech education. Are there
not other things for them to extract from the program?

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sblank
A few thoughts here about getting an MBA:
[http://steveblank.com/2010/05/10/entrepreneurial-
finishing-s...](http://steveblank.com/2010/05/10/entrepreneurial-finishing-
school/)

"Or do I work for a $big_company?" You may have already answered your
question. A startup is not a job choice.

