
My college professor: "Startups are not real work, and starting a business is not rational." - Alex3917
http://alexkrupp.com/midterm.html
======
fake0
Sorry but that essay _is_ severely disjointed and unfocused. The prompt asked
for a specific work experience/decision and you essentially produced a bootleg
PG essay. This is coming from a Cornellian who is going the startup route
after graduation so I feel ya on the story -- you just failed to play the
game. Nonetheless, your professor is an idiot if that quote is indeed
verbatim. Somehow, though, after speaking with my housemates who took multiple
OB classes, I doubt it was.

------
danielha
May I ask what you are studying over there at Cornell?

I read your paper and the conclusion that you arrived at is reminiscent of an
observation on young entrepreneurship in this essay:
http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html. Starting a startup while you're still in
school means that there is still an escape hatch. Just as you realized in your
paper, if you fail, you are still a student, or "no worse off than before."

While I agree about the disjointedness of the paper, I think a rational-
decision making model is absolutely applicable in an entrepreneurial sense if
approached correctly.

~~~
Alex3917
Good point. I don't really have a major, I'm just whatever random classes I
find interesting or useful. I'm taking classes in business, education,
English, comp sci, etc. I've taken enough classes to get an Applied Economics
& Management degree if I want it, but I'm pretty ambivalent between doing that
and just leaving it as interdisciplinary studies on my diploma.

Also, you're right about the PG essay. I've obviously learned a lot since that
experience and will not be making the same mistakes next time.

~~~
danielha
Roaming random classes, learning what you find interesting? Sounds like you've
got some young Steve Jobs in you. No flaw in that -- he went on to found some
famous fruit company of sorts.

------
palish
Would you be willing to tell us what your startup did? :)

Shawn

~~~
Alex3917
The website is actually down but here was the elevator pitch:

"Emoticomm is a digital introduction device. Our stick-of-gum sized device
uses Bluetooth to connect people with similar desires. We use proven hardware
and open source software.

It's a shame how many missed opportunities exist because of difficulty in
initial icebreaking.

For example, imagine two strangers in an elevator with only 30 seconds to
potentially establish a relationship. Our product will discretely alert them
to common interests.

We're targeting venues such as conferences, trade shows, and cruiseships. Our
goal is to create a more efficient social experience.

Our product is a digital icebreaker. Digital handshakes will lead to physical
ones."

You can see two mockups here, one of the product and one of the GUI:

http://www.alexkrupp.com/picture_library/3Dmodel.png

http://www.alexkrupp.com/picture_library/gui.png

(The idea behind the GUI was that info in green boxes would be public, info in
yellow boxes would be viewable by friends of friends, and info in red boxes
would be viewable by friends only)

It was a decent idea but I guess I wasn't clued in enough to realize that I
have no where near enough skills to pull off a hardware project. At least I
learned a thing or two...

~~~
Alex3917
P.S. I just threw the business plan and marketing plan online.

http://www.alexkrupp.com/biz_plan.pdf

http://www.alexkrupp.com/marketing_plan.pdf

They actually won a couple of business plan competitions, so they're not
completely terrible if you want an example. Plus maybe someone will get a good
idea or two.

I also have a provisional patent on the above designs plus some new business
methods relating to advertising that is going to expire in a few months...
*sigh*

~~~
ecuzzillo
I've never seen or heard anything about a business plan competition, but they
seem like amazingly bankrupt ideas. It sounds to me like they're a bunch of
middle-aged employees of big companies or universities who have never started
a business telling you what's a good business plan. But I *highly* doubt that
the winners of business plan competitions correlate at all with successful
businesses (as you yourself are an example). For that reason, it seems like
they'd be the exclusive domain of PHBs, or at least the administration of them
would be.

~~~
Alex3917
Exactly.

