

Free Money - The Other Reason Many Start-Ups Begin In College - citizenkeys

Just got through re-reading all of Paul Graham's essays in the start-up library.  He frequently comments, like many, the obvious fact that many start-ups originate in college.  The obvious reason is that there's many talented people working together.  However, the other component that everyone routinely fails to mention is that starting a start-up is easy in college because of all the free money.<p>In college, many students have at least one sort of scholarship.  Even without scholarships, there's grant money and student loans.  The student loans, as you find out soon enough, are federally guaranteed and payment-deferred.  "Federally-guaranteed" means that not only can you not be denied the loans, but the government actually pays the interest on the loans for you.  "Payment-deferred" means that as long as you stay in school at least part-time, you don't even need to make any loan payments.<p>So if you're smart, then the classes are easy, you don't need money because scholarships/grants/loans are paying for everything, and you can spend all your time coming up with new brilliant ideas to hack away.<p>The "smart people together" is the part about start-ups beginning in college that everybody mentions.  But all the free money is also a major part of it.  Smart people + government allowance - need for mcjob = start-ups.<p>Free money from staying in school funded at least one start-up project of mine.<p>Who else here has been able to fund a start-up by living on scholarships and student loans?<p>Patrick Keys
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citizenkeys
That many, huh?

