

Econ major looking to break into startup culture. Advice? - deafcheese

I'm an econ major, math minor at an ivy league school who's literally suffocating in my school's infatuation with wall street. I'd like to intern at and join a tech startup after graduation (currently a junior), but I'm not sure how to best approach the situation.<p>I consider myself pretty technically savy - I've built a couple of websites using PHP, rails, etc, but at my experience level anything I code would probably scale terribly. I'm "hacker compatible," but I understand my limitations as a developer.<p>I have a good sense of design. I can create presentations and pitches. I can network and feel out people. I'm persistent, and I'm not afraid of cold-calling or working 80+ hour weeks.<p>Ideally, I'd like to tackle everything that the serious hacker won't have time to focus on. However, I'm young, relatively inexperienced, and have no real connections that would make me a compelling "business guy" or "funding guy."<p>Also, I am debt free but also at basically nil savings. While I don't need much more than basic living costs, I simply can't afford to work for free.<p>Given my situation, how can I break into the startup scene? Should I be targeting early stage ventures? Companies that are already VC funded? Everyone I talk to is looking for a hacker. Should I stop trying to break in on the business side and focus on honing my hacker skills?<p>Thanks.
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davidw
Hal Varian wrote an article a while back talking about the importance of
statistics. That and Econ might make you a good candidate for the right sort
of position. Learning 'R' is apparently a good idea for that sort of
direction.

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deafcheese
My econ degree is heavily econometric (stats) focused, so I have done a lot of
R, Stat, EViews, etc. But I'm having a hard time figuring out how to make
those skills applicable...?

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davidw
Here's the article:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/06stats.html>

