

Most Valued Skills For A Startup - brentiscooper

Hey Guys,<p>I'm 17 years old, I have started a couple of online businesses but my aim in the next few years is to 'start a startup' like many others aspire to do.<p>I'm contemplating studying either 'business' or 'hacking' at college. I find I'm good on the business side of things, but am wondering if studying CS would be more 'helpful' in the startup world.<p>Basically, I'm wondering what valuable skills people would recommend acquiring? What skills have been scarce? Which provides more value? Any thoughts will be helpful!
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omitevski
Skills that have been scarce and always will be are good math skills. Coupled
with decent programming skills and you can do magic. There are many
coders/engineers that lack a decent background in math, so they are severely
limited to what they can do. Besides the technologically cheap ideas are
quickly being scooped up. I am not saying that there will be less space for
such ideas in the future, it's really hard to say that. But nevertheless
having larger scope can give you a competitive advantage. The technologically
intensive ideas right now and especially when you graduate in 5 years will be
machine learning, AI, robotics, image processing, computer graphics computer
vision and they all require decent math background and intuition. Besides
having good training in applied math can help you on both fronts, the business
as well the engineering part.

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brentiscooper
I've never been too good at maths, but I'm not bad either. It sounds like
heading in the CS direction, and trying exceptionally hard in maths will
probably pay off the most in the end. Thanks!

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omitevski
Absolutely! Many tend to give up on the math part too early, because they
can't immediately see how it relates to real world applications. Sometimes you
need to let your mind loose and dive deep into theory before starting to think
of the applications. But in the end of the day you need to enjoy it for what
it really is, not just because of the big pay off.

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brentiscooper
Good point. I'm studying Software Development and Business Management in year
12 this year, so hopefully that will give me an insight to which one I enjoy
doing more. But I think the programming route seems the most exciting!

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JacobIrwin
I went the business route. Being an entrepreneur is innate. I used to sell the
shanked golf balls back to the golfers by my house through a wire fence when I
was 6. I would clean the balls first and then I would display the balls on a
piece of old carpet (which I found in my garage) out of my Radio Flyer wagon.
When I got home I'd have $20-$30, not bad for a kid who is 6, which my mother
would "hold" for me.

Back to the point that being an entrepreneur is innate. Now I am 23 and a
major in business admin and finance. I find that the big "niche" ideas I come
up with (that I can personally produce) have been taken or are reserved by
patents. The ideas that haven't been taken require programming skills, which I
lack. I must rely on building friendships/partnerships with CS students,
hoping that they are willing to take the time to help produce my startups.
This route is not so terrible, but also not as convenient.

If I had to go back a few years, I would have chosen the CS route. The
entrepreneur in you and I isn't going to wear off (no matter how much of a
hacker we become).

Developing programming skills now will allow you to personally create valuable
startups in the future by the time you are my age. I recommend this path
especially since your talents have already surfaced in the online marketplace.

Good luck.

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brentiscooper
Thanks very much for posting. I'd find it very irritating to have to rely on
other CS students to give me any hope of getting to where I want to be, where
as if I could program, I could build my ideas as they came, rather than having
to wait 6 months before I built a relationship with a business major.

Programming seems the way to go :)

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jwang815
I graduated from a top 3 business program and feel that everything I learned
can easily be picked up later in life. If you want to hack stuff and build
things on your own, studying CS is the way to go.

