
Ask HN: How young is too young to start a startup? - nexionic
I&#x27;m a 17y working on what is a side project that a lot of people think could become something, I&#x27;ve even had a couple of people offer to invest, to which I have politely declined. I&#x27;m not about to take people&#x27;s money if i&#x27;m still iffy about it. Now I know from a legal point of view, the number would be 18y.<p>But really how young is too young?
I&#x27;d really like of answers, so any and all answers are appreciated.
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brudgers
In the "Silicon Valley sense", a startup is a company organized to grow
quickly. Ideally it will have a capital structure (typically a C-corp) that
facilitates substantial capital investment and a well proven mechanism for
capturing value in those rare cases where it occurs. Most new businesses are
not startups in this sense. That's a good thing because few startups in the
Silicon Valley sense succeed.

"Startup founder" is not a synonym for "entrepreneur". There's really no age
at which a person should wait to become entrepreneurial. Running a startup in
the Silicon Valley sense, as you note, is effectively bounded by the minimum
legal age of majority. Practically speaking everyone matures at different
rates. There are fifteen year old children who are more mature than fifty year
old adults.

My advice: trust your gut. Remember that taking investment is not business
success. It obligates the founders to work to make money for someone else who
is _not_ working to make them money.

Good luck.

~~~
nexionic
Thanks for the advice.

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RaitoBezarius
I think that first, you should always consider an escape route, no matter what
you are doing.

First of all, I do not believe a lot in the "startup game", so my advice is to
read some books before doing something: Rework is a good start.

It forge you an opinion on how to run a tech company, productivity stuff,
scaling, ...

Next, I suppose that you are a high school student, so you're going to have
your bachelor this year.

I have to say: Do not favor your company / projects more than your studies.
These are your escape route, and an escape route should be fail-proof as much
as you can.

Get as much degree as you can, while you can try to make your side-projects
and ideas better, to adjust them, to test them.

The whole idea is to invest the minimal time in your idea while building your
escape route.

Now, why what I say makes sense? I guess that you have certainly a tremendous
potential, you must be a self-taught developer who started since 10 ~ 12 years
old to play with a computer.

So, in fact, I went through that too, and I wanted to launch my startup ASAP,
to throw everything. But some people around me helped me a lot to understand
that if it fails, you're completely fucked. And my guess is that for a 17y
founder it is a lot worse than a 27y founder. Keep doing what you love, it is
hard to wait, I definitely feel the urge to go ahead and do something that you
hope will matter. But, just wait, and keep refining, it will definitely give
birth to a better product, better ideas and others things.

I just wanted to share my view, as I hope to understand what you see.

If you want to talk more about my experience, drop me a line at masterancpp at
gmail dot com

I would love to learn more about your experience, what you want to do, what
you have done, and where you want to go with all of that.

~~~
nexionic
Well said, thanks for the advice. I'll be sure to reach out.

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blisterpeanuts
Many great entrepreneurs got their start running some kind of business while
still in high school. I would say, go for it. Even if your startup fails, and
just bear in mind that most do, you'll learn invaluable skills to make your
next startup a success. Good luck, and have fun!

~~~
nexionic
Very well said. Thank you.

