I'm 23 and recently graduated a good college with a degree in computer science. I have a standard 9-5 day job, which pays the bills, but my true passion is when I get home and hack.
I'm currently looking at a few options for what to do with my free time:
- Play it safe: Go for an online Entrepreneurship MBA or
- Risk it: Try founding a startup.
Or maybe the solution is to do both? I just worry that both the startup and the studies would suffer as a result of trying to do both with the little free time I have.
I'm looking for a little advice from people who have been faced with a similar decision. What did you do and if you could go back, would you still have done it?
It is extremely valuable (IMO) for both the MBA and the found-a-startup tracks to know what a "real" business is supposed to look like and work like.
Learn about all the socio-political stuff that goes on in a typical organization
Learn about sales, booking sales, recognizing revenue and other aspects of cash flow
Learn about product design, development, testing, etc.
Learn about manufacturing, shipping, operations, logistics.
Basically, you get the idea. This experience will, again IMO, give you a far better knowledge (and financial) basis upon which you can then launch into your next trajectory.
Trust me, you have more time than you are led to believe to found or participate in a startup.