Ask HN: At what stage of your start-up would you quit college? Leaving University/College is not a decision to be taken lightly, especially if one is near the end of a course and has accumulated substantial debt. Even if you have great personal belief in your start-up it would be unwise to quit without some initial traction. What would be the key trigger in your decision? For anyone who did decide to drop-out, at what stage in your growth did you decide to take the plunge? |
1. I'd try everything in my power to avoid taking on any debt, much less "significant debt." Go to a State school, go to a school near home so you can stay with mom & dad, work a part-time job during school, etc. Actually, I did all of these things, and did manage to avoid taking on a large amount of debt ($3k was all I ever borrowed).
2. Given (1) above, I'd drop out of school at the drop of a hat... in practical terms, that probably would mean "if I could find one other person crazy enough to work on the startup with me" then I'd drop out and do the startup. If we could hack nights and weekends for a while, get a prototype out and demonstrate some traction first, so much the better.
3. If (big IF) funding were available (outside investors, a paying customer, etc.) then it would be a no-brainer to me to quit and do the startup.
Looking back, I did drop out, just not for a "startup" per se, and I've never really regretted it. The only reason I'd go back and finish my degree at this point is just so I could say I did it (I actually do prefer to finish things I start).
Quitting school is a hard decision. And I am only leaving knowing that I have the safety net of being able to go back to school in the case that things work out.
Having that safety net makes me feel a lot more comfortable. And with that net, I was able to make the choice when I realized that other people who were not biased and had no reason to comfort me believed in my idea and my team; here, those people were an accelerator. Had I not been accepted into the accelerator, I probably would have left upon completion of an MVP, seeing that I had unbiased users.
To summarize, I personally left when I felt that I could confirm with an unbiased source that I wasn't bluffing myself, that the product I'm developing can succeed and has value.