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Comment by Broken_Hippo | Hacker News Reader

I always knew kids that wanted to start their own business - at least in high school and college. I grew up poor-to-middle class, nothing special, living in Indiana. I'm about 39 now. Some folks just don't consider it so young, just like changing professions in one's late 20's. It usually goes along with the dream of not having to answer to a boss and/or working hours one wants to work, but not always.

But I do think more folks would try if they could take the college money and invest it in things like starting a business, no matter what the business is, and wish more folks had this option.

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"But I do think more folks would try if they could take the college money and invest it in things like starting a business, no matter what the business is, and wish more folks had this option."

I don't think these options are comparable. The other is a structured path to more or less predictably increase ones human capital while the other is a high risk, unstructured mess. I suppose the key is this - can the person thrive in a non-structured space, and would they enjoy the hustle of entrepreneurship.

They are definitely different options - and I think that is a good thing. I figure that some folks are good without the structured college environment, and some folks are truly self-starters or simply interested in things that college will help them little with (wanting to own a restaurant, for example). I think a few would be good with either option.

I'm also a fan of affordable trade schools and different types of apprenticeships or work/school combinations. They sometimes like comparing apples to oranges, but I also think they give more of the population viable options for their life.

But you are correct, it does depend on the person and what, exactly, they want to do. I'd not just give the money without strings attached: After all, college funds depend on the person getting into college. Startup funds would depend on them learning the skills they need, have a seemingly viable business plan, and possibly a backup plan in case it goes awry.

It would help a lot in making this a viable option if more companies gave credit/valued the experience a young person gains by trying to start their own company. Outside of the Bay Area, this is a rare occurance.

How valuable would that experience really be? "Hired some friends and had a good time playing pretend-company until we ran out of daddy-money" is a likely outcome and that sounds way to much like the kind of college years that is spent completely ignoring all education opportunities before eventually dropping out.

When the company turns out to be viable the person would not be looking for a job. But when it falls despite all the free runway the experience is likely much lesser than that of someone who failed by a tiny main bootstrapping or convincing real investors.

Actually, it depends on the industry you are applying for. If you are OK with something like retail management - something that is generally a path for folks without college anyway - you can generally hire in above entry level. Same with some other industries and jobs - mostly because you are more likely to meet the experience requirements. Your pay might or might not be on par with someone with a degree, but at that point you might be able to remedy that.

I'm not sure it's so much hiring managers not giving credit. Rather that, especially for relatively entry-level jobs, companies--especially larger ones--use a lot of cookie cutter heuristics to sort applicants. And "tried to start a company rather than go to college" tends to fail those heuristics.

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