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Comment by kanobo | Hacker News Reader

I'm not very familiar with Startup School, can students who participated recently chime in about the amount of value obtained and time commitment involved? Is it possible to complete outside of PST business hours or are there real-time components? Thanks!

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This is my first time going through it, it's pretty easy as far as time commitments goes. The weekly updates are pretty helpful actually, while we have made a lot of progress in both users and updates, but looking back at the past 8 weeks there were a number of goals that we didn't end up doing because "time got away from us" or The group sessions have been very hit or miss, it's often too much just introducing yourself instead of being able to ask questions that they might be able to help you with. And then there is a 22 section "curriculum" which are just YC articles and videos that you have to mark that you completed, generally pretty solid reads, but all 22 over 8 weeks feels like a lot of busy work than actual work, so I'm playing catch up right now. Overall I'd say do it, it's free and does give you something to keep track of your weeks, because they do fly by super fast. But we've tripled the number of users by mostly dumb luck and some persistence, so I would do it again.

If you want to see what we've been working on the past 8 weeks, you can check us out on the chrome store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sidewalkchat/denbp...

I try to participate in Startup School each time it comes around. I find it incredibly good practice for "the real thing".

I'm not quite ready to start my own venture just yet, but I like to "practice" by coming up with an idea, setting goals, moving towards them, doing interviews, etc. The startup school is a really nice program to follow along with and have conversations with other founders during. I'm basically using it to war-game a startup launch myself. The idea being that when the time comes that I decide to jump in on something I'm very passionate about and put skin-in-the-game, it should all feel familiar (if not just a tiny bit more comfortable).

Of course it's not a substitute for the real thing, but I think it's brought immense value to my skillset.

> ...amount of value obtained and time commitment involved?

If you're a first-time founder, startup school is tremendously beneficial in terms of support from the community (though, indiehackers might be better), content, network (pioneer.app likely better at this), and motivation. I fully recommend it. I am not so sure of the value-add otherwise but it continues to attract energetic and optimistic people.

YC's Startup Library is strikingly good which is (was?) central part of the curriculum. Startup school arranges weekly / bi-weekly AMAs by YC alumni and other industry experts which are of great value, too. Not sure if they're continuing to do that.

The founders you meet during the course open up avenues for collaboration. It is also a great place to get feedback on your startup's progress, refine your pitch, discuss your concerns and roadblocks (which sometimes result in unsolicited but welcomed help), get exposure for your work (however limited).

Getting the most out of the program depends on one's ability to get things done, to stay motivated, focused, and honest.

> Is it possible to complete outside of PST business hours or are there real-time components?

Yes, there are no real-time components. They also match founders for weekly meetings depending on the day and time you choose in addition to other criteria.

Is the network for Pioneer.app if you get accepted for the 1% equity or more? Do you know what the general stats are? Is Pioneer.app worth it if you’re likely not to be accepted for the equity exchange?

Pioneer is better in the way that they actively seek to promote to the point of evangelizing and support the founders of what they classify as promising up-starts (top 1% or otherwise) using metrics they measure.

Startup school is more hands-off than Pioneer. The latter gamifies building a product that might motivate people and create a sense of achievement. The former is more on-your-own kind of a thing.

That said, I haven't been through a Pioneer program myself but know founders who have and liked it.

Sorry for the super late reply. Thanks so much for this. Hoping to gain motivation insights and some solid networking from this.

Startup school has been amazing for me ... it's really helped to give the psychological push to get going and keep going. I think it's really incredible that it exists, is free, and is as useful as it is.

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