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Comment by HoyaSaxa | Hacker News Reader

I'm on the earlier side of the spectrum turning 20 last January. Currently, I'm sitting on my couch writing this while doing research on a "big" startup idea I have, but during the school year, I attend Georgetown. Over the summer, I'll be at Oxford taking a few classes and traveling around Europe a little. After school, I'm really undecided on what I will do. I would much rather prefer to start my own venture, but the $$$ and relative safety of big corporations are big incentives to defect. I'm really glad I have another 2 years to figure it out.

What are you currently/hoping to do?

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(I am also 20).

Hah, well, I'm not quite sure, hence this post.

But after spending the past few months researching and meticulously laying out a conquer-the-world startup idea, I've come to the realization that I'm not quite prepared for it. It's going to require too much money and I don't have all of the necessary skills to get it off the ground.

So, until I'm ready, I'm working on a couple smaller projects, both of which, coincidentally (or not), apply directly to the "big" idea. The goal is to make enough income from these projects in order to finance some travel (and the future startup.) Ideally, the skills from these smaller biz projects will prepare me for the big game down the line.

As far as the big corporation vs. your own venture, my advice would be to try and develop your own things before you graduate. That way, it will be an easier decision in 2 years; either you need a job, or you don't.

That said, I personally would go for my own venture, simply for the personal freedom. Running an online business that makes ~30k a year would be worth significantly more to me than a ~60k stationary full-time job.

Not a bad strategy. I have already started a company which has been my number learning experience. I definitely know what I would do differently. Just to clarify the venture was not a failure, but also far away from being a "big" startup (read: slightly cash positive). My number 1 piece of advice (although I don't know how much it is worth) is to network. It is crazy how mindless some investors truly are. It seems if you can get 1 person with a pretty big name in the tech industry behind your project, you can get the whole gang. Obviously you need a great product, but it seems the true value in startups today is the name.

Are you the business or engineer side (or both)?

Yeah, you're probably right on the networking, although investors right now might be affected by the bubble situation. Networking in general is a good practice, though.

I'm striving to be both the business and the engineer, although I have much more experience with business (family and small money-making projects I've done through the years.) Ideally, I'd like to build the site entirely myself and then bring on a technical wizard (for salary or a small chunk of equity) to be the CTO. Call me selfish, but I want to have control over my business - no huge dilution to co-founders and investors for me, thanks.

I completely agree with your advice to build a ton of things while still in college. I graduated college one year ago and have been working for a large consulting firm since graduation. The firm I work for has extremely strict Intellectual Property portions of my contract and it discourages me from building things on the side. My one regret in college was not spending more time building cool things (websites, mobile apps, games, etc) and playing with the latest "greatest" tech.

I also agree with your goal of working for yourself and making less money than working for a large firm. I am hoping to work for a start-up/start my own business eventually, but I have student loans to pay off so I went with a high salaried job right out of college to pay them off quickly.

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