Essay · 20 min read

A Student's Guide to Startups

Paul Graham · Paul Graham (paulgraham.com) Free Beginner

Adapted from a talk at MIT, this is the clearest case that being a student is not a disqualifier. Graham is honest about where inexperience actually hurts (judging people, dealing with the wider business world) so you know which markets to avoid and which ones reward your fresh eyes. Useful for calibrating where your age is an advantage versus where a seasoned founder will simply out-execute you.

  • Inexperience mostly hurts in judging people and messy business situations.
  • Technical and problem knowledge, the parts you can have as a student, matter most.
  • You do not need to wait to start, but you do need to start in the right place.
Open on paulgraham.com ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. I'm a student with no work experience. Can I have founder-market fit at all, or should I wait?
  2. I'm still a student. How do I use my age and campus as an advantage for spotting the next trend?

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