You hear a lot about students who, once they stumble upon the idea of a lifetime, drop out of their ivy league school to focus on growing their business. Rarely, however, do you hear about those who drop out of school with the same type of idea, but fail to make the millions of dollars they had one day seen as an obvious outcome and end up without an education and without a business.
This week I decided to focus on an article I found on Entrepreneurial Magazine's website -- if you don't follow them on facebook or check their site regularly, you should, because they post great, informative articles.
The article profiles three different student entrepreneurs who are taking their student project to the next level without dropping out of school. They either came across their idea in an experience outside of school or they found it in the classroom. Both are valid ways to generate an idea. Since creating their businesses, they have been able to continue taking classes as well as use the university to their advantage.
The first entrepreneur profiled is Spencer Quinn from BYU. A summer job dealing with athletic tape led him to think about its other potential uses. With a bit of tweaking and help from professors at BYU he was able to adjust athletic tape to a form that would work to fix leaky pipes. Fibrefix, the resulting product, has been featured on Shark Tank, QVC and is in Home Depots and Lowe's having sold over a million units.
The next entrepreneur is Lindsey Stewart, who was a news network producer in LA. She decided to enroll in graduate school at Wharton's SF campus. There she was able to pitch an idea she had in her head for quite a while. She noticed that videographers had trouble connecting with potential interested news networks when they had footage of something newsworthy. At the same time networks would do anything for footage including showing fuzzy youtube clips if that was all they had. Stringr would be the way to upload footage and get paid.
Now, having graduated, Lindsey is taking her project into beta testing in SF based media accelerator Matter. An interesting caveat to this story is how her business partners feel about joining such a new company in their later years. This part of the article highlights the benefits of starting a businesses while in or just out of school. When you are 40 or 50, like the other members of the Stringr team, you have a lot more to lose.
And a final profile, shows us the story of Carolyn Yarina who, after a visit to Africa, had the idea of a centrifuge that does not require electricity. With this idea in mind she took more businesses classes at Michigan and realized how she wanted to approach her new idea. She ended up creating a team of other Michigan graduates and together they started a health products company that creates medical devices with the health and economic situations of developing countries in mind.
Here is the article:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237411
Discussion questions:
What factors would you rely on to decide if your start up was worth postponing your education to focus on?
What are some experiences in college that you can say have inspired you the most when it comes to potential business ideas?
With the stories profiled in this article would you say that, depending on the idea, education is important no matter what? or that you still think it is acceptable to quit school and be an entrepreneur if your idea is that good?
Do you think that being in one's early 20's offers significant advantages to the entrepreneurial pursuit? Or that having more to lose and more experience are actually better for being the founder of a start up?
I was curious to learn more of the entrepreneur, you mentioned above, Carolyn Yarina. According to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRF_47P5QXA (YouTube video) Yarina was a student of the University of Michigan. Yarina is one of the cofounder's of CentiCycle. Inspired by the field of Engineering, to design devices to help people, Yarina built her device while attending a course at the university. According to the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LuIhAThCWU, Yarina created a device, utilized by CentriCycle, named the Centrifuge. The Centrifuge is currently being used on patients in India who live in isolated regions with no access to clinics for emergency treatment. The Centrifuge can detect diseases and medical conditions on the spot. 37 million life changing diagnoses are expected to be detected in the next 5 years because of this device. What a remarkable breakthrough.
ReplyDeleteI was so inspired by the drive of Yarina and her passion to help people with her academic knowledge of engineering. Referring to question #2: What are some experiences in college that you can say have inspired you the most when it comes to potential business ideas? I would have to say, I have been inspired the most while attending St. Edwards University. I have been able to create two different services to help my people when I get home and I also learned what it takes to construct a feasible business plan because of the academic resources I had on campus. I would not have had all the resources I needed to create these business plans if I was not a student. I think it is very important to finish your education because not everything in life works out the way we would like it to. Staying focused and dedicated, while obtaining a degree, also proves you have the commitment to endure struggle and you win in the end with the accomplishment of a degree. No matter what happens in your professional life you always have your knowledge and credibility to fall back on. I would say it is very important to find a balance, if you are a student, while pursuing your entrepreneurial endeavors so you can finish your degree as well. The connections and resources you can take advantage of, while attending a university, are also a strength to acknowledge versus thinking that being a student is a burden. All the hard work pays off in the end. Stay in school and never give up.
The factors that I would rely on to decide whether or not I was going to postpone my education would be sales potential and the amount of need for my product. If my product or service was already gathering a huge following before its release, I would consider putting my business before school. It would also depend on what my plans were with the business. If I wanted to just start the business then sell it, then I would be more apt to postpone school, but if I planned on making a company or corporation then I would choose school because I would most likely want to run the business. The classes that have inspired me to follow potential business ideas have been Entrepreneurial marketing and practicum. These two classes have shown me how to achieve success with little funding and how to effectively market my good or service to potential customers. Personally, I think that being in your early 20's does have its advantages because most of us will have more time to focus on our ventures, instead of having to take care of family and deal with a full time job. That being said, being more experienced does come with better knowledge and connections.
ReplyDelete-Brian Masterson
If I were to drop school for a business I would need to be extremely passionate about the idea and have no doubts that I can make a good living through this business. To be honest I haven't really been too inspired from any of my business classes. Before college I was naive and thought a simple solid business idea could get off the ground with ease. However, now I know that no matter what kind of idea you have, turning it into a new business is going to be A LOT of hard work. Being in my early 20's is definitely an advantage because I still have more time than most experienced entrepreneurs and we all know that time is our most valuable asset.
ReplyDelete-Louis Mendoza
I think that it would take a lot for me to decide to drop out of school and pursue a business venture. I would have to know pretty much for sure, if the business was going to be successful. Maybe if we had already tested the market and it looked extremely profitable. I would also want to make sure that if things didn't work out, there would still be a way for me to go back and finish my degree. To answer the third question, I don't think it is unacceptable to quit school for a business venture. Everyone has the right to their own decision, but I really think that a decision like that should take some serious thought and time to really make sure you are making the right move. In the end, everyone makes mistakes and I'm sure there are tons of people that have dropped out for one reason or another. The important thing is to not let one mistake ruin everything.
ReplyDeleteThere have been a lot of things throughout my time in college that have inspired me to think about different business ideas. My entrepreneurship classes have taught me to think like an entrepreneur all the time, even when I'm not at school. When I see a problem or something that annoys me, one of my first instincts is to think of how I could fix it. However, my inspiration for ideas comes mostly outside the classroom. At my job, my boss inspires me as a good example of an entrepreneur in the restaurant industry. When I ride my bike, as you all know, I am always coming up with different ideas to make riding a better experience.
I think that being in my early twenty's can be an advantage and disadvantage. An advantage is of course that there is time to learn and grow as an entrepreneur. Also, being young, we are much more in touch with technology and social media. However, as a young person, I lack experience, which I feel is really important.
What factors would you rely on to decide if your start up was worth postponing your education to focus on?
ReplyDelete- I would have to have a strong financial prediction that my business would be extremely successful. Or my idea would have to be something that other people rave about and that I think would be extremely successful.
What are some experiences in college that you can say have inspired you the most when it comes to potential business ideas?
- When I see that there is a need for something. The idea I chose for the Business Plan Competition held at St. Edward’s was thought of when I saw the need for a service as such. For example I am not saying that I would have thought of SideCare or Uber but it is prime example of something a student in college could come up with. Last Halloween I went to a pregame and we wanted to go downtown after but we did not have a ride, there were no taxis, and the bus was taking too long. You just have to really think about it.
With the stories profiled in this article would you say that, depending on the idea, education is important no matter what? or that you still think it is acceptable to quit school and be an entrepreneur if your idea is that good?
- I think education is definitely important. Maybe you do not remember all of the things you learned in your fifth grade history class or your accounting class that you have right now but you take a lot more than you think away from it. You meet people who change your perspective on things; you deal with different situations such as being late, getting into trouble, taking care of yourself for the first time. It is all about the experience.
Do you think that being in one's early 20's offers significant advantages to the entrepreneurial pursuit? Or that having more to lose and more experience are actually better for being the founder of a start up?
- Yes and No. Twenty year olds are a little naïve sometimes and they have not failed much in their lives to actually have an experience to relate to. As you grow you are gaining more and more experiences with different things, which makes you a more mature person. However, people in this age range are setting the trends around the world and are constantly thinking of new ideas to make things easier as this generation is every lazy. I think younger people are more open minded than the older generations and that allows us to build off of each other’s ideas to create even greater things. The only way someone is going to gain that experience of losing is to actually go out and try first otherwise they will get no where in life
- Derek D
Education is my main priority right now, with ought education i would not have the knowledge to even start a new company. It is really clear that if i decide to create a start up i would have to postpone some of my education. I would definitely not take this path, i would like to stay in college and begin my start up because i have seen how people can manage a job and a degree at the same time. It is even amazing how people can set goals to graduate before to start up their own business. The factors i would have to consider are how far within my education i am, if money is more important that knowledge, or if the opportunity i have is just once in a life time opportunity. I have been in several classes where students propose several ideas, but i have not been totally inspired by any of those. I have had many opportunities to get involved with new opportunities but none of those have caught my attention yet. I do believe education now a days is important because it amazing how people can achieve their goals by having a degree, more if its a master degree. But time has made those changes possible because i have learned about many school drop outs who have been very successful in life as well with no career. An entrepreneur is a person who has the courage to believe in his ideas and start from 0 to create his own. But i believe that all of those ideas come with practice, and knowledge. And those you receive from education. I think that an entrepreneur has no age, being in my early 20s is no cub advantage or disadvantage. Entrepreneurs can come in all ages and sizes. What i mean by this is that theres no age to create a brilliant idea. It just takes someone with the capital and knowledge to accomplish such idea.
ReplyDeleteFlorence T.
I don’t think I would postpone my education for a business start up. In my opinion, the first step to having a successful business is to have the proper formation and education in order to be able to take more intelligent and business-savvy decisions. Not to say that without having an education a person cannot grow to be a businessman; but as an entrepreneur with your first venture, I think the risk of going out of business do to uninformed decisions and staying without a diploma is just too high. You should be able to manage your risk, get an education just in case things don’t go as planned and have the ability to get a job to start taking care of your expenses.
ReplyDeleteNot being from here has made my college experience very plentiful. When it comes to potential business ideas, I cannot really say much about one particular idea. But, it has certainly granted me the ability to recognize markets. I think I have now had a whole new experience in a whole new place and seen many ideas put at work that do not exist where I live. I have certainly learned many perks and limitations to many ideas. I think I now count with the combination of two very different
I think that education is still important no matter what. There is a very small percentage of individuals that are able to succeed as the millionaires we get to see on TV without education. School for me is a way to mitigate your risk. Having a diploma can get you a job in case your millionaire idea fails and it can get you to the capital needed to launch your second venture, and knock it out of the park. I’d rather put off the venture for a few years, and get my diploma in order to have a second chance if needed.
I think there are some advantages of being in our twenties, but certainly some disadvantages to it as well. We benefit from the energy, the ability to put up with some conditions just to get our idea to work. I think we benefit from such a wider range of information channels from such a very young age that we are just as informed as people with higher ages. Yes we do not count with the most important thing, the experience of actually being out there as a person contributing to society. But we definitely do count with the means to inform ourselves in the best way and gather the information pertinent to any subject.
Eduardo M
For me to postpone my education for a career I would have to have an idea that I am very passionate and financially optimistic about. I would also have to ensure that I am in a position to obtain the funds needed for start-up and have ideal market for the product. A few different experiences in college that have inspired me when it comes to business ideas were my first entrepreneurship course and entrepreneurial marketing, they made the idea of starting a business a reality and allowed to get a better understanding of what it takes to succeed. Using these stories and many others like it as an example I would say that education is not an absolute necessity to succeed in the business world but i do believe it gives people access to helpful knowledge that will make real life adaptation easier.
ReplyDelete-Alejandro Joya
Many of my friends have dropped out of school to work on their startups. None of them regret it. I would have no problem doing it. You can learn a lot more from real world experience than in the classroom. Failing is a good thing as long as you learn from your mistakes.
ReplyDelete- Jeran S.
Being surrounded by so many people has inspired me a lot while coming up with ideas. It instantly gave me a large market to work with and potential customers to test my product/service.
I do believe education is important; however, I think it is completely acceptable to drop out and pursue an idea if you approach it the correct way.
I believe anyone can be an entrepreneur. Age is not as important as the individual's passion and ability to work hard/never give up.
1. I personally believe that before starting to completely work on a start up you see it has great opportunity to succeed you need to get your whole and complete education if its possible. I'm the kind of person that thinks that education is a value and tool that you will have for the rest of your life and that it is really important to have it done. It is true that you will continue learning through the rest of your life about many different things, but still education is one key element and weapon you will use when you need them.
ReplyDelete2. Many different classes I have had during college have made me work through different processes and steps to develop a great research about a business idea like business plans for example. Creating a business plan for a new business idea is one of the things that I enjoy the most because it makes me analyze almost every factor that could have an impact on your start up and also will tell the originality and creativity that an entrepreneur has. Also, I have experienced many guest speakers and attended to different conferences that have inspired me to create my own business.
3. Like I already said, I'm the kind of person that believes that education is a value and key element that will help you out in order to succeed in life. However, I do not think that education is a requisite for success because nowadays people can learn from many different sources such as radio, TV, internet, magazines, etc. Knowledge can be acquired also by experiences through the success process by making mistakes and learning from them. So, I think that education is an advantage but not a requisite for success.
4. I think that being on your early 20's is not like a significant advantage over others but it gives you more time to work on your projects and makes it easier to connect with younger people. However, being in your early 20's also means that you probably will have less experience and also have no strong connections with different people linked to your start up. Having experience allows the entrepreneur to know how to do many things the best way, and also experience with business ideas also comes with strong relationships that could help boost the start up and make it easier, faster, and stronger.
-David Arismendy-
I think that education is very important to entrepreneurs, but at the same time it can limit us a lot. I agree that there are many students who run their business while going to class in the mornings, and it it very admirable. But it is also very hard to keep up with school and having to manage a business, not to mention the stress levels. I have thought about dropping out of college and just go out there in the real world to se what happens. Which is also why I think education limits us, It gives us comfort. By comfort mean that a student has in the back of his mind that he is doing something with his life, he is studying to get a degree. To many of us, that makes it comfortable to say we can wait a few more years to start a business. Instead if I weren't studying, I would probably have a fire inside me that wants to go out there and start doing something with my life.
ReplyDeleteThe other part of it is that by having a degree, you always have something to fall back on if your business fails. And I am very well aware that my first businesses will likely fail. And I need to have a job in the meantime, that job will pay me a lot more if I have a degree.
And when it comes to the question of when do you know if you have a succesful enough business and you should drop out. I guess that depends on a lot of things, I would balance out how much would it possibly cost me to end up without a degree. And also how much would it cost my business if I continue to go to school.
- Pablo Rangel
If I were to postpone my education for a startup, I would make sure I have the capital to do so and then focus on the market. Even if you have a great idea, if the market isn’t ready for you, there is no point in continuing. However, before I decide to postpone my education, I would consider starting my business while still in school. There are so many resources the school offers that it’d be silly not to take advantage of them.
ReplyDeleteI think the experiences in school that inspire me the most are the interactions with students and the classroom atmosphere. You have all these people of different backgrounds and cultures and your mind just starts thinking about everything that can be done in order to make their lives easier.
I think education is important no matter how passionate you are about your venture idea. While there are many things you can learn outside of the school environment, I think it’s important to be educated and have a degree. Dropping out of school may be the best thing you’ve done and it may be successful form the start but just in case it isn’t, it’s important to always have a backup plan. The students you highlighted in your blog post are perfect examples that it is possible to start a business while still in school. It will be difficult but not impossible.
I think being in our early 20’s, we’re definitely at an advantage because even if we fail, we have the rest of our lives to keep messing up and improve. Of course, experience is important but as we mess up, we’re learning and gaining experience to help us in the future.
Kim Zapata
If I were to postpone my education for a career I would make sure that this career is something I can do the rest of my life and make a good living out of it. I don’t think I would never do this because I do think that having a college degree is important for new opportunities to arise and also is important because it is a personal achievement for me. Also I believe education gives people the knowledge to make better decisions in the long run.
ReplyDeleteMost of my classes have inspired me in different ways for business ideas. Learning about marketing, finance, accounting, management and all the different areas in business have helped me realize how difficult is to get from just an idea to an actual business.
David Grijalva