1/ Recent discussion with a CS undergraduate student about career choices.
The choice between being an employee vs being a founder right out of school.
My view has changed over the year and have sat on both sides of the table. Apparently the answer is not quite simple.
2/ My current view?
If you are interested in being a founder, try your hand at running a business while still in school.
Zero obligations. Minimal chances of triggering a critical reaction. Think of it as an extended internship.
Most likely outcome. Type I Failure.
3/ But priceless in terms of education, self awareness and bragging rights.
If you do fail, less likely to leave a big hole in the ground given the amount of dry powder you started off with.
Your first failure will teach you a great deal about yourself and your choices.
4/ When you graduate, head straight for a business or a team that will expose you to work in the area and field you want to work or start a business in.
Make mistakes. Pick up experience. Learn on their dime and time.
When you have learned enough, try being a founder again.
5/ Other than my own ventures I have had three employers.
The first one right out of school taught me how to write, pitch, build and grow teams.
The second one taught me what a profitable business looks like.
The third highlighted all the mistakes I made as a founder.
6/ The first one was a consulting firm. They gave me the rule of three in pricing services.
The second was Goldman, in between two startup.
The third was a startup that caught me on rebound from my first failure as a founder.
Together the three made me who I am.
7/ When we started working with startup ecosystem 15 years ago I thought best time to start is right out of school.
15 years later, I think best time to start is in school with the clear expectation that it will self destruct.
Follow that by employment that helps you grow.
8/ What do you think? If you were advising a group of CS / EE graduating seniors what would you tell them?
Employment or startups?
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1/ A thread on my first startup, venture number one. With pit stops in NYC, LA, DC, Dubai & Karachi.
Avicena. Mar '99. May '01. E-Education.
Analyst and Associate training programs for Wall Street. Continuing professional education (CPE) for actuaries and accountants.
2/ By the time I landed at @Columbia_Biz I had already been blessed by outstanding teachers. But nothing had prepared me for the hidden rock stars in the program.
My 3 electives that term were International Marketing, Emerging Financial Markets and Continuous Time Finance.
3/ I had exempted out of 3 course to take the 3 electives, was auditing accounting, had Micro and Marketing with my batch.
By March I had started thinking of ways that I could share what I was learning with friends and students back home. Level the playing field, somehow.
a) Run the NYC Marathon
b) Write a book
c) Produce a play on Broadway
For a kid who used the G-3 bus to get to Regal chowk for high school and W-18 to get to campus on Bhains colony, these were all moon shots.
2/ I knew they weren't real and it would take more than an alignment of planets to get me to a stage where these would become more than wishful thinking.
But I continued to dream and added more to the list.
Might as well be a traveler of the world, in business class, no less.
3/ The NYC marathon was an evolved version of an earlier dream.
One that involved running track for the national team.
Once I figured that I was too old for that to happen, I accepted a simpler version. I would be happy running a marathon. NYC would do just fine.
This is not the first time we have been blind sided. This is not going to be the last time.
This is also not the end. Yes it hurts. Yes you have a right to feel miserable and depressed.
But remember, you are stronger than this.
2/ Stability and continuity of policy has been a national weakness since our very beginning. We are not new to this.
Handling this is programmed into our DNA. We always figure a way out. Takes time but we crack the code or get through to saner voices on the other side.
3/ In the mean time focus on your work, on what you can and do control. Don't waste your breath or time wallowing in self pity or darkness beyond tonight.
Yes it is a lousy hand, but you can't change the cards. Move on.
I grew up in an environment where failure was not looked upon favorably.
It was something that was just not done in the family.
If you studied hard you passed. If you didn't you failed.
Conversely if you failed, it implied a personal shortcoming.
2/ The first time I failed my actuarial exams, I was traumatized.
I couldn't parse the result. I had studied hard, how did I fail? Then I failed the same exam again. And again.
It didn't compute. I was 19 years old.
Something must be wrong with me.
3/ I didn't work for myself for the first few years of my professional life because I thought failure was not an option.
Once again, it wasn't something that was done. Socially and culturally speaking, it was equivalent to hanging out with the unsavory crowd, the "bad boys"