Startups Startup Culture On College Campuses Is Broken |
- Startup Culture On College Campuses Is Broken
- Starting up for the first time, anny tips?
- A question to those who have been around the world of e-commerce
- Do you think my side project idea can be monetized and made into some business? How?
- Step By Step to Guide to get an Investor
- Creating my MVP as a website or mobile app?
- Potential 5th Member of Startup, What Should I Expect for Compensation?
- Marketing ideas to get reinvigorated.
- What questions would you want answers to before taking a developer position with a startup?
| Startup Culture On College Campuses Is Broken Posted: 05 Feb 2019 05:02 PM PST Originally posted this on medium but thought it would be relevant here... Entrepreneurial culture on college campuses is broken. Hackathon and pitch competitions have become convenient and "sexy" ways for smart students to throw their hat in the ring for a couple of hours in the hopes of winning a bit of glory and maybe some money too. In and of itself, there is no issue with this, however, it becomes a problem when serious entrepreneurs get lost in the pile. Ideas that might be remarkable in a real-world application might not necessarily be geared towards winning competitions. This can be discouraging to those who are truly passionate about an idea rather than prizes, causing them to seriously reconsider their future in entrepreneurship. The effect of entrepreneurial competitions on college campuses should be to inspire young entrepreneurs, not discourage them, and the current system is doing the latter. We need future entrepreneurs to be inspired. Pitch competitions have become a commonplace medium for founders to raise money, yet most startups on college campuses do not need the type of funding offered in order for their startup to succeed. Specifically, with the exception of hardware reliant startups, funding is not necessary until a user/customer base is attained. This invites the culture of starting a startup for fame, money, and power rather than for solving a problem that fulfills a need and provides meaningful value for customers. The ambition to succeed isn't wrong; in fact, it is inherently entrepreneurial, but the current reward system encourages a disingenuous value system. It props up money as the most important metric when evaluating a start up's success. This isn't the lesson we should be teaching college entrepreneurs. Instead of rewarding people with money, competitions should offer opportunities for student startups such as participating in subsequent, more lucrative competitions. Hackathons should grant winners access to facilities and resources on and off campus to help students realize their products. Pitch competitions could offer developer and engineer support. Competitions would then become part of company growth rather than monetary growth, and the metric of success becomes progress. Money should only be given to campus startups when they cannot grow without it. One important skill that is neglected by university programs is the ability to recognize and accept failure, and then move on. This is one of the most challenging aspects of a startup, especially in college where students may attribute poor progress to distractions such as schoolwork, greek life, or other clubs. Universities might want to capitalize on the drive of students to become the next Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, but not all startups are meant to succeed. The same programs that promote creating startups should also support struggling companies with resources such as co-founder mediation or asset selloff. Perhaps the university can even assist with a dissolution of a corporate entity when necessary. Universities are Petri-dishes of intellect where like-minded individuals can connect to create novel solutions and improvements to problems facing humanity. Even though startups are gaining a lot of traction at universities, the current culture needs to change so that good ideas don't get swept under the rug and startups are started healthier, with room for failure. [link] [comments]  |
| Starting up for the first time, anny tips? Posted: 05 Feb 2019 12:50 PM PST We are a couple of students that are trying to make a startup. We are programmers, and know little about entrepreneurship. We got as Work-like-look-like prototype, that works really well, and we are mainly good at building prototypes. My understanding is that validating a market and early customers is key in raising investments, so we are dooing research of peoples daily transport and how to improove commuting. We would really appriciate it if you would take the time to answer som questions! Survey remooved Any tips on how to get market validation and how to find numbers on how large the existing market is? [link] [comments]  |
| A question to those who have been around the world of e-commerce Posted: 05 Feb 2019 01:18 PM PST Hey everyone. I have begun my journey as an entrepreneur via the route of e-commerce. I have a passion to create a brand for a niche that applies to those in the new age/spiritual enlightenment movement. I understand any business requires tons work and dedication. I know 100% fact I'm up for the job and I know I am capable of doing this. Once I jumped down the rabbit hole of this journey, I learned there is a ridiculous amount of stuff you need to do to rise to the top. Social media marketing, ad campaigns, SEO optimization, etc. My problem is that I have come across so much information that has opened the gate to so many different paths, I don't even know what to focus on first. But here's what I do have:
My question is now that I kind of have a foundation, what should I be investing my time and energy into most? I feel like everyday I need to be working on something but I'm swamped with so much I don't even know where to begin. Where should I set my sights and be laser focused on accomplishing right now? Thanks for any and all help offered. I seriously appreciate it, from one internet stranger to another. [link] [comments]  |
| Do you think my side project idea can be monetized and made into some business? How? Posted: 06 Feb 2019 01:38 AM PST So for the last one week, I have been working on one small side project. The idea was to build the Internet's Most Romantic Website. I took this project as a challenge to show my wife that I can build something on the internet quickly and that will be related to Valentine's season. So, I think I have created a decent looking website. Now, I am thinking of some ways to monetize it if possible. But I have no idea on how it can be done. I am not desperate to make money out of it by showing ads. I am looking for some creative & fun ideas. [link] [comments]  |
| Step By Step to Guide to get an Investor Posted: 06 Feb 2019 12:20 AM PST Investor only wants money----> Show him the plan of getting it. Convince your plan by validating-----> Show proof how your plan has worked before on small scale Tell him the bigger picture-----> Show how with his money you can grow and multiply the business (A TO B) Time to tell him the climax----> Show how will he get his money back, Acquisition? Buy out? Massive Profit? I learnt this through a youtube video and got a check of $200 000. So wish you all the best Video: https://youtu.be/r7J14rZIvp0 [link] [comments]  |
| Creating my MVP as a website or mobile app? Posted: 05 Feb 2019 06:33 PM PST I know it can be pretty subjective and depends on the requirements of the project, but I was wondering what the general arguments for creating a MVP as a website or for making a mobile app are. More specifically, my idea revolves around travel and I want it to be able to reach the largest audience as possible. Additionally if I were to make an app, I would use a cross platform technology to reach iOS and Android users. Eventually I would like to have both a website and mobile app that would share a database but for now I just want to start with one or the other. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Potential 5th Member of Startup, What Should I Expect for Compensation? Posted: 05 Feb 2019 02:43 PM PST I know this question is relative on many factors, but I just have no idea what to ask for in the final stages of the interview: Background: I'm a UX Designer with 7+ years experience and a valuable/relevant degree. A startup is looking to bring me on as their 5th member as a Design Lead. They have disclosed to me that they have received 1.5M in non-VC funding. I currently make $140k at my day job. I've never worked for a startup at this early of a stage before, so I'm not sure what to ask for reasonably in terms of salary and equity. Any general advice would be appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Marketing ideas to get reinvigorated. Posted: 05 Feb 2019 08:00 AM PST Hi r/startups, I thought to chuck a post on here to collect some thoughts and ideas based on the situation I've put myself in.
I run a small but stable software development agency that keeps my technical knowledge up to date and keeps me in the loop, but also have a web-based startup on the side that I'd like to turn into a bonafide, legitimate enterprise. It has great potential, fills a market need and hasn't be done before, but it needs growth. Growth which I've been failing to get for it (collected over 1.5 years, it's only got about 1000 registered & verified users and half of those are junk from Google Ads). I was naïve at the beginning and didn't think properly about monetising the platform - which I aim to resolve with some additional paid for features that I can get developed over the coming 6 months - so could never really get into a groove of spending money to acquire users knowing I'd get a return from those users at some point. I used to post around and got loads of hits randomly from posts that did well, and got demoralised with posts that didn't. In general, over the last year or so I've become burnt out, with only tiny excursions here and there into user acquisition around an ever-growing day job (dev agency).
Despite all this, I came across this brilliant post that highlights the need for startups to do none-scalable things for user acquisition, initially. Even though I should be beyond this stage at this point had I done the platform justice (from a marketing sense) it's never too late to start and I still do believe in the idea.
With that, do you guys have any thoughts or experience having been in a semi-burnt out state, as to a good way to motivate yourself as well as actually acquire users in the early, non-scalable stages of a business?
Appreciate any thoughts and advice, Mike P.S: I am currently looking into funding to increase throughput on both dev and marketing fronts. TLDR: Built a web-platform which hasn't grown, largely from lack of a go-getter attitude on my part. Looking for methods of getting early users in a motivating way that can reinvigorate me. [link] [comments]  |
| What questions would you want answers to before taking a developer position with a startup? Posted: 05 Feb 2019 07:09 AM PST I've recently been contacted by a startup based out of Australia (I'm in the US) about a developer role. I understand that working with startups is a lot riskier than the larger companies I've worked with in the past, although I'm wondering if there are any good questions I could ask that might show some red or green flags about how well the company is doing. It doesn't sound like equity would be involved with the position, however the pay would be a substantial increase from what I'm making now. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
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