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Having gone through this process, this is all excellent advice. I would add that if your university has a business school, see what resources they offer student

Having gone through this process, this is all excellent advice. I would add that if your university has a business school, see what resources they offer student entrepreneurs. In our case, RPI has an excellent business school with staff that offer free services to students: - We had entries for business plan competitions looked over - We were notified of (and given) relevant grants - There was photography and film equipment that could be rented out for free - We were introduced to several local angel investors - Free tickets + transportation to networking events - As a team composed entirely of technical people, we were given a business/financial crash course. Without that initial support and grant money, I don't know that we would have kept going. We kept chugging along and applying to YC and eventually got into the fellowship (F2 batch). > Done half-heartedly, the transition can be toxic for both the fledgling startup and the rest of your commitments. From my experience, the rest of your commitments kinda go out the window once you switch to 90% company 10% school + everything else. I have since left the company, and I'm now working to rebuild some relationships I've neglected for the past 2 years.

NikolaeVarius 10y ago
As a RPI engineering grad myself, we had a business school? Slight joking aside, I do wish that while i was there, I knew more about these services.
- RangerScience 10y ago
  Heyo! Class of '08. You? They had us take, I think, a business class each year, covering the basics of interpersonal stuff, interviewing, etc. At the time I thought it was pretty neat. In hindsight I still think it was neat, but now I know how much was lacking. There's a lot about RPI I find that way, in hindsight, and mostly because of what you said: you didn't really know about them. :/
  - NikolaeVarius 10y ago
    '13. So comparatively inexperienced. We had business classes but not much in the way of 'if you ever want to start a company, we have a incubators for that'

NikolaeVarius 10y ago

As a RPI engineering grad myself, we had a business school? Slight joking aside, I do wish that while i was there, I knew more about these services.

RangerScience 10y ago
Heyo! Class of '08. You? They had us take, I think, a business class each year, covering the basics of interpersonal stuff, interviewing, etc. At the time I thought it was pretty neat. In hindsight I still think it was neat, but now I know how much was lacking. There's a lot about RPI I find that way, in hindsight, and mostly because of what you said: you didn't really know about them. :/
- NikolaeVarius 10y ago
  '13. So comparatively inexperienced. We had business classes but not much in the way of 'if you ever want to start a company, we have a incubators for that'