3 ms·

On the "universities are poor incubators" claim: Cambridge is probably the top UK university. Every single Cambridge college is (legally) a charity. This mea

by mooism2 16y ago

On the "universities are poor incubators" claim: Cambridge is probably the top UK university. Every single Cambridge college is (legally) a charity. This means it is illegal to conduct business activities on college premises; in particular, it is illegal to conduct business activities in your college accommodation.

retree 16y ago
It's true, my college tenancy agreement explicitly says "The student agrees ... not to use the room for any professional trade or business." Not only businesses, but any jobs are forbidden at Cambridge as well. If you're not allowed to work behind a bar for minimum wage, it's sort of implied that they're hardly going to look kindly upon you running a business are they?
- auxbuss 16y ago
  But I bet you are allowed investments, sit on boards, and draw funds from a trust. If so, what a horrible throw back to ancient times. Are you sanctioned to work during vacations? While creative accountancy can sidestep some of your restrictions -- say, pay yourself a dividend, take a director's loan -- this hardly solves the entrepreneurial issue at hand. Unless, of course, Cambridge students are expected to legitimately subvert the regulations, thereby preparing themselves for a lifetime of sailing close to the wind :)
ig1 16y ago
Realistically how often is that enforced ? In the US most startups probably start in residential buildings which aren't zoned for businesses. Techcrunch was running out of Mike Arrington's house a long time after it was a multi-million dollar business before the neighbours complained about the violation. As long as you're not doing anything stupid or annoy your neighbours, no-one's going to care if you're running your startup out of your accommodation. I ran a fairly successful social networking app off my university network, and no-one really cared until it started impacting server performance (~300k visitors/month) at which point I moved it off to a commercial server.

by mooism2 16y ago

retree 16y ago

It's true, my college tenancy agreement explicitly says "The student agrees ... not to use the room for any professional trade or business." Not only businesses, but any jobs are forbidden at Cambridge as well. If you're not allowed to work behind a bar for minimum wage, it's sort of implied that they're hardly going to look kindly upon you running a business are they?

auxbuss 16y ago
But I bet you are allowed investments, sit on boards, and draw funds from a trust. If so, what a horrible throw back to ancient times. Are you sanctioned to work during vacations? While creative accountancy can sidestep some of your restrictions -- say, pay yourself a dividend, take a director's loan -- this hardly solves the entrepreneurial issue at hand. Unless, of course, Cambridge students are expected to legitimately subvert the regulations, thereby preparing themselves for a lifetime of sailing close to the wind :)

ig1 16y ago

Realistically how often is that enforced ? In the US most startups probably start in residential buildings which aren't zoned for businesses. Techcrunch was running out of Mike Arrington's house a long time after it was a multi-million dollar business before the neighbours complained about the violation. As long as you're not doing anything stupid or annoy your neighbours, no-one's going to care if you're running your startup out of your accommodation. I ran a fairly successful social networking app off my university network, and no-one really cared until it started impacting server performance (~300k visitors/month) at which point I moved it off to a commercial server.