I highly, highly recommend any current MIT undergrad who is serious about starting a company to compete to win in Battlecode during IAP. It's as close to starti

I highly, highly recommend any current MIT undergrad who is serious about starting a company to compete to win in Battlecode during IAP. It's as close to starting a company as you can get. Watching your bots win and lose while trying to prioritize fixes is exactly what prioritizing things in your startup is like, without all of the downsides of taking forever to get traction. There's also a long legacy of alums going on to found successful YC startups (Dropbox and Etherpad being the best examples). You also get to say you've won MIT's biggest programming competition, which gives you a huge amount of credibility. Also feel free to reach out to me if you're interested in starting a company/doing Battlecode and currently an undergrad at MIT! (My team won in 2009 and 2010 and I'd be happy to help.)