My thoughts, in somewhat rambling order: 1) Parents don't know everything, however they love you and are looking after your welfare. They think your best bet i

My thoughts, in somewhat rambling order: 1) Parents don't know everything, however they love you and are looking after your welfare. They think your best bet is college. I have taken choices other than what my parents thought best, and worked out. Maybe you will too. 2) As others said, your startup has a likelihood to fail, or at least you'll encounter some major hurdles on the way. You have to keep that in mind. You might be extremely excited, but do you have user validation? 3) College has a lot of benefits outside just the boring education part, and not all of your courses are macroeconomics! (which I did take, and found interesting, but YMMV). Many courses help with basics you might need in the future. Doing things in practise is a great way to learn, only there are some theoretical things you won't come across unless you do some kind of structured course (can be college, Coursera or whatever). In my case, I tend to procrastinate, so college imposed some rules and forced me to study, which I otherwise wouldn't have done on my own. It also opens your mind. 4) You'll meet like-minded people and broaden your horizons. Especially if you get into a college you want. That said, I don't know about how it works in the U.S., but you could do a "year off", see where your startup leads, and, if it doesn't, get into college a year later. It won't be the end of the world. Something I believe you must do is try to "fail fast". Show your startup to the world. Heck, show it here - unless you believe it's a one trick pony we can easily copy, or some other competitive advantage - in that case show it to people you trust, but show your stuff to SOMEONE that will give you feedback. Especially people in your target, and people that don't know you / won't sugar coat it. I'm sure you know about Steve Blank's philosophy, Lean Startups, Pre-totyping, etc. It sounds like it fits to what you're doing. Edit: this is not legal advice :) , I'm 32, never did a startup (yet), work for a boring BigCo, did college and just finished a master's (loved the masters), still have friends from college.