Starting up by Staying In: Dropouts and College Founders

Jun 24, 2023

Being a college student comes with a unique set of circumstances. You have tremendous independence but few responsibilities; you're surrounded by peers and friends at a time when everyone's exploring new paths and charting new courses. Any future feels within reach and great things seem not just possible, but probable.

To Drop or Not to Drop

There really is no better recipe for the entrepreneurial spirit. As of 2022, 60% of university students either plan on starting their own businesses or already operate one. Couple this with the cultural ubiquity of the Dropout Founder and cutting your education short to focus on a business full-time can seem appealing, exciting, and sometimes just downright sensible. After all, who's going to argue with a list of names that range from Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg to Michael Dell and Bill Gates?

The little-mentioned problem with that mindset is this: starting a business is about much more than stumbling onto a great idea or possessing the relentless drive that most entrepreneurs cite as crucial to their success. A year as BinIt's CEO right out of school has taught me that while you do need a strong idea and powerful drive, you also need:

Those aren't qualities that you develop by quitting school. In fact:

Staying in School Made Me a Better Founder

Putting my degree at Columbia on hold and pursuing BinIt full-time had been a real option since early in my junior year, right after James (BinIt's CTO!) and I had begun working with some of our earliest customers. I will always be glad that I chose to finish that year and the next. There are at least three major reasons why:

  1. Our idea wasn't unique (and yours isn't either) Simply put, you are not the first person to consider building the exact business you're thinking of, and you definitely won't be the last. I've learned that while great products might start with a great idea, what carries them through to market-readiness is persistence, a solid foundation of execution skills, and the abundance of talent in a world-class team. You can be second, third, fourth, or tenth off that starting line without affecting your chances of success. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
  2. I'm a better risk taker While I struggle to explain how much it's down to age and experience or whether my confidence springs from a more varied set of sources, I'm definitely better able to take calculated risks. The paralyzing fear of failure that I sometimes felt while assessing the risks and rewards of a big decision in college slowly faded away by senior spring. Today, I'd argue that smart risk-taking is probably my most valuable skill as a founder.
  3. College is a great safety net I can't begin to explain how valuable it was for us to be able to explore a sophisticated and dynamic industry from the comfort of our dorm rooms. Building a deep understanding of the recycling industry paid off exponentially and continues to do so, but it took time and effort we wouldn't have had if we were rushing to take our product to market.

So What?

The increased likelihood of success you might expect to gain by dropping out is almost always balanced out by the value-add you receive from having one, two, or three more years of intensive learning and personal development. The odds are that taking your time will make you a far more effective, confident, and strategic business leader when you do finally jump in.

Think of this as your first big business decision. You're about to spend the next decade obsessing over making your vision a reality, and every day will bring new and challenging decisions. When to start-up is one of those, and it's your responsibility as a founder to make sure you're ready to do it: only you know if you're too early, too late, or right in the launch window.

Weigh the benefits against the opportunity costs — in all likelihood, the decision is more nuanced than you'd expect it to be.