I've had the privilege of mentoring lots of student entrepreneurs over the past years and based on this experience I've decided to lay-out the roadmap I believe every student entrepreneur ought to have in place in the interest of increasing the chances of seeing their venture succeed.
The map above (which I shall be improving upon over time) lays out the major high-level ingredients required to maximize success for a student entrepreneur. In this mini-series of posts I'm going to flesh-out each step in more detail.
By way of preface to this deeper dive here are a few preliminary points having to do with awareness and perspective I'd like to make:
For a multitude of reasons student entrepreneurs are in the greatest position in the history of the world to launch new ventures. I have called this period University Entrepreneurship 2.0 :
- the cost of starting a new business has plummeted due to revolutionary developments in bandwidth, cloud computing and open source software
- investors are lining up to discover the next gen of great young entrepreneurs
- many universities are now providing real support to student entrepreneurs
- there are tons of contests/competitions/organizations targeted to student entrepreneurs at your disposal now
Think about all this. Take it all in. And remember- there is something that actually hasn't changed that's greatly in your favor too:
Launching a company during your student years is the best time in your life to do so because there is no downside. You can only learn, meet people and sharpen your skills. You can't lose...
But actually, I want you win.
That's right- I said it here. Just win, baby.
For Part (2) of this Series click here