5 Reasons You Should Start A Startup Whilst At University
Entrepreneurialism is growing in popularity across the UK, with more and more people around the country choosing to take the plunge and start their own businesses. This has been mirrored at universities, with increasing numbers of students starting their own ventures — in fact, Santander’s UK Universities report showed that 24% of current university students are already running a business venture of sorts. Do you have an idea for something which is new, cool, unique or revolutionary? Then here are 5 reasons why we think you should act on it and start your own venture.
Support From Professors and Departments
University is one of the last times where you will have seemingly endless resources at your disposal. Countless libraries and courses on Entrepreneurship and Innovation can provide you with the vital information you need to succeed, often at no or very low cost. More and more universities are also providing entrepreneurial-focused facilities, such as incubators and creative spaces, where entrepreneurs can collaborate on ideas. The University of Oxford opened The Foundry, a new coworking space focused on student entrepreneurship, in late 2017, with Tim Cook attending the opening ceremony. You’ll also be surrounded by experts filled with knowledge and experience, who are often happy to give you advice for free. Don’t take this for granted though — Jess Ekstrom, in a piece for entrepreneur.com, wrote that, after leaving university, “these same experts will charge you an arm and a leg for advice”.
Fail Early Fail Fast
It’s a fact of life that many startups fail — estimates of the number that fail within their first year range from 50% to even 90%. However, we would argue that failure is not something UK student entrepreneurs should be so afraid of — traditionally, failure in the UK has often been seen as mostly negative and maybe even sometimes a label of someone’s incompetency. Instead, we think people should take a cue from the USA awould be better to think of failure more as they do in the USA — as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and becoming stronger and smarter from it. This is in no way saying that failure doesn’t suck — it does. But if you are going to fail, and grow from it, then university is probably the best time for you to do so. If the worst does occur, you can simply fall back on your degree and, being surrounded by other entrepreneurial students, your next venture might be right around the corner. University is also the time when you’ll have the least baggage in your adult life: you likely won’t have any kids or a mortgage which could hold you back from taking those risks needed to make your startup successful. This has all led some entrepreneurs to label university as the ‘ultimate do-over period’ — take advantage of it whilst you can!
Meet Future Cofounders/Team
The story of how Mark Zuckerburg founded Facebook at Harvard University is almost universally famous, both due to the popularity of the film ‘The Social Network’ and the all-consuming success of Facebook. However, he is not the exception, but rather a trend — for example, Funding Circle, one of the most successful British fintech stories of this decade, was started by three Oxford Uni undergraduates in a pub. Oxbotica is also one of the world’s leaders in AI self-driving technologies. Why is this the case? To explain this, it would perhaps be best to see successful startup partnerships as successful marriages — they often work best when both parties have had time to really get to know each other. Being at university is the perfect opportunity to gain an insight into how people live and work and whether they would be a good fit for you. In fact, your very own tute partner or that girl across from you in the library might be the next Mark Zuckerberg — don’t let these opportunities slip from your grasp.
Millenial Reputation
Our most abstract reason is concerning the reputation of our generation as a whole: the millennials. Those born in the 1990s and early 2000s have been stereotyped as, according to an entrepreneur.com article, “lazy, social-media obsessed, twerking twenty-somethings who don’t know hard work”. You may ask how this could ever be an advantage to you? The way we see it, it gives you the element of surprise — if a so-called ‘millenial’ achieves something awesome, it’s an even bigger deal to other people. They might not be expecting it.This means that, whilst in university, it can be substantially easier to attract press, attention and buzz to your venture due to your relative youth.
Real-World Education
Finally, there is only so much that you can learn in a classroom. Although it is true that understanding the basics of business can be useful, nothing can be a substitute for running a business yourself. Jordan Gonen, a successful student entrepreneur at Washington University in St Louis, said that “it is 100x harder” to run a startup than anything that happens in a lesson, but “also 100x more valuable than any textbook lesson.” Furthermore, even if your venture is a failure, starting a startup is a huge plus on your resume — to potential employers, the fact that you’ve put time and effort into a venture can show that you are proactive, creative and driven and potentially put you on the fast track to future leadership opportunities.
The startup journey is one of amazing highs and lows but we hope that we have convinced you that it is one worth embarking on. Although it is true that you might lose some sleep or money along the way, we strongly believe that starting an entrepreneurial venture at university could be one of the best decisions you have ever made.
And you know what, if you are a student at the University of Oxford, we’re here to help you the whole way along your startup journey.
Visit our website to apply for funding up to £200k: ccoxford.webflow.io
Or give us a like on Facebook to get hand-curated entrepreneurial and tech news and Oxford events delivered straight to your news feed: facebook.com/campuscapitaloxford
By Edward Kandel, Team Lead at Campus Capital Oxford.
Edited by Andrea Guariglia, Student VC at Campus Capital Oxford
