Ask HN: Advice on founding startup during PhD?

[anthonye]

I'm in a CS PhD program at a decent school. My eventual goal is to launch a start-up. I'm also just getting by financially (I support my family).

I know of people who've launched a startup after their PhD, but anyone have advice on how to launch one during?

Reasons: - money - want my ideas to come to market quickly, not stagnate in conferences forever

[jtfairbank]

I can't say as a PhD, but I started my current company as a senior in college. I spent two years working on it as a side project (including building the alpha and talking to users), then jumped the bridge as soon as I was able.

In short, my grades suffered. But school as a whole is less important to me- I am doing what I wanted to after school, just a bit sooner.

If you want to start a company during your PhD, be prepared to give in one way or the other. Wrap up your PhD with as little work as possible and as quickly as possible. Bonus points for aligning your PhD work with your startup work, but be careful about allowing the school to make claims on the startup. If you choose the PhD over the startup, maybe don't go full startup yet but begin quietly building the product and talking to people in your free time. Then launch and grow as soon as your PhD is done.

[quantisan]

Make use of your school's network and resources while you're a student. I would start by contacting your school's venture/entrepreneurship/tech transfer office.

Also your profs might know of people that have done the same. Ask those people for advice as they probably know about things beneficial to you in particular that random people on the internet don't.

[Warewolf-ESB]

I've never done a PhD but I have (and do) run a start up. To do it successfully you will more than likely spend 90% of your waking hours obsessing, thinking, working, planning and doing stuff that your start up needs. I can't imaging having anything else big, like a PhD to focus on at the same time. There is also a good chance that your family will be missing out on time with you, because of the above. While it is VERY fulfilling, and certainly has the ability to bring in rewards far bigger than a "job", think about it carefully. You need to really want this, it is not always easy and can be risky. Good luck!

[sideproject]

It's hard to do both, so I have to say it's going to more likely either-or-case.

I tried doing a side-project during PhD, but quickly stopped because it was eating up my progress in PhD.

I guess, for me, my desire to finish PhD was greater than trying to do a startup.

What about you? How much more do you want to do PhD than startup (and vice versa)?

I have to say, completing PhD is.. an extremely rewarding and worthwhile experience, albeit... a tremendously stressful thing to do. :)

[anthonye]

Which do I want more? That is a good question, will have to ponder that. I see value in both at this point. I see what you're saying about stress though, startups and a PhD are both very stressful, which is why I'm trying to use this time to research stuff for my future startup. Thanks for the advice!

[FiatLuxDave]

I've balanced school and work/startup before - I launched a startup in undergrad, and worked at a corporation while doing my Masters. I think that if you are going to do two things which consume so much time and energy, that the most important thing is to make sure that your focus is the same for both. Then you get benefits on both sides. For example, I did my Master's thesis while I was a product manager, and the thesis was related to the product. This meant that my knowledge from work informed my research, and I could go far more in depth into questions about product behavior than a product manager could normally spend time on.

So, if your startup and your dissertation are focused on the same basic problem, then it's not really splitting your focus, but it is adding more "to-do's" to your list. The hard part with a startup is finding a way to get all those to-do's done in limited time and money. This is always a challenge, just realize that school is going to take time away and budget time and money accordingly. For example, if you could do something for your customers in a month without school, maybe you should not promise anything in less than 3 months. If you don't budget time appropriately, you will need to ship something the week before finals, and something's got to give.

Of course, if you do this, watch out for intellectual property issues with your school. Depending on your school and what you are doing, this may or may not be an issue. Usually, you can talk to the school's commercialization office, and they have a process for evaluating whether the school has an interest. You might think it's better to fly under their radar, but using the process grants you either a) institutional support, which is great, or b) a declaration that the school doesn't have an interest, which is also great.

If you don't already kind of know what you want to do for your dissertation and/or startup, then you aren't ready. For either, really. Do not attempt either a startup or PhD, and especially not both, without some passion. If they're not both the same passion, and you feel more for one than the other, then you already know what your decision should be. This isn't meant to be harsh, just as advice.

A startup can be a way to get around the issue of having your ideas get stuck in academic neglect. However, be aware that there are downsides to trying and failing. The academic route is long and not glamorous, but you are also unlikely to end up living in a car with your significant other leaving you. That is a possibility with failed startups, if you let it be (trust me on this). Have an exit strategy for if it doesn't work out. If academics is your plan B, make sure you keep publishing and retain your contacts in the academic world.

[joeclark77]

Not everybody finishes their PhD. I believe there are a lot of successful people who started something during their PhD that turned out to be more than just a dissertation. You could simply shift gears and go ahead with the startup, hoping to finish the thesis later (maybe using your startup as a research site or data source?) or you could focus on the PhD project now and monetize it after you graduate. Reflect on this question: do you really want to be a professor, or primarily value the sheepskin?

[anthonye]

I don't really want to be a prof, I'd rather be in industry. I like making things too much :)

I see value in doing the PhD though, so it might very well come down to one off the other.

The timing of the startup is going too be really important, so that will likely drive things. Thanks!