Students in a Startup

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a meetup focused on the explosion of accelerator programs here in Los Angeles. As I scanned over the audience, I noticed that I was definitely among the youngest in the room, at my tender age of 22. While there were several other young entrepreneurs in the group, the average age had to have been somewhere in the late-30s. You would think that, given the location (only 5 minutes from UCLA and 20-30 minutes from USC and CalTech) and perks (free pizza, networking opportunities, free pizza), more students would have attended.

A common concern among the attendees was a lack of driven and competent startup team members. The business people in the audience were concerned with finding developers, and the developers were concerned with finding business people. (I'm assuming financial constraints hinder them from utilizing each other.) As I listened to question after question on the issue, I began to recall my own experiences in finding competent partners for my projects. As a student at a major university, I have access to a huge network of driven and intelligent individuals. I can easily think of 40-50 fellow students who are actively looking for new business ventures and projects to work on.

So, would I recommend that those startups having trouble finding team members start trying to recruit students? There are certainly caveats to utilizing students in a startup, such as limited availability and a lack of experience. But, these obstacles usually come with silver linings.

• A student's passion, energy and enthusiasm can overcome their inability to work full-time. (How many 45-year-old people can toil away for 15 hours straight doing research, day after day.) Plus, their time spent at school can be used to take advantage of the wealth of resources available at most universities.
  
  
• Their lack of experience in the “real world” can enable them to approach problems in new and unique ways, coming up with fresh solutions. They may also be more experienced than you think—an engineering student typically has 10-15 projects under their belt by the time they enter their senior year.
  
  
• They work for nearly nothing, and many times their living expenses are taken care of by their financial aid packages at their school.

If you have a startup that is looking for a little extra help beyond your current areas of expertise, try looking into recruiting from your local college campus. You may be surprised by what you find.

Have any experience working with students? Tell  me about it in the comments below!