Great stories of college entrepreneurs who actualized their tech ideas in college inspire many to take the same path. Microsoft and the world’s number one social site—Facebook—were both founded by college students. As we speak, Facebook has more than 2 billion monthly active users!
A great idea is your first step towards launching a successful tech startup. But it doesn’t guarantee success if you don’t do other things right. Challenges, such as balancing your startup with schoolwork, can create a major hindrance. Below are some tips you can use to increase your chances of creating a successful tech startup in college.
- Focus on Building the Product and Be Ready to Embrace Failure
A great idea can help you create a unique startup, but it’s only the initial step in your journey. The most crucial step is getting started and learning in the process. Put more focus into developing the idea by testing it in the real world.
Rolling out your idea as soon as possible helps you to identify the areas you need to improve based on the results you get. Not everything you do will work the way you want it to, so be ready to embrace failure. Remember, failure comes with lessons. Use the lessons you learn to create a great final product.
- Learn from the Best in the Industry
As a student, you have many opportunities to meet experienced professionals who can help you improve your idea. Although you’ll learn much from books, industry experts and mentors will offer you valuable information that will speed up the process.
Find out if your college offers startup mentorship programs. You can get connected to people who will advise, coach, and even connect you to companies ready to test your idea or products. Network more and surround yourself with the right people.
- Find Funding Options
Any startup requires financing in its early stages. College is a great place to get funding, especially for exceptional business ideas. Some of the financing sources available for college students include:
- Federal grants
- Scholarships
- Help from finance and scholarship offices
- Fellowships offering student financial assistance
- Crowdsourcing
Having an email address that ends with “.edu” will also increase your chances of getting loans that are specifically designed for student entrepreneurs. If you have a car, you can also take advantage of title loans and get quick funding as you apply for other sources of financing. Some financiers might have long processes and a lot of paperwork.
- Evaluate Market Viability and Monitor Traction
Product due diligence can help you evaluate the viability of your product or service. Use target competitor analysis, market research, and industry analysis to find out if your product will be successful. Early entrepreneurs shared their ideas with potential customers to test product viability before going full throttle. The approach has since changed.
Today, you can monitor traction and get a sense of market demand by sending Facebook and google traffic to a mock website or a landing page. It’s the best strategy to achieve product-market fit and makes it easier to grow your user base. Base your idea validation on quantitative feedback rather than qualitative feedback.