Students startups are all the rage now, given the easy access to government-based fundings. However, why do we not hear any meaningful success story out of that?
From my own experience and by observing other student startups… I present to you…
10 Signs that a student startup will not work out:
1) More than half of the founding members have a full time job outside, or intend to have 1 upon graduation.
2) There’s no in-house developers, and the founders are not experienced in sales or marketing (by experienced, I mean actual experience in selling or marketing products or services).
3) The office starts looking like a living room than a place where work gets done – before the startup is even market validated or invested in (grants from gov bodies not counted).
4) Assignments and GPAs are more important than launches and sales
5) The founders didn’t have any contacts or networks within the industries they are targeting.
6) Founders didn’t have any prior working experience in SMEs or other startups.
7) Founders are not keen to put their own money in something they believe so strongly in.
8) They confuse media coverage with market validation (press writing about it is nothing to cheer about, it will still fail.)
9) There’s no product road map beyond the next 3 to 6 months.
10) There are more than 3 co-founders.
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