​Venture into start-ups at your own risk

Since at least 2006, the Career Center, Computer Science Department and Pratt School of Engineering have hosted TechConnect, an event that brings together students and employers to promote engineering and technical careers on campus. Over the years, this more informal career fair has grown as the tech industry has risen and started to recruit more heavily from colleges, especially in the Research Triangle. But in recent years, another choice has presented itself to those interested in technology. Alongside the traditionally featured companies like Epic, Microsoft and Google, more and more students are working on tech start-ups. With the innovation and entrepreneurship certificate, Duke Angel alumni network and start-up challenges, the push at Duke towards a more Silicon Valley-like start-up culture is undeniable. But students who are considering entrepreneurship should be cautious and not discount Duke’s traditional education or underestimate what it takes to balance full-time study with around-the-clock business projects.

Attempts to blend the classroom and business worlds have drawn skepticism from us before, and we continue to question the place of the latter at Duke. Enough of the work of creating and managing a start-up is done between students and outside of Duke that it seems an unnatural stretch to bring those projects into the classroom. While projects that demonstrate enthusiasm for development to employers or are hobby-like exercises of acquired skills are certainly a good use of time and knowledge, we mean to address specifically those companies that many students are not equipped to run, especially those that require such sweat equity as to compete with a student’s four years.

With technological start-ups—mobile app development comes to mind—the payoffs from a project that takes off are huge and can be game-changing for a student’s career path. In STEM fields, the possibilities and ways to success are only growing as technology continually reminds us of its integration into our lives. Products aside, the teamwork and responsibility of managing start-ups are invaluable demonstrations of job readiness, and there are lots of growing experiences for those who can balance academics with acting as CEOs, marketing staff, financial managers and salespeople.

As this enormous demand for time and attention might suggest, the individual choice to take on a start-up is not to be taken lightly. While a semester or two devoted to entrepreneurship is not the end of the world, the drawbacks are clear if students sacrifice dedicated learning in their classes for time in the radically different business world. Traditional education is the backbone of Duke, and we simply do not have many of the convenience advantages that Silicon Valley or New York City universities have in terms of access to the worlds of start-ups and big business investments.

Yet even outside of technological start-ups there are issues. In the realm of “social entrepreneurship,” students identify problems and solutions in the world and make use of business models and solution implementations. However, this cross-over is often poorly defined, and the possibility of starting a sustainable, break-out organization is very low given the nature of the problems being addressed and the funding required to be more than a drop in the bucket. And unlike technological start-ups, these have a history of fading to obscurity whereas app developers, for example, usually have patents within reach or design features that are easily transferable to other projects.

All across the board, students have good reasons to stay risk-averse and be discerning in considering whether entrepreneurship projects are for them. Our time at Duke is limited and should be employed to its fullest for academically homing in on skill sets, academic projects and research about disciplines and global issues.