Student Entrepreneurs: A few decades ago, young people went to college for two reasons; to graduate and get a good steady job.
However, for the past ten years or so, there is a new trend ongoing in colleges or universities, where students not only study but are turning into young student entrepreneurs.
Student Entrepreneur
Students study and work on business ideas they have, combining both.
College and university students now understand that you not only have to study but also have many other options to choose from.
Students now have the option to think of a new idea, apply for venture capital and begin the business once they graduate.
So, if you are a student, do both!
Study and invest in a business idea you might have and become a successful student entrepreneur.
Young Students Who Became Entrepreneurs
The following companies got started by young students.
These companies will motivate young student entrepreneurs to work on an idea that they have and see where it goes like many of the entrepreneurs did.
The following list will give you an idea of how a good idea does not always need capital funding or advertising revenue.
Moreover, from this list, you will be able to understand and start working on a good idea and any venture capital funding or advertising revenue you might think you need to start off your business.
Google is a household name when it comes to internet business. Google is a name that you would most likely think of when thinking about internet businesses.
In 1996, two students from Stanford, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin started this enormous search engine.
BackRub was the original name of Google.
Some investors in Silicon Valley heard about this product and invested $100,000, giving Google a huge start off.
The students started off in a garage, and now, Google has become so much more and an important part of everyone’s life.
Google is a prime example of how some business ideas need venture capital funding to actually take off and become a billion-dollar company.
BackRub, an excellent idea, got the needed funding, became Google, the famous, successful internet platform.
Facebook, a social media platform everyone uses and knows about.
Mark Zuckerberg is the most famous and successful student entrepreneur who got the needed break in college in today’s time.
In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and a few friends started Facebook, a platform that Harvard students could use to stay connected to one another.
Originally the platform was known as FaceMash, as the service allowed the Harvard students to put up their pictures and see who was more attractive and compare.
However, the administration of the university closed down FaceMash, because the pictures getting used got stolen from the network of the university.
FaceMash got turned into Facebook, which allowed students to connect and communicate with each other.
After becoming a hit in Harvard, the platform got opened to other colleges and then to other institutions, finally becoming a social media platform for the whole world.
Facebook is an amazing example of business idea students came up with and didn’t have millions of venture funding but became popular no matter what.
Snapchat
Snapchat, the platform allowing everyone to share instant moments, was the idea of three Stanford students in 2011.
From the three students, Evan Spiegel was the one who introduced the idea of Snapchat in a product design class.
It got decided by these students how they wanted to work on this idea and created an app, allowing people to share any moment they want, at any time, without having to delete them because the memory was getting full.
It can get really hard to express emotions with still images or texts, and Spiegel understood and created this instant image and video app concept.
Snapchat gets used globally and turned into the biggest and most successful social media platform many people use.
This idea shows how you do not need an office or a huge amount of money to start a successful business.
All you need is a good idea and hard work to put it all into action.
FedEx
In 1971, at Yale University, a student, Frederick W.Smith, had an idea for overnight shipping services.
W.Smith concluded how an air freight specialized company can be profitable and flourishing.
Smith inherited money from which $4 million got mixed with $91 million in investment capital to start working on the overnight shipping services idea.
In the first 2 years and 2 months, a lot of money got lost.
However, after that time, success got seen, and all the hard work W.Smith put in began to pay off.
Who has not heard of FedEx Express?
It is the largest fast shipping company globally.
WordPress
Have you heard of b2/cafelog?
In 2003, b2/cafelog, a popular blogging program, stopped working.
This created an opportunity for two University of Houston students.
The students had used this program and thought about making their own similar platform.
Two students, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little used the idea of the original software and based on that created a new platform names WordPress.
With time, you can see WordPress strived, and various people from various fields use this platform.
The websites you see on the internet – believe it or not – more than half of them use WordPress.
These are a few examples of young students who had an idea and turned into successful student entrepreneurs by putting in hard work.
Conclusion
A university or college student should not wait on a good idea. If you are a student with a great idea, start working on it, as many young students have become successful student entrepreneurs over time.
Yes, in the beginning, many had doubts, but they did not let them get put down.
Similarly, give your idea a fair shot and begin, even if you do not have the advertising revenue or capital funding because many student entrepreneurs did not in the beginning either.
Like the young student entrepreneurs we have discussed, you should also work hard on an idea or product and put them into the world, and see where it goes.
Nowadays, it is much easier for students to advertise without using money through various social platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
If you are a student, do not leave your business idea till after your study finishes, takes the two things together like many do, and see where you land.