Thoughts On Building Your Startup Whilst In College

I'm going to assume you're a bit like me. Self motivated, been designing things since a young age. Reads a lot. Talks to people to find out what they are up to. I even did the thing you mention where I stopping going to all lectures one semester and just took the midterm and final and did the projects. That semester I got all As though, doing the bare minimum, which I suppose for myself was more than the maximum others were doing.

Someone like yourself is naturally intellectually curious and likes to create things and explore. The structure of college is not really necessary especially with a technical degree. Engineering programs tend to have reduced general ed/humanities requirements anyway. For something like a classics background, perhaps college is really beneficial. For engineering, nearly everything was things I already knew about since I'd been making things and reading tech journals since adolescence. As to the professors, very few had any life experience designing working software used by other people. Most professors simply don't know very much about design, creating things, or running a business. Most have lived sheltered lives, straight to teaching from grad school. If I was studying Russian literature I would not be impressed by a professor who could not read Russian and had not read any Russian literature. Likewise, the situation where professors of computer science do not actually practice in the field is quite bizarre.

You've designed a product, listened to customers, and brought your business from nothing to profitability. That is more than most attempted entrepreneurs have managed, and more than most of your professors. You've done this while managing passing grades, that is quite an accomplishment, it's more of one than getting a degree.

I liked what you said about how when you hunkered down and focused on the business is when things did well. Don't be shy, just go for it. That was a good move. I also understand about the possible naysaying and negative influence of parents, this is the old saying "A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family." It's not just prophets though, it's most things. New town, new start, new person. It's interesting that college allows you free time and space to succeed, completely aside from the classes. Would be nice if you could keep your apartment and just deregister and stop going to class but hang out in the area, much as the original vision Jefferson had for University of Virginia as a learning community, where there would be no classes and no hierarchy, just people working on their own projects.