Why I Turned Down My Investment Banking Offer to Launch a Startup

This is also another boring HN meme akin to "how I learned to program". Normally I wouldn't call out a post like this but I think it's necessary for the health of the community that we don't promote thin content. A simple "Show HN:" would've been better.

Congrats, Patrick.

I'd like to see if the author is still happy about his decision after a couple of years. In particular, if he can't raise funds because he is unable to bootstrap for long enough, or get big enough from bootstrapping alone. The benefit of working before starting a startup, especially for an investment bank, is that you can save a bunch of money, then fund some of the stuff to get the company rolling internally, which will make raising money much easier. You don't want to end up in the situation where you can't expand (fast) because you don't have the money, and you can't raise money because you are too small and unproven. In retrospect, I wish I would have gotten a good job before doing a startup, it would have made things much easier.

As a third year student at a Business School in the northeast. I can relate to how you feel.

You're being pushed and herded through internships and boring classes into what you think will be your dream job. But then you realize that none of that is what you love.For me and it sounds like for you this is when I realized that computers and technology are my passion and that's what I love.

Everyone always says that people should do what they love, and that's how to be happy. I think that for some people that's easy and for some others it's really hard. I usually find myself having to do the wrong thing before I figure out what the right thing (or way) is.

Lots of respect for taking a chance and doing what you think is awesome. I wish I had the courage to do the same. Goodluck with your first startup, I hope it's a blast :)

"A salary is nothing more than time you spend in a structured fashion for somebody else. When you don’t own your own time, no matter what the paycheck, you are not free and you will not be happy."

That's a touch overgeneralised, forgiveable in a kid straight out of college but still worthy of an eyeroll. Not everyone itches to throw off the shackles of employment for a startup, and I wish startup folk would wrap their heads around this somehow and stop with the condescension.

I'm curious about the comment 'especially onerous for me': are you saying that you have massive student loan debt that you need to cover, and that this is uncommon among your fellow prospective i-banker students?

Just out of curiosity, what salary level is a fresh grad offered?