Ask HN: Should colleges offer startup courses?

4 points·eugeneross··9 comments

As the title says, should they? The way I view it, it would be a hybrid of a business type course with some sort of computer science integration mixed in.

What are your thoughts? What other courses should colleges teach to be applied to those wanting to begin a startup?

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Some of them do. I took one at Georgia Tech. I can't remember the course name, but it's listed as a CS class. It's taught by Merrick Furst.

The coursework involves basically going through the business model canvas, how to rapidly prototype, how to collect good feedback and other startup related topics. Somewhat more oriented towards "startups" versus "entrepreneurship", because that's Merrick's focus (see Flashpoint@Georgia Tech)

That's great! How long have they offered a course like this?

At least 2010. I think before that.

I took a startup course at our University once. The professor, an academic startup expert, shuffled up to the blackboard, slouched, pulled his shoulders together, looked at his toes and said with a whiny voice: "Our research says, to fund a startup, you have to have a lot of passion"

I'm pretty sure it's already happening, here's an example: https://www.coursera.org/course/startup

Attempts at startup courses are being made at schools across the country. Like example above.

I think the more interesting question is are they worthwhile? In other words, can you actually learn startup skills in a classroom? Or do you need to be running a startup to get them?

Exactly what I was wondering. "What's better for this field of study? A classroom environment, or getting your hands dirty and diving into it yourself?"

This is a great resource. Only if they had more classes available. Oh well.

- Yes. They should.

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