A few years ago, a start-up software company in Thiruvananthapuram, had advertised for recruiting college drop-outs. They did not want any one who had graduated. It?s not sure what kind of response they got, or where they went from there. But that was pretty unusual for a city like Kerala where there is a graduate or two under any coconut tree.
In India?s tech capital Bangalore, the term ?drop out? has acquired this enormously cool tag. It?s a much better position to be in than being a post-graduate from a down market college. That?s a trend made popular by Silicon Valley, but anything that works well in the valley often finds resonance in Bangalore. The drop out disease is spreading, and it may well work. After all college education in India, at least in most parts of the country, does not equip anyone for anything grand.
A degree today does not mean much;
except possibly in the marriage market in tier-II towns. Students have always known this, but today many of them are acting on it. They don?t want to be chained to a desk and working on something they do not believe in. For many young technology lovers, education (especially of the mediocre variety) is a hindrance. Being risk averse has surely something to do with our educational system and more the time one spends in the system, the more rigid one becomes.
Our schools have not innovated enough, as we all know, to keep youngsters interested. Hence it is not surprising that students want to drop out, especially when they see others dropping out and starting a venture of their own without having the backing of a college degree. They have examples like Innoz, whose co-founder Deepak Ravindran and friends, quit their engineering studies to start a firm. Innoz is today a leading mobile company in India and the creator of SmsGyan?a mobile search engine via SMS. According to the company, SmsGyan has over 120 million active users around the world. He started out when he was just 19!
Another 19 year old?s face comes to mind ?Sahil Lavingia, who helped design Pinterest and started his own firm Gumroad in which VCs invested $1.1 million. There are scores of stories like that. The good thing is even Indian youngsters like Deepak are following the road just like they do in the West. And they mix business and pleasure equally well!
Another positive aspect for these youngsters is that media is always quick to lap up such stories. There is no dearth of articles on drop outs starting their own ventures, mid level managers quitting to start technology firms or a just married couple setting up an e-commerce company etc. It is quite possible that the guy working for the multinational firm may have been struggling to establish himself and hence forced to do something on his own. And that?s not the story we want to dwell on. There?s plenty of that stuff happening in India. That set of folks usually disappear from the scene after a couple of years in media limelight.
But the ones who have started their ventures for the right reasons have reasons to stay invested. There is plenty of venture capital interest and those youngsters who know how to play the game can make that quick buck. After all, there is only so much you can learn from a text book. And there?s so much to actually learn by doing stuff. One may have a MBA from a top college, but on the ground it may not yield the kind of results one wants.
The young tech geeks, at least many of them, know that thinking too much is a waste of time. In any case, plans do change when one hits the road. So the trick is to actually start as early as possible and make mistakes early. The more time one takes to hit the market with an idea, the more time a competitor has, to pinch the plan. More and more youngsters are beginning to realise this. The earlier you get out, the better it is, provided you have the talent and desire to strike it rich. Others can always continue in classroom mode.