Is College a Waste of Time for Founders?

What if college simply doesn't make sense for aspiring Founders — are we ready to sacrifice this sacred cow?

Last week I was having lunch with a very successful old friend who made over $100 million in his career. He wanted me to sit down and advise his 18-year-old son who had just graduated high school. The first thing he said was, "He's decided to skip college and go straight to starting his own company."

This is the first time I've heard a parent say that out loud, but I'm starting to think it certainly won't be the last.

My immediate gut reaction was going to be some defense of college, even though I dropped out as fast as I could to start my first company. But no matter how many points I sped through in my mind, I couldn't come up with a single selling point other than "you may meet some interesting people."

The truth is, college has become a tough sell for Founders. And it's getting tougher every year.

The Economics Obviously Suck

Let’s start with the math. The average cost of a four-year degree in the U.S. is now over $100,000 at in-state public schools and upwards of $220,000 at private universities. That is a massive premium to pay, and for many students, it comes with a crushing student loan debt that they may never recover from.

But people rush to complain about the financial cost when they are also overlooking the time cost. The average 4 year degree takes at least 5 - 6 years. These aren't just any years. These are the most valuable risk — taking years of our lives, at the one and only time we have almost everything to gain (and learn!) and nothing to lose.

By the time my peers in college were graduating with a mountain of debt and zero experience, I had already started a company, paid off all of my debts and was doing millions of dollars in revenue. That concentrated focus on gaining experience, wealth, and growth put my decades ahead of my peers on a compounded basis. They would spend their whole careers trying to get to the point I reached at 22 by being a Founder instead of a student.

Why It’s Still Taboo to Say This Out Loud

Despite all of this, saying "College might not be worth it" still feels heretical.

Parents panic. Investors raise eyebrows. Your peers look at you like you're reckless. That's because college isn't just about education — it's about validation. It’s a badge that says, "I followed the rules. I did the thing."

But Founders don’t follow the rules. That's the point.

We've been conditioned to treat college as a one-size-fits-all credential. But for Founders, that stamp isn't always meaningful. Success comes from outcomes, not diplomas. And there are plenty of wildly successful Founders with no degree, no pedigree, and no apologies. It's also difficult to triangulate whether the education of college was the difference maker on those that did graduate.

We are so ingrained culturally that college is imperative that we're not doing what Founders do best — looking at a new opportunity where everyone else sees the same pattern.

College Doesn't Have a Monopoly on Learning

The idea that avoiding college means forgoing education is in and of itself a ridiculously dated idea. A few things have happened in the last few decades, like, you know, the Internet, ChatGPT, YouTube — the list goes on. I've learned in-depth skills on everything from Architecture to 3D Modeling to Coding to Cabinet Making without ever attending a university class.

Did I mention we also run an entire on-line accelerator to teach Founders how to build a startup? It's $29, not $290,000.

A motivated human (not limited to a Founder) has unlimited access to education without being rate limited by the pace of a university. That's particularly important for Founders, because our cross-section of knowledge is massive, from Finance to Fundraising, Marketing to Product Development. There's no university on the planet that could give us the real world, in-depth cross section of knowledge that we would need in a startup.

Let’s Restart the Conversation

I don’t think college is useless. I think it’s optional. And we need to treat it that way.

For some, it offers time to grow, socialize, and mature — and that's fine. For others, it's a financial and strategic anchor that holds them back from chasing what they actually want.

Let’s stop pretending there's only one way to be educated. Let’s stop shaming those who take a different route. And let’s start talking honestly about what really prepares us to be Founders.

College isn't a prerequisite for Founders, it's a path selection.

In Case You Missed It

How to Set Your Entrepreneurial Kids Up For Success If our kid is interested in launching their own business, there are three ways we can provide the support they need.

How Much Should I Invest in My Startup? We often wonder whether every dollar of our personal savings should be going toward our startup, or toward our safety.

Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? The question of whether entrepreneurship can be "taught" has been volleyed back and forth between academics and Founders forever.