Starting a tech startup in college is very different from building other types of businesses, like a service-based business or an e-commerce venture.

I’m going to break down some key things that I learned from doing multiple tech startups while in college.

But, if you’re interested in doing another type of business in college, check out my post on starting a traditional business or my article on the best course of study for an entrepreneur.

1. Coding ability is the only thing that matters.

This is going to sound a little harsh, but literally, the only thing that matters is coding ability.

You must be able to rapidly iterate on the prototype of your product as you get qualitative and quantitative feedback.

You should either learn to start coding now or spend all of your time developing relationships with engineering students and learning enough tech skills to have a positive impact on the product.

I can’t stress this enough.

The #1 reason you will fail as a tech entrepreneur in college is that you can’t execute effectively.

If you can’t execute on your plans, build out the functionality of a prototype, and keep going through the process of discarding the code and starting again until you find product-market fit, then you’re not going to have enough of the gasoline needed to launch a successful product (not taking luck into account).

2. Pick your market before you pick your product.

Although I don’t like Frank Kern himself as a marketer (he’s a tad too manipulative for me), I do think he has some good tidbits of information. Here’s one great quote.

“There’s a misconception among business people that it’s about the ‘thing’ they’re selling or it’s about the marketing they’re doing to sell that ‘thing.’ It’s never about the thing you’re selling (which, of course, should be excellent). The most important thing is the market, the people that the thing is going to be sold to.”

“There must be an existing market of people who are intensely interested in getting the result that the thing promises and that the thing must deliver. Without the focus on that first, all is lost.”

I can’t tell you how many coffee (or beer) fueled conversations that I’ve had with young entrepreneurs. After all, coming up with a new idea is exciting!

But, really, I think that the market is more important than the product. Rather than building a product and trying to force it on a particular market, you should first intensely observe that market and then build what they want.

I know that the movie, The Social Network, isn’t accurate, but I want to take a quote from it.

“People came to Facemash in a stampede, right? But it wasn’t because they saw pictures of hot girls. You can go anywhere on the Internet and see pictures of hot girls. It’s because they saw pictures of girls that they knew. People want to go on the Internet and check out their friends so why not build a website that offers that?”

If you start with your market and work backwards, you’ll be more likely to build a product that resonates with the market and you’ll also have a more intimate understanding of why the existing solutions don’t work.

3. You must validate your idea

In the old school days of being an entrepreneur, you might share your idea with potential customers in your target market, get feedback, and judge whether or not people like or want what it is that you’re trying to build.

But, the game has changed.

You can now set up a landing page, send some google or Facebook traffic to it, and see whether or not it converts.

This technique is the basis of the Lean Startup book, which talks in great depth about idea validation.

I can’t say this loud enough. Don’t validate your idea with qualitative feedback. Validate it with quantitative feedback.

It’s great if people say that they like your website, that they would buy whatever it is you’re offering, or use it on a regular basis, but there is a HUGE difference between talk and action.

The only way to determine whether or not people actually like your product or website and the only way to get a real sense of demand is by testing real data with a landing page or mock website.

4. Focus on growth, not revenue

This is easier said than done.

If you’re really trying to build a tech startup, you need to focus on growth (particularly in the consumer market, like SnapChat, FB, etc).

Here’s a quote from Paul Graham, the founder of YCombinator and a well-respected seed investor and tech entrepreneur.

“A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup. Nor is it necessary for a startup to work on technology, or take venture funding, or have some sort of “exit.” The only essential thing is growth. Everything else we associate with startups follows from growth.”

A good growth rate is 5-7% per week. If you do nothing else, read his thoughts on growth.

For many entrepreneurs, myself included, this is a strange concept.

My goal with the small business that I’ve built is to continually develop new recurring passive income streams, not to grow my overall traffic numbers or overall revenue unless it’s passive income. But, that’s because it’s a small business, not a tech startup.

5. Learn from the best in your network

You have a huge advantage as a college student. You’re not really seen as competition. You’re given the benefit of the doubt.

Pretty much every older and established entrepreneur that I reached out to while in undergrad was willing to give feedback, advice, and mentor me as I did my first ventures.

I even spoke with the founder of Atari and a member on the founding team of Priceline.

I won’t name the company, but I actually brought one of my first tech products into the head guy at the company I was interning at, demoed it to him, and he was willing to try it out at the company!

It doesn’t hurt to ask.

Although you can learn a tremendous amount from books, most of the vital information that you’re going to learn as you build this tech startup is in the heads of the people that you meet along the way.

Seek out experts in your industry, mentors, and people that you can learn from to get a leg up on the competition and progress at a faster pace.

6. Build your email list from day 1

Of all of the mistakes that I’ve made, this is up there as one of the biggest. I didn’t start building an email list for any of my tech startup ventures. I only learned about the power of email lists once I got into the blogging world.

Despite the rise of huge social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, the majority of people still get news that’s important to them via email.

I see the biggest conversion rate for new product launches via email. Email gives you the opportunity to develop a relationship with your users over time, keep them engaged in your website, and get them to take action.

There are a lot of tools that you can use to build an email list. I’d recommend MailChimp (free up to 2,000 subscribers) or Aweber.

7. Worry about traction, not capital

That religious moment of product-market fit is all that matters in the early stages of a tech startup.

Funding doesn’t matter. Having a pretty design doesn’t matter. Below, I’ve included screenshots to show what Facebook looked like when it first started.

The only thing that you should be focused on is getting product-market fit.

When you have product-market fit, a growing user base, and have validated your idea, then you’ll have a MUCH easier time raising money. Everything, in my opinion, should be bootstrapped until product-market fit. I also think you don’t need to quit your job until you get product-market fit.

8. Don’t focus on the idea

It’s easy to come up with startup ideas that make sense. Doesn’t Uber make sense? I’ve even come up with a bunch that you can consider.

While it’s true that really good startup ideas are often counter-intuitive, like AirBnB and SnapChat, many great startups have nothing to do with the idea itself.

I’d go so far as to say that the idea is probably only 5% of the entire process. Everything else is execution, learning as you go, and pivoting.

Focus on building a great product and testing your assumptions with real users. Don’t focus on the idea. If you can’t build the actual product, your best bet is to learn to code and get around people who love coding.

The first startup I worked at raised $50k in seed money from an angel investor. We weren’t able to iterate fast enough to get traction, much less raise another round of funding. It was a great idea, with bad execution.

9. Build your team early

This might sound a little manipulative, but it’s true. The best entrepreneurs have profited from the hard work and intellectual property created by their employees.

Granted, good tech entrepreneurs will reward their employees with stock options and other incentives, but it really does come down to whether or not your employees are creating great things that push the company forward.

Yes, a great initial product-market fit is needed, but in the long run, you need amazing, smart, and dedicated employees if you want to grow. A large reason why companies are acquired is because of the quality of the human resources. Why do you think acquihires are a thing?

The earlier you start to build your team, the better. You’re going to suck at persuading people to work at your company initially, unless you’re a natural, so the earlier you start, the better you’ll get.

You’ll learn to improve your judge of character, quickly assess potential teammates, and figure out the values and dynamics of the optimal company in your space.

10. Don’t be afraid to do stupid things

Great things can come from a kid who is naive and simply doesn’t know any better. They don’t know how an industry works or how things are done, so they do what they think might work.

Turns out, they end up creating a product that no one would have thought of or approach the market in such a way that seems counterintuitive, but is actually optimal.

Your biggest asset and your biggest weakness is your lack of knowledge.

Don’t be afraid to be a little reckless and take risks. You don’t have commitments. You don’t have a family. You don’t have a mortgage. Now is the time to take risks.

11. Understand your assets

Often times, in college, your biggest asset is going to be your passion for a subject. Passion is seriously underestimated. Passion can make you stay up late at night and wake up early in the morning to get something done.

What I’ve found is that you both need to be passionate about the destination (what you’re trying to build) AND the route to get there.

If there is a contradiction between these two elements, it’s going to be super difficult.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you spot an opportunity that you’re passionate about, like connecting your friends online and giving your friends a chance to share information about their lives online. But, you’re not passionate about solving technical problems or programming.

The problem here is that programming is the route that you’re going to use to achieve that vision. You’re going to have to build multiple prototypes and iterate, so you need to be passionate about solving problems and figuring things out. Unless you latch on to someone with that degree of technical passion, it’s going to be hard to control your destiny.

Often times, even if you DO find a way to achieve that vision, by becoming an investor or cofounder, your views and aspirations might be very different from the technical cofounder, who truly wants to build a great product, and doesn’t care about monetization as much.

You need to be passion about the end goal and the best path to get there.

12. Know what animal you are

Watch this video featuring Gary Vaynerchuk. In it, he says that the shortest path to success is buckling down on the things you are good at and not caring about your weaknesses.

I couldn’t agree with this more. It might seem a little contradictory, because I just told you to learn how to code, but I think this bit of advice kicks in particularly in the long run. I don’t think it has to do with building the initial prototype of the product as much.

When you understand what animal you are, you can more easily partner with entrepreneurs and hire employees who fill in the gaps. By animal, I mean, are you a sales guy? Marketing guy? Copywriter? Programmer? Growth hacker? UI/UX guy? Designer girl?

It’s hard to have this level of self-awareness so young in your career. I myself didn’t figure these things out (and am still figuring them out) until after college.

Every stage of this process brings its own problems that need to be solved. In the early stages, that’s getting product market fit. In the later stages, it might be hiring the best employees and developing a company culture.

As a tech entrepreneur, it’s your job to solve problems. There is no end to this. Ever.

The faster you solve problems and the more work you get done effectively, the better your chance of surviving. Good luck!