Classroom setting is really not the best setting for studying math. Studying new materials in math needs complete concentration, a 2-3 minutes mind-wondering can cost your the entire period, since new concepts/abstractions in math build on top of each other.
It's very difficult to concentrate for a 40 min period, especially considering students just came from other classes that could be just as mentally challenging.
I think Khan academy does a good job at this. A 15-minute long video is a much more consumable chunk of knowledge.
It's super difficult to find a startup PM at the beginning, partially because it's super difficult to find another person who has the same product vision. It's much easier for the founder with strong conviction to see the product through, at least to a stage where it's been proven by the market.
Khan academy is a huge step forward, delivering key concepts in video forms. However, this approach only goes so far. Human interaction becomes important when higher-level concepts are introduced. For example, I can't imagine getting through my O.S course without the help of TAs, office hours, etc. Recreating that experience on-demand would be the holy grail.
I think people you know are the most important resource in terms of finding a business-savvy co-founder. A lot of VCs/angel investors are willing to help smart hackers find co-founders or even interesting projects. Also, going to marketing/product related meetups is a good way to network and meet new potential co-founders.
A lot of VCs/angel investors are willing to help smart hackers find co-founders or even interesting projects.
Good point. I had never really considered VCs being willing to assist a company unless they had already invested (money) in the company, but just Monday I happened to have a chance to chat with some local VCs and they made that same point.
And in hindsight it makes total sense... if they invest a little time helping a company in some small way (finding a co-founder, finding a beta customer, whatever) and then the company grows to the point of wanting outside investment, they already have an established relationship with the company and are probably in a good position to be part of the funding round. So it's a potential win-win scenario, for a fairly small expenditure.
So yeah, talk to VCs, angels, etc. and see what they might be able and willing to do for ya, even if you're not asking for a monetary investment.
I think it different in each city. I live in New York, and this city is in dying need for more engineering talents to feed its fast-growing startup scene.
Being a hacker, the last thing you wanna hear is some finance dude pitching you an idea they had when they were crunching numbers on an excel spreadsheet at their 2nd year analyst job.
You have be product-savvy, you have to have respect for the hacker community/culture, and you have to be super persistent.
For those who are real risk-adverse, charging an hourly rate to build out someones idea is a win/win (the business guy keeps his company stake, and you get the capital necessary to work on your own projects once the contract is over). If you're not entirely sold on someone's startup but feel like you could do a good job building out their idea, there's really no better place to be than NYC right now. I split my time 25% NYC/75% Boston, and NYC is orders of magnitude hotter (at least from what I've witnessed).
Watch out though, it's real easy to end up billing 40 hours/week, then spending another 30 on unbilled hours on client management on top of that. More than once I've checked my SCM log, wonder why I haven't made a commit in 3 months and realized at the end of the day I just want to knock a beer or two back and watch some basketball.
