u/Easy-Look1594

Not talking about classes as they vary college by college.

I mean access and the freedom to fail like without having a job 9 to 5.

In college I've been able to:

Join and win hackathons

Meet founders and join startups raising funding as a founding member

Build communities and my personal brand

Find cofounders and launch to users together

Test product ideas and get easy feedback and growth if it's b2c targetting students

A lot of students seem to view college purely as a degree.

I've found the network and opportunities around it more valuable than many classes.

Anyone else feel the same?

Like i wouldn't have been able to do half this stuff if I didn't approach my college professors, if there weren't national level hackathons like sih and other companies hosting hackathons in my college

I wouldn't have gotten this much understanding of startups without doing all nighters at my college dei with all of us building together

I wouldn't have had the freedom and the time and it would be harder socially and logically to do all this with a full-time job

So I wonder what are your guys opinion like i think everyone is too obsessed with placements which yes are important I get interview offers directly alot but I want to ask for you feel that the opportunities and freedom of just being in college is a positive as it's a great environment and no I am not from an iit

For me:

I thought the best product wins, the best ai the best UI and yes ux does matter but

Now I think distribution wins far more often than founders want to admit

I've seen technically average products get traction because they understood distribution

I've seen technically impressive products die because nobody knew they existed

What's a startup belief you think is mostly wrong like this one that every founder gets trapped in at the start especially technical ones

Mine:

Building is the easy part.

Getting people to care is the hard part.

I've had projects where I spent weeks building and got almost no interest.

I've also had projects where a few conversations immediately validated the idea.

The difference wasn't code quality.

It was distribution.

What's the most painful SaaS lesson you've learned?