Galicia Gordon on Leading Learners Blog

Mar 17, 2022

5 Reasons Why Companies Founded By Students Grow So Big, So Fast

My favourite companies and services I use every day were founded by college-level and high school students. Almost all of my bookmarked pages are softwares and services founded by students. My Macbook doc has apps coded by college students. Prominent examples that come to my mind are TextNow, Missive, Notion, and Canva.

There are several reasons why some of these popular tools used by millions every single day skyrocket to the top.

Here is my attempt to show 5 reasons why.

1. Nobody expects anything. Nothing.

It is sad to say. Nobody thinks anything of a student-founded company or startup until they see them still working at it for 4+ years. The 4-year mark is when people begin thinking of the duration of a university degree, people expect they have gotten good revenue at this point, their idea wasn’t something to get accepted into schools but a genuine problem to be solved, people respect the continual drive overall, or the fact that “wow, they are still at it.” When you have a name too that is just a placeholder for the big one soon-to-be known by thousands or millions, these students can be made fun of, ostracized, or looked down on. I don’t hear tens of millions of people using “Canvas Chef” every day. That was Canva. Yes, the tool you love and adore. Started by college student Melanie Perkins from Australia.

2. Awards and numbers mean nothing to them

The initial scrappy days of working several jobs to uphold the company (then, startup) is a fond memory to most. If you take a look at a company like TextNow, their rates and pricing are lower than anyone else in their field for telephone service and data plans. I would like everyone reading this blog to take a look at their marketing website for just 30 seconds. Go look now: https://www.textnow.com/

How much do you think they are making in ARR? With a product as low as $0.99? Take a wild guess. I do not think anyone will guess the copious amount. 

$50K? $500,000? Maybe $3M? What about a few tens of millions of dollars as a long shot? All wrong. TextNow surpassed over $100M in ARR just this last year (2021), only taking a small $1.4M seed round in 2011.

3. These people are irreplaceable, have unshakeable confidence, and security of lions

I know nobody with more security within themselves than the then-students of services used by tens of millions of people. You can never shake them. These are the people who have unshakeable convictions when nobody shows them proof of their labour. People challenge their state of being, their idea, and their futures. Even if their business goes under, nobody has more unshakeable confidence than them. These are the most reliable, trustworthy, and loyal people. In short, they are utterly irreplaceable. Once you get-to-know them, cruel people can betray them, use them, or disrespect them, but it will never, ever, ever affect them permanently. Everyone who doubted them either loves them, envies them, or still thinks of them as the old person they once were. These people have the security of lions. This helps with all investors, supporters, and of course, the people who use their product/service. These people are utterly irreplaceable. 

4. Nobody on this Earth can beat them

When you would never freak out if your business was making hundreds of millions of dollars, always feel calm when people laugh and belittle you, and can take full control of your mind, schedule, and rhythm, what do you think happens? No one on this Earth can affect you. Nobody. Not the richest people in the world, not the rudest people in the world, not the cruelest people in the world. The reason why nobody can beat them is that they would not care, ultimately. Money does not matter, user count does not matter, sales do not matter, no opinion matters. These individuals love when people rejct them, turn them down, or feel not good enough. It adds fuel to the fire and drive for them to continue. People can scream at you, tell you that you and your idea are useless, and these student founders (or then-student founders) will still be the ultimate creative director for their life.

5. They want the business to be bigger than them

As a student founder, there are no obligations for your business to be successful. Nobody is pushing for you except for those closest. And even if the idea goes far, you know you can always leave it to the wayside and work “useless jobs” like a smaller cashier or assistant job that doesn’t provide any value. You know those jobs are useless, not helpful, for “people with a guarantee of no big life success”, and wasteful in your mind (and I quote these all from a girl in an accelerator I was in before anyone attacks me). You also know you are guaranteed a job at a scaling startup or company any day you wish if the idea fails. The business has to be bigger than them for it to be their job. They recognize this either at the very start, or a few years in. Many have told me it was the 2-year mark for them. When this happens, they realize that at the end of the day, the business is all that matters. This is why these people become quite humble. Quite calm. Quite sad, even. They may have a period of wanting themselves to be recognized for the work they have done, but then eventually they tire out. They turn the obsession on themselves to the business. Naturally, people are drawn in. They focus their fun, free time, and spare time on building it out. They have an identity tied to their vision, which is why people can then say “wow, she is obsessed,” “he’s still on that finance thing,” “she’s starting yet another business,” or “he still is building out his platform, damn, you gotta respect him.”