I want to get into the startup industry, where do I start?
I am tech-savvy, but to an extent. I've dabbled in C++ and Java (beginner skill) and web design (beginner as well). I subscribed to teamtreehouse and I've been learning quite a bit! I enjoy the videos and have worked my way through all the HTML and CSS videos. I've watched videos on iOS development as well.
What I want to do: I want to build upon some ideas but I'm sick and tired of reading books. I like the field of law but I find myself reading tech news and reading about the newest technologies more than law.
I'm finishing up school but I want to work in the tech field. I want to gain experience in startups both in the legal and technical aspect. There are very few opportunities for entrepreneurship in my school thus I'm reaching here for hands on experience. I cannot offer legal advice until I'm a full-fledged attorney but I do want to volunteer and help out regardless of whether its paid or unpaid.
If I don't take some sort of initiative I won't be able to get into the field.
31 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 67.7 ms ] threadIt's likely a field that could use a good dose of technological innovation. Do your apprenticeship or whatever they call it in the legal field learn what problems the legal profession has and then create some technology to solve it.
As for myself I've built a iOS apps to address certain calculations that are built into the law. I was thinking of building some iPad apps to help manage cases. eDiscovery is a pretty huge field already. Did you know that it's not uncommon for emails to be converted to TIFFs to be submitted to court? What about apps that could help lawyers find better case law (crowd sourced case law?)? Or perhaps apps for boutique firms.
I have worked with fictitious clients in helping them incorporate, plan a business, initiate a stock purchase, asset purchase, and lastly, how to handle taxation.
I'm midway through The Lean Startup and unfortunately, I realize the startup field is dominated by engineers with inventions. I understand the purpose of funds like Ycombinator and techstars is to provide guidance for engineers and to help them understand the non-engineer aspects that go with running a company. I want some of that experience! They just don't offer it in my law school.
I've worked in a clinical program with real inventors, but it was directed towards helping them with trademarks and patents and not so much as helping them plan a business.
If you don't want to wait for the event to hit your hometown again, attend one in a nearby city.
Also, I'd go become a member of a co-working office space and hang out there and mix and mingle. Startup folks and the nicest and most-helpful I've ever met.
Are you VIRGIN??
You can start off on the tech side by doing small projects for people in your neighbourhood. Maybe a new store has opened? One of my early contracts was "a cake a month for a year" in exchange for a site. There's probably also local meetups in your area of tech people. If not, maybe move to a city where there's a more substantial community.
On the tech + law side, there are in-house departments at the big tech companies. That was my 2L summer job.
I'm also a third year law student ("2L" above...) and do substantial amounts of web programming on the side. Send me an email if you want to talk further about how to get started on programming.
If you don't mind me asking where did you intern for you 2L summer? I spent most of my time doing clinical work and finishing up MPRE stuff.
addy@summerhilldesign.com.
So simply... meet people.
I follow him on twitter and he has a number informative videos on the net regarding startups and more. He also maintains a blog on his website.
If you started your law career helping startups then an opportunity to transition to the startup side might present itself. It is a simple matter of creating opportunities for yourself by positioning yourself strategically.
What I have to offer is my technical expertise, a very cool social web app framework that I've been building for the last 3 years. How cool is it? OK, let's say, I can build a quora clone within 1 month, fast and scalable. It's using Mongodb, redis, nodejs in case you're curious and has been applied to some websites that I probably shouldn't mention here yet.
You need more technical expertise and are lazy to learn it, and that's definitely what I'm good at. Also, from what you mentioned, my guts is telling me you've got enough passion and business skills to promote/run a product. That's exactly what I need for some of my ideas that I'm about to do.
So, to sum up, here's my take to your question: You can leave the development to me (or you can develop with me) and start thinking about other business-related stuff to make it success. That way it might work out for both of us. I've been thinking about this kind of collaboration a long long time before I read your thread but this is my first time I write about it.
If you're interested in this collaboration, please contact me at : { my HN nick name } @ gmail . Thanks for reading & bye for now