College Dropouts Thrive in Tech
Quitting school to start a company used to be seen as risky; now an honor
By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI
Wall Street Journal
June 3, 2015
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Near the end of his freshman year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ari Weinstein was offered $100,000 to drop out of school.

Mr. Weinstein, now 20, had grown up immersed in technology. He created a website at age 7, started a software company in high school and released an iPhone app his first week at MIT. The rest of his freshman year, he juggled classwork along with tending to the app.

The $100,000, from a fellowship sponsored by billionaire Peter Thiel, offered Mr. Weinstein a shot at his dream: starting a company with friends. But he wrestled with the decision in the spring of 2014, worried that he was giving up on college too soon and afraid of disappointing grandparents who valued education. His mother had other concerns.

“I thought he would miss out on the social aspects of college,” says Judy Weinstein. “It’s the bridge between childhood and adulthood, a built-in transitional time.”

Mr. Weinstein chose the fellowship. He and a growing number of others believe they don’t need the bridge of college and are starting companies before they’re old enough to drink. In San Francisco’s Mission District, Mr. Weinstein shares a house with 11 others, including seven who also ditched college to pursue startup life.

The college dropout-turned-entrepreneur is a staple of Silicon Valley mythology. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg all left college.

In their day, those founders were very unusual. But a lot has changed since 2005, when Mr. Zuckerberg left Harvard. The new crop of dropouts has grown up with the Internet and smartphones. The tools to create new technology are more accessible. The cost to start a company has plunged, while the options for raising money have multiplied.

Moreover, the path isn’t as lonely. Many of the baby-faced entrepreneurs in Mr. Weinstein’s house have known each other for years, via Facebook groups, Twitter and a thriving circuit of weekend technology competitions called hackathons.