There can be a safety net for startups - college. If colleges could be refocused from teaching psychology to creating tech businesses, then student loans could be the financing. Anyone, including middle aged or seniors could go to college from 1-5 years, learn tech skills while creating a company from day 1, and have the current student loan industry finance it all. Olin College in MA and Waterloo University Independent Studies Program, Ontario, Canada, are two such examples that are close to the description (although not completely, because they focus on projects and not projects with business plan attached).
i like your idea. arguably the recent rise in incubators and accelerators is doing something close to what you've described. i do think as a society we need to stop throwing huge piles of money at universities "teaching" fuzzy make-believe or peripheral things and instead spend less, or more tactically, on core subjects and more practical skills. universities have become essentially just expensive resorts for middle/upper-class twenty-somethings, in many cases. there ways to educate and filter and certify folks that are much faster, cheaper and more egalitarian, and thankfully there's a growing movement to make this more mainstream.
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There can be a safety net for startups - college. If colleges could be refocused from teaching psychology to creating tech businesses, then student loans could be the financing. Anyone, including middle aged or seniors could go to college from 1-5 years, learn tech skills while creating a company from day 1, and have the current student loan industry finance it all. Olin College in MA and Waterloo University Independent Studies Program, Ontario, Canada, are two such examples that are close to the description (although not completely, because they focus on projects and not projects with business plan attached).
i like your idea. arguably the recent rise in incubators and accelerators is doing something close to what you've described. i do think as a society we need to stop throwing huge piles of money at universities "teaching" fuzzy make-believe or peripheral things and instead spend less, or more tactically, on core subjects and more practical skills. universities have become essentially just expensive resorts for middle/upper-class twenty-somethings, in many cases. there ways to educate and filter and certify folks that are much faster, cheaper and more egalitarian, and thankfully there's a growing movement to make this more mainstream.