Get a level & work expertise earlier than launching a startup

Among the greatest names in tech dropped out and made billions, however that doesn’t imply it is best to

What do Mark Zuckerberg and Invoice Gates have in widespread? Each dropped out of school, and each went on to grow to be among the greatest names in tech.

Zuckerberg began Meta in 2004 from his Harvard dorm room earlier than ultimately dropping out, whereas Gates left Harvard in 1975 to co-found Microsoft. At this time, their firms are valued at US$1.8 trillion and US$3.8 trillion, respectively.

Tales like these have fueled one of the crucial pervasive myths in startup tradition: the concept that you have to drop out of school in your early twenties to grow to be a tech billionaire.

Nonetheless, Jeff Bezos warns that these circumstances are exceptions, not the rule. Talking at Italian Tech Week 2025, Bezos urged aspiring founders to take a distinct method: earn a school diploma and acquire work expertise first earlier than launching your personal startup.

10 years of labor expertise contributed to Amazon’s success

Based on Bezos, a school diploma nonetheless holds worth, and gaining work expertise on high of that may make a significant distinction for aspiring entrepreneurs.

“I all the time advise younger individuals: Go work at a best-practices firm someplace the place you possibly can study quite a lot of primary elementary issues [like] find out how to rent rather well, find out how to interview, and many others,” mentioned Bezos.

“There’s quite a lot of stuff you’d study in an important firm that can provide help to, after which there’s nonetheless numerous time to start out an organization after you might have absorbed it.”

Bezos himself began Amazon at 30, after garnering a decade price of labor expertise. He graduated from Princeton College in 1986 with a level in electrical engineering and pc science, and went on to work at firms such because the telecommunications startup Fitel, Bankers Belief (now a part of Deutsche Financial institution), and the hedge fund D. E. Shaw & Co.

The billionaire mentioned he “realized an incredible quantity” throughout his time at D. E. Shaw. That position proved pivotal in his determination to launch Amazon—Bezos had been tasked with figuring out new enterprise alternatives within the rising web area, the place he found a statistic exhibiting net utilization rising by 2,300% a yr. The discovering sparked his thought for a web based retail enterprise.

He shared that the data and expertise he gained at his earlier firms additionally proved invaluable, giving him a a lot better shot at success with Amazon than if he had dropped out of school to start out a enterprise a decade earlier.

“I feel that further 10 years of expertise truly improved the percentages that Amazon would succeed,” mentioned Bezos, including that he has no regrets about incomes his faculty diploma. “I loved faculty and I feel it’s been useful to me.”

Solely a handful of school dropouts obtain main entrepreneurial success

Bezos’ recommendation isn’t with out benefit.

Certain, it’s potential for a 20-year-old to drop out of school and grow to be an entrepreneur, however the statistics present that such success is extraordinarily uncommon. A Harvard Enterprise Assessment article even notes that solely about 4% of school dropouts go on to attain main entrepreneurial success.

Furthermore, in response to a 2019 research from researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, the imply age of founders of high-growth startups, outlined as the highest 0.1% of the fastest-growing new companies in the USA, is way from that of these of their 20s. On common, the age of those founders is 45.

The takeaway? Not every part must be completed in your twenties—and also you’ll almost definitely profit from gaining expertise, abilities, and perspective earlier than launching your personal enterprise.

• Watch Jeff Bezos’ full speak at Italian Tech Week 2025 right here.
• Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies right here.

Featured Picture Credit score: Italian Tech Week 2025