I Left Harvard to Chase My Startup Dream — but I Miss Being a Student

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Christine Zhang, a 19-year-old startup cofounder, based in San Francisco. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m 19 years old, and people are trusting me with over a million dollars to build a company. At first, it seemed somewhat crazy, but I think this is a great opportunity.

During the summer, I turned down an internship to spend two months living in a hacker house while building a startup with my college roommate and cofounder. I had no idea I wouldn’t be returning to Harvard for my sophomore year.

After we raised over $1 million at the end of the summer, we decided to stay in San Francisco to see what we could accomplish. I come from an immigrant Chinese family, and they were ecstatic when I got into Harvard. When I told them I was leaving college, they thought that was insane.

I want to return to Harvard, no matter what, but I would’ve regretted not taking this opportunity.

My cofounder and I met as freshman roommates at Harvard

Having a cofounder is such a huge choice because you spend so much time together and have to make so many decisions together. My cofounder, Julia, and I were best friends, and we still are.

Since raising the money, we’ve scaled and now run a team of six people. We are still figuring out our product and recently made a pivot into generative optimization, which is essentially search engine optimization, but for LLMs.

It’s a lot to maintain a clear line between work and doing friend things, especially because both of us are workaholics, and we live together. The work always seems to come into the conversations we have. To be honest, we haven’t fully figured that balance out yet.

The work-life balance was almost better when we lived in the hacker house

Building a startup is lonely because it can become obsessive. There isn’t a lot of work-life balance, and most of my friends here would say the same thing.

When we first moved to San Francisco, the hacker house felt daunting. Surprisingly, I got close to a lot of people there.

Still, I took living in the hacker house for granted. I spent so much time in my room working, and that hasn’t changed, but now, when I’m stuck in my room working, I can’t just go out in the hall and talk to other people like before.

It’s hard being a young female founder in San Francisco

There are a lot of guys I’ve spoken with here who will say they have technical skills, and all they’re able to do is prompt Cursor. Then, when I talk to a woman about what it means to be technical, their expectations are a lot more concrete than just vibe coding.

We’ve had some interesting calls and interactions where people just either aren’t respectful of our technical ability or respectful of us as founders, especially because we’re 19. I wouldn’t discourage females from coming into the space, but it’s definitely not the easiest.

I miss being at Harvard and doing normal things with my friends

Coming into Harvard the first year, I was completely clueless. It was really hard for me to focus on my classes because I was working on the startup and involved in eight clubs. I regret that because there was a lot to learn from those professors.

I miss a lot of things about school. I had to delete my Instagram during the first week of classes so I wouldn’t get FOMO. However, I don’t regret my decision, and the feeling of missing out has definitely improved over time.

It’s a lot of people’s dreams to be in San Francisco, building a company. There are things I’m missing out on, but there are also a lot of things I should be incredibly grateful for. Even just being able to raise the money we did.

I have 7 years to go back to Harvard

I would really enjoy taking a year to focus on school and become fully immersed in my classes when I return.

Going back next year depends on our success with the startup. Our decision will be based on whether we have customers who want what we’re doing and whether we feel good as a team moving forward.

When I return, I’ll be able to contribute interesting thoughts and ideas to my classes on a more personal level. I don’t doubt that I’ll have a lot more life experiences and insights to bring back to Harvard.