$100,000: Too Much Or Not Enough?
The Peter Thiel Foundation held an 'Under 20 Summit' in Tribeca this weekend, with guest speakers and mentors speaking to a large number of aspiring entrepreneurs under the age of twenty. Lecture hall 2, at the 92Y coffee shop, contained a small group of youngsters holding a discussion about who, or what, is a 'lifelong learner'. The discussion was started and led by James Koppel, 20, who is a member of the new batch of '20 under 20' entrepreneurs given $100,000 by the Thiel Foundation to drop out of college and pursue their startup dreams.
A programmer by trade, Koppel double majored in math and computer science at Carnegie Mellon before being accepted into the Foundation. Now seven months into his two year program he is working on his startup Tarski Technologies, an automated program repair system, or a computer program that fixes other programs.
Koppel admits his parents were not thrilled at the idea of him dropping out. "They were against me applying [to the foundation]", he said. "At first they said 'Its ok a lot of successful people drop out', but then only really relaxed when I assured them I would graduate eventually." Koppel's mother works as a hiring consultant, a position he says "helps her see the value of the [college] 'degree'."
$100,000 dollars may seem like a lot of money, but when distributed over two years to cover the costs of starting a company and doing research work, not to mention living expenses such as rent and food, it is substantially smaller. "[The $100,000] is not enough money for two years. I can't hire a person., he said. Tarski Technologies is just Koppel sitting at his desk, reading papers and programming.
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