Cultivation of a startup along with PhD studies?

[Sol Invictus]

Hi,

I have a question which might not be relevant for this particular subforum but I'm posting it anyway. All apologies.
I'm going to start my PhD this fall and I see myself as someone who would end up in the industry afterwards. In the back of my mind, I have several business ideas that I would love to see go through and as such I would be very interested in raising a startup along with my PhD studies. 

Being an international student, I do not know if the US laws allow me to have a company of my own at this point. Although, I would obviously be partnering with other people. US laws aside, do schools allow PhD students to also embark on a personal venture if they are being supported financially by the school? Many schools such as Stanford, Harvard and MIT have a strong entrepreneurial culture, but I'm unsure if other schools (such as mine) would also support this. There is an obvious advisor angle to this as well.
Have any of you started a company of your own while completing your PhDs? I would love to hear some experiences, comments, anything for that matter. Any advice would be very highly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[TakeruK]

I don't plan on doing this but I know some people who have. My school has a "conflict of commitment" policy because they are worried that you will spend more time on your personal venture than school (which they are paying you for). However, it's still allowed--the policy is that:

 

You may not use any campus resources (including email, computers, time at work etc.) to work on your company, or use the school name in any way to support yourself. And, you cannot hold a position of "line responsibility" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_management) so this would include being the CEO of your own startup. So, at my school, you would have to find partners / hire other people to actually run your company, you can only be involved as a consultant type position under some guidelines.

 

However, my school is pretty understanding that a lot of its students will go off and start their own companies. Under the right conditions, students here can get up to 2 years leave of absence where they can pursue their startup ideas. After the leave of absence is up, they have to decide whether to quit the PhD and stick with the startup, hand over the reins to someone else, or quit the startup and go back to school. Although the school will let you take up to 2 years off, you also have to work it out with your advisor too--I don't think they are obligated to let you take 2 years off, so if they are not on board, you might need a new advisor when you get back too.

[fuzzylogician]

A friend of mine started a startup at the same time as working on his PhD. He also participated in several big entrepreneurial competitions at our school (which is one of the schools mentioned in the OP), got some excellent mentorship, and did quite well. That was 3 years ago. Last week, he sold his company to, lets say, a company we've all heard of, for a nice sum of money. I haven't spoken to him in person since it's been announced but judging from his facebook posts, he seems quite happy with how things have turned out. That said, I can tell you that his advisors were always very unhappy with the amount of time he was spending on extracurricular activities and were worried about the implications for his research. And they probably had a point -- instead of graduating 2-3 years ago, his PhD is has been on hold for a while. I don't know if/when he will graduate. On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure if he still wants to, since he has other things happening.