1. If you aren't profitable now, and don't expect to be anytime soon, will you ever be? Don't forget that the purpose of a business is to make money and sustain itself, not merely to exist for as long as possible.
2. Let's say you have X dollars, which can be used either for keeping a startup afloat or for finishing your degree. Imagine it's a year from now, and you've spent X. Either you'll have a degree (something that shows an accomplishment) or you'll have work experience at a defunct startup. Maybe you will have become profitable, but it doesn't sound like you're trying that hard.
3. HN probably isn't the best place to ask if a degree is worth it. You'll get a lot of extreme answers from people in the anti-college camp.
4. I don't have any personal experience with working for companies, but I'd imagine that a degree would look much, much better than an extra year at a failed startup. Especially considering that you worked on it for 1-2+ years and still didn't make money (assuming you don't.) This sentiment will only increase as the company gets larger; a small startup may understand that you learned a lot from a failed startup, but a mid-size company or larger will assume you just dicked around for a few years.
5. A degree more or less sticks with you for the rest of your career, especially if it's from a top 3 school. Will anyone care that you had a (failed) startup experience in 10-15-20 years?
1. If you aren't profitable now, and don't expect to be anytime soon, will you ever be? Don't forget that the purpose of a business is to make money and sustain itself, not merely to exist for as long as possible.
2. Let's say you have X dollars, which can be used either for keeping a startup afloat or for finishing your degree. Imagine it's a year from now, and you've spent X. Either you'll have a degree (something that shows an accomplishment) or you'll have work experience at a defunct startup. Maybe you will have become profitable, but it doesn't sound like you're trying that hard.
3. HN probably isn't the best place to ask if a degree is worth it. You'll get a lot of extreme answers from people in the anti-college camp.
4. I don't have any personal experience with working for companies, but I'd imagine that a degree would look much, much better than an extra year at a failed startup. Especially considering that you worked on it for 1-2+ years and still didn't make money (assuming you don't.) This sentiment will only increase as the company gets larger; a small startup may understand that you learned a lot from a failed startup, but a mid-size company or larger will assume you just dicked around for a few years.
5. A degree more or less sticks with you for the rest of your career, especially if it's from a top 3 school. Will anyone care that you had a (failed) startup experience in 10-15-20 years?