What to study if you want to start a company in the future

Do you know what to study if you want to start a company in the future? It is one of the most important questions you can ask yourself if you have an entrepreneurial mindset and are deciding on your university path. Maybe you already have a clear business idea, or you simply know that someday you will want to launch a venture. Either way, choosing the right field of study now can make a big difference in your journey.

The good news is that there is no single correct answer. What you study will depend on your profile, your interests, and the type of company you want to start. But some choices are smarter than others. In this article we help you understand which university options will prepare you best to start a company, which skills you need to develop, and how to choose the most suitable program for your entrepreneurial goals.

Whether you have a clear business idea or you just know you want to launch a venture, here you will find practical information to make an informed decision about what to study to start a company with a higher chance of success.

Profiles of future founders: which one is yours?

Before deciding what to study to start a company, it is important to identify where you stand. Having a clear business idea at 16 is very different from simply knowing you want to start something without yet knowing what or how. Here are the most common profiles:

The founder with a clear idea

You already know what kind of company you want to start. Maybe it is something related to technology, fashion, food, or another specific sector. In this case, it makes sense for your education to align with that industry. If you want to start a technology startup, studying Computer Engineering or Software Development can give you the necessary technical skills. If your idea is to open an innovative restaurant, studying Hospitality or Gastronomy Business Management could be useful.

Be careful, though: knowing the sector is not everything. You will also need management, leadership, sales, and finance skills that many technical degrees do not teach. The key is combining sector knowledge with business competencies.

The founder without a defined idea

You know you want to start your own company, but you are not yet sure in which sector or with what product or service. This is one of the most common profiles among high school students. In this case, the smartest move is to choose a program that gives you transferable skills for any type of business: leadership capacity, team management, strategic thinking, commercial skills, and resilience in the face of failure.

Generalist programs in entrepreneurship or business management will let you explore different sectors while you develop the core competencies every founder needs, regardless of what they end up building.

The founder driven by a need for autonomy

Some people have no concrete business idea and no clear entrepreneurial calling, but they know they do not want to work for others. They value freedom, flexibility, and making their own decisions. If this is you, you need an education that prepares you to spot opportunities, validate ideas quickly, and build viable projects from scratch. Learning methodologies like Design Thinking or Lean Startup will be more useful than specializing too early in a specific sector.

Key skills you need to start a company

Regardless of the type of company you want to start, there are core competencies every founder must develop. These skills matter more than technical knowledge of a specific sector. When you ask yourself what to study to start a company, make sure your program includes opportunities to develop these capabilities:

Leadership and team management

Starting a company is almost never a solo path. You will need to build and lead teams, delegate responsibilities, motivate collaborators, and manage conflict. Leadership is not learned by reading management books; it is learned by leading real teams. Look for programs where you work on collaborative projects from day one.

Sales ability and communication

A founder is constantly selling: their idea to investors, their product to customers, their vision to collaborators. Knowing how to communicate clearly, persuade, and negotiate are critical skills. Many traditional degrees do not teach you how to sell, and that is a problem because without customers there is no company.

Basic financial management

You do not need to be an accountant, but you do need to understand how the numbers of a business work: revenue, expenses, margins, cash flow, break-even point. Many founders fail not because their idea is bad, but because they cannot manage finances. A program that teaches you finance in a practical way, applied to real cases, is essential.

Decision-making under uncertainty

Starting a company means making important decisions without having all the information. Learning to manage uncertainty, prioritize, and act with incomplete data is a skill trained by facing real situations, not by solving case studies with a known outcome.

Resilience and handling failure

Most ventures face obstacles and setbacks. Knowing how to manage frustration, learn from mistakes, and keep going is what separates those who quit from those who succeed. This competency is only developed by actually failing and learning how to get back up.

Strategic thinking and business vision

Seeing opportunities where others see problems, understanding market trends, identifying unmet needs, and designing viable business models requires a way of thinking that can be trained. You need an education that exposes you to different industries, teaches you to analyze markets, and helps you develop an entrepreneurial outlook.

Table: entrepreneurial skills and where to learn them

Which degrees actually help you start a company

Now that you know which skills you need, let us look at what study options exist and which prepare you best to launch a venture. When evaluating what to study to start a company, consider not just the degree name but also its methodology and practical focus.

Traditional business-related degrees

Business Administration is the best-known option. You will learn accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, and business strategy. The knowledge is solid and useful, but it tends to stay theoretical. Most Business Administration programs do not have you create a real company during the degree.

Economics gives you a macro view of how markets work, but it is even further from the day-to-day reality of running a business. It is useful if you want to understand broad economic contexts, but less so if you are looking for concrete tools to start your company.

Engineering (Computer Science, Industrial, etc.) programs are excellent if your company will be technical or technology-based. They give you very valuable skills in product development, but they rarely teach business management, sales, or leadership. Many engineer-founders need to supplement their education with business management knowledge.

Degrees specifically focused on entrepreneurship

More and more universities are offering degrees in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. These programs are designed specifically to train founders. The difference between them lies in how practical they are. Some remain very theoretical, while others let you create real companies during your studies.

LEINN (Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Innovation) is an official four-year university degree where you do not just study entrepreneurship, you actually start companies. From day one you create real companies with your team, invoice, manage customers, and learn from your own mistakes. It also includes Learning Journeys to international ecosystems, including Finland (Team Learning, where the methodology was born), Costa Rica (intercultural business in Latin America), and South Korea and India (international trade and adapting to high-complexity environments). LEINN is one of the most complete options when you ask what to study to start a company, because it combines theory, real practice, and international experience.

Sector-specific degrees with an entrepreneurial path

Depending on the type of company you want to start, sector-specific degrees can be useful:

• Marketing and Advertising: If you want to start a creative agency or work in branding and communications.
• Design (Graphic, Product, Fashion): If your company will be related to physical products or creative services.
• Tourism and Hospitality: If your project is in the services, gastronomy, or experiences sector.
• Audiovisual Communication: If you want to create content, digital media, or production companies.

The issue with these degrees is that you specialize in a very specific sector and may not develop all the business management skills you need. The solution is to complement them with specific entrepreneurship training, or choose programs that combine sector specialization with business competencies.

Pros and cons: traditional degrees vs. practical models

When you decide what to study to start a company, one of the key choices is between traditional education and more practical learning models. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach:

Advantages of traditional degrees

• Solid theoretical foundation: You learn fundamental concepts in management, finance, and strategy that will be useful throughout your career.
• Prestige and recognition: Degrees like Business Administration or Engineering are widely known and valued.
• Broad network: Large universities have many students and alumni who can become part of your professional network.
• Elective flexibility: You can choose specializations based on your interests (finance, marketing, international business, etc.).

Disadvantages of traditional degrees

• Lack of real practice: Most learning is theoretical. You do not create a company during the degree.
• Key skills not developed: Leadership, sales, and resilience are studied but not practiced.
• Disconnect from reality: Case studies are about companies that already exist; you do not learn to create from scratch.
• Focus on traditional employment: Many programs are designed to train employees at large companies, not founders.

Advantages of practical entrepreneurship models

• Real experience: You create actual companies, invoice, manage teams, and make decisions with real consequences.
• Development of key skills: Leadership, sales, and resilience are trained through your own projects.
• Entrepreneurial network: Your classmates, instructors, and mentors are founders, investors, and professionals from the ecosystem.
• International learning: Many programs include time in other countries to develop projects in diverse contexts, building intercultural business skills.
• You graduate with experience: Not just a degree, but companies you have started, real invoicing, and genuine learning.

Disadvantages of practical entrepreneurship models

• Less well known: Degrees like LEINN are less traditional, though increasingly recognized.
• Require greater commitment: You cannot just study for exams; you have to build real projects.
• Greater uncertainty: You work with open-ended problems with no single answer, which can be unsettling if you prefer certainty.

LEINN: a degree designed to start companies from university

If your clear goal is to start your own company and you are looking for what to study to get there, LEINN is one of the options most aligned with that objective. It is not the only one, but it is one of the few that puts practical entrepreneurship at the center from day one.

What makes LEINN different?

LEINN is an official four-year university degree where students (called LEINNers) create real companies as a team. The methodology was born in Finland more than 30 years ago and is based on learning by doing. During the degree you do not just study theory about starting a company, you actually start one.

You register legal entities, find customers, invoice, manage budgets, and make business decisions with tangible consequences. When you graduate, you have not only an official university degree but also demonstrable experience as a founder. You can see concrete examples of projects created by LEINN students to understand the kinds of companies developed during the degree.

International learning

One of the most distinctive elements of LEINN is the Learning Journeys. Over four years you travel to countries across three continents to develop projects in diverse entrepreneurial ecosystems. For example, you work with cooperative and sustainable business models in Costa Rica, or collaborate with technology startups in Seoul, South Korea, building your capacity for international trade and high-complexity environments. These experiences broaden your business perspective and your global network.

Lab methodology

LEINN operates with a lab mindset: experimentation is encouraged and failure is part of learning. You do not pass or fail based on whether your company is commercially successful, but on what you learn from the process. This culture develops resilience and the capacity to learn from failure, core competencies for any founder.

Real data

The results speak for themselves. A LEINN company of 20 students will, by graduation, have invoiced a minimum of €300,000 and launched more than 30 to 40 projects into the market. These are not simulations, they are real businesses operating in the world. LEINN also has one of the highest employment rates in Spain, because companies highly value having people with real entrepreneurial experience on their teams.

How to decide what to study based on your situation

Now that you know the options, here is how to make the decision based on your profile and circumstances:

If you have a very clear business idea in a specific sector

Consider combining education in that sector with business management competencies. For example, if you want to start a software company, studying Computer Engineering will give you the technical skills, but you will need to complement that with training in management, sales, and leadership. You can do this by choosing an entrepreneurship degree with a technology focus, or by studying engineering and supplementing with courses, master’s programs, or specific entrepreneurship programs.

If you do not have a clear idea but you know you want to launch a venture

Choose a generalist entrepreneurship program that lets you explore sectors while developing core competencies. LEINN, Entrepreneurship programs, or Innovation and Business Management degrees are good options. What matters most is that they are practical, that they have you create real projects, and that they expose you to different industries.

If you value security and want to keep options open

You can go with a traditional degree that has strong employment prospects (Business Administration, Engineering) and gives you a reliable professional path, but make sure you complement it with parallel entrepreneurial activities: participate in startup competitions, create your own projects, do internships at early-stage companies. The key is not to wait until graduation to start.

If you want to maximize hands-on experience

Look for programs where you are starting companies from day one. LEINN is the clearest option in Spain, but there are also bootcamps, incubation programs, and accelerators that accept young people before they have finished a degree. Some students even choose to study while starting their company independently, though this requires a great deal of discipline and self-management.

Common mistakes when choosing what to study to start a company

To help you make a better decision, here are the most frequent mistakes students with an entrepreneurial mindset make when choosing a degree:

Mistake 1: Thinking you can start a company without studying anything

It is true that there are successful founders without a university degree, but they are the exception. The right education saves you years of mistakes and gives you tools, contacts, and knowledge that accelerate your path. You do not need a degree to start a company, but you do need to learn.

Mistake 2: Choosing a degree only for prestige or family tradition

Studying Law, Medicine, or Architecture because your family expects it, when your calling is to start a company, can cost you valuable years. A less prestigious degree that is aligned with your goals is better than a traditional degree that does not give you what you need.

Mistake 3: Believing that Business Administration is enough to start a company

Business Administration gives you important knowledge, but if you do not complement it with real practice, you will graduate knowing a lot of theory and little application. If you choose Business Administration, make sure you participate in parallel entrepreneurial projects, startup competitions, or incubation programs during your studies.

Mistake 4: Specializing too early

Choosing a very specific degree (like Enology or Video Game Design) can limit you if you later discover your entrepreneurial interest lies elsewhere. A broader education that lets you pivot if your business idea changes is better.

Mistake 5: Undervaluing your network

Where you study matters almost as much as what you study. Choose universities or programs with active entrepreneurial ecosystems, where you meet other founders, investors, and mentors. The network you build during your degree can be more valuable than the knowledge you acquire.

Frequently asked questions about what to study to start a company

Is it better to study Business Administration or a specific entrepreneurship degree?

It depends on your profile. Business Administration gives you a solid theoretical foundation in business management, useful for any type of company. A specific entrepreneurship degree like LEINN offers real practice starting companies from day one. If you value theory and traditional prestige, choose Business Administration. If you are looking for immediate hands-on experience, choose entrepreneurship. The best option is one that combines both: solid theory with real projects.

Do I need to study a university degree to start a company?

It is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended. The right university degree gives you knowledge, skills, a network, and credibility that make the entrepreneurial path much easier. And if your company does not work out, having a degree gives you more career options. What matters is not just the degree itself, but what you learn during those years.

What are the best degrees to start a company in Spain?

The best options for what to study to start a company in Spain include: LEINN (a specific entrepreneurship degree with real practice), Business Administration (a solid foundation in business management), Engineering (technical knowledge), and sector-specific degrees depending on your business idea. Most importantly, they should include practical components and let you develop real projects during your studies.

Can I start a company while studying a traditional degree?

Yes, and it is highly recommended. Many successful founders started their first companies while studying traditional degrees. Participate in startup competitions, join university incubators, collaborate with other students on projects, and dedicate time to validating your ideas. The key is not to wait until graduation to get started.