I don't know what work experience you have, particularly in a particular
industry, etc, but it might be worthwhile getting some real-world experience
in the industry in which you would like to focus first.
What I would do is figure out a niche you might want to conquer (ideally that
isn't being filled already), not worry too much about the company's behavior
(few companies are going to care at all, but you might be able to influence
them, so might even be able to influence a badly behaving company, or at
least build off the knowledge gained from learning how other companies
operate, etc), save up (a crowdfunding campaign isn't always a good solution
to every scenario although might work depending on what exactly your goals
are and how its presented), and then take all that and build a company from
it.
I say this because most businesses fail in very short order so having some
sort of real-world experience and savings will reduce your risk. Most people
don't realize just how expensive it is to run a business and while you can
frequently find ways to cut corners you still have to have the funds to get
you to point where your bringing in more money than your spending. Most small
businesses take about 3 years to get off the ground and running (that is
being comfortable with the money your making compared to working for a larger
corporation). Anything to increase that chance of success is something every
startup needs concern themselves with.
Before I founded ThinkPenguin I had no real idea what I was going to do after
college or what niche needed filling within the GNU/Linux arena. What I knew
was I wanted to see GNU/Linux and free software succeed on the desktop (like
it had on the server). I started out with a Computer Science degree and did
an internship between my 2nd and 3rd year at a company producing one of the
leading desktop distributions of the day. While the company had its non-free
software issues (including, not developing) it was mostly management's
inexperience with the GNU/Linux and the free software world that created the
biggest hurdles (and later what amounted to potentially criminal issues by
certain major share holders, among a number of other really stupid business
moves).
In any event I did that internship. I later turned down a few job offers. I
then did something nobody would have expected. I took a low pay tech position
with a major retail chain fixing (and selling to some degree) computers. I
didn't just do that, but I utilized that with my GNU/Linux experience, with
my internship experience, with a related PC repair startup, etc as a jumping
off point for ThinkPenguin.
I saw how the competition operated, I saw how companies focused on desktop
GNU/Linux were mucking things up, and from that I knew what to do to fix it
and how to do it. I only held that repair job for several months, in part
because I was already operating a competing repair business that let me focus
more on how I thought things should be operated, and as such, I could see
what worked and what didn't work with the masses. ThinkPenguin was operating
during this time as well, but was much lower key. It's what you would call a
“soft launch”.
Anyway- so yea- focus on picking up the skills you'll need to get the
business going. Besides all that you'll need to do a lot of research, maybe
take some business classes, accounting classes, etc. Some things you can more
easily outsource if you need to, but some things you can just do yourself to
keep costs down.
