Guy Kawasaki hit a nerve with his "MBA in a Page" post.
Check the comments. Some pretty funny stuff. My favorite:
So Guy, are telling me that you would have given us the money? Are you saying that you don't invest when too many MBAs are involved?
I see this as kind of hypocritical. You speak disdain for the MBA but your herd gives it more weight than almost any other criteria.
**************
Roger,
Let me be subtle. All things being equal, any VC who picks a Harvard MBA over a CalTech PhD for a tech company is someone you don't want money from.
Guy
Zing!
For the record, I'm an MBA student and I agree with Guy's sentiment in the post:
MBA trons suck.
(My classmates that will soon be falling all over themselves to get 30 seconds of face time with the McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc. recruiters only to ask an asinine question "company culture" may have different opinions.)
If I'm the CEO of an early-stage venture, an MBA student would probably be the last person I would seek to hire for a very early position.* Despite our eagerness and ambition, we're expensive, 2 years gone from reality, and, by the time we graduate, we will have been told how great we are about 129,384 times. Not the right mix for an important early hire if you ask me.
*Unless the MBA student were me.
Check the comments. Some pretty funny stuff. My favorite:
I was in an investment bank office one day - a $10 million check on the table. It was pulled away because the CEO of my main competitor was a Harvard MBA. The investor thought that was a more important qualification than my Caltech PhD and significantly greater understanding of the issue both companies addressed. Kleiner Perkins felt the same way.
So Guy, are telling me that you would have given us the money? Are you saying that you don't invest when too many MBAs are involved?
I see this as kind of hypocritical. You speak disdain for the MBA but your herd gives it more weight than almost any other criteria.
**************
Roger,
Let me be subtle. All things being equal, any VC who picks a Harvard MBA over a CalTech PhD for a tech company is someone you don't want money from.
Guy
Zing!
For the record, I'm an MBA student and I agree with Guy's sentiment in the post:
MBA trons suck.
(My classmates that will soon be falling all over themselves to get 30 seconds of face time with the McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc. recruiters only to ask an asinine question "company culture" may have different opinions.)
If I'm the CEO of an early-stage venture, an MBA student would probably be the last person I would seek to hire for a very early position.* Despite our eagerness and ambition, we're expensive, 2 years gone from reality, and, by the time we graduate, we will have been told how great we are about 129,384 times. Not the right mix for an important early hire if you ask me.
*Unless the MBA student were me.