An MBA is an important step towards becoming a stronger manager for most people, however it probably shouldn't be the first step you take out of undergraduate studies.
People who don't get higher education and just start their companies fresh out of high-schools will have WAY more business skills than MBA.
I'd say that 2 years of running your own business gives you more business skills than 5 years of MBA education.
In the same way being an hobbyist programmer will never give you the same skill set than a CS degree. It's highly unlikely you are ever going to study extensively algorithm, os and databases design, compilation or declarative and functional programming all by yourself because objectively it's not something you need to get the job done. Nevertheless, this knowledge becomes really useful as soon as you start designing complex system.
Doing an MBA (or an MSc for what it's worth, MBA cult is mostly anglo-saxon) is exactly the same thing. You will study a broad range of subjects and business areas and see different theories on them.
Don't misunderstand me, practical knowledge is invaluable and running your own company gives you a good understanding of your area. It's just than MBA will give you a broader if less practical view.
People are judged by their education all the time. Why should MBAs be exempt?
Though I do agree that the arbitrarily judging of someone based on what learning they have done in their life is ridiculous. Though I can't help but feel that even you have done the exact same judging: "Maybe if people working in startups weren't such elitists and thinking you don't need business skills to run a startup, you wouldn't have so many fail." Not having an MBA doesn't mean you do not have business skills.
It's also a little weird to say that we're elitists because we're not hiring the elite of the business world.
I receive lots of applications every day. When nine out of ten that share one common characteristic (MBA), share another (no understanding of how they could add value in an early stage startup), you begin to connect the dots.
1) He was referred to my startup by someone in our network, so he had at least a basic understanding of how our company worked.
2) He offered to come in as an intern just to get his foot in the door, and was extremely humble about his value to the company; basically recognized that he wouldn't that productive at first. (We brought him in as an analyst and he made because a lead PM in about 7 months).)
There is a lot to like about people with that background: extremely smart, hardworking, with hard analytical skills. If the two basic criteria from above are met (basic understanding of the business, strong desire to come in and learn), then I would strongly recommend snagging an MBA if you can.
Clearly a five year delay.
Seriously though, let's not overanalyze here.
I'm a solo technical founder. I write code, marketing copy, and proposals. I'm a product manager. And my MBA curriculum covered areas that would be a huge help to product managers.
If you auto-reject CVs with an MBA, you're missing out on a great talent pool. Perhaps you should only give "black marks" to candidates who are clueless about what it takes to manage products. But don't tie that to the MBA.
For me, for example, developer certifications are a black mark. Does that mean I auto-reject people with them? No. But it is correlated with a couple of different kinds characteristics I don't want in a developer, so they lose points.
But aren't there some good people with certifications? Am I not being unfair? Sure. My job isn't to be fair; it's to find a great person in minimum time.
I see the relationship between MBAs and cluelessness as one of correlation not causation.
People who think there's a correlation with MBA's and cluelessness are themselves, just as clueless.
- Chris Dixon (Hunch, among others)
- Jeff Skoll (eBay)
- Trip Hawkins (Electronic Arts)
- Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy(Sun Microsystems)
- Gery Kremen (Match.com)
- Alexandra Wilson and Alexis Maybank (Gilt Groupe)
- Jeff Fluhr (Stubhub)
- Miriam Naficy (Minted, Eve.com)
- Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard (Wildfire)
- Mike Cassidy (Stylus Innovation, Direct Hit, Xfire, and Ruba)
- Inaki Berenguer (Pixable)
- Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, Jeffrey Raider, David Gilboa (Warby Parker)
- Cyrus Massoumi (ZocDoc)
- Jessica Flannery (Kiva.org)
The list can go on...
Chris Dixon, for example, worked for years as a developer and more years at a VC before he founded anything.
Jeff Skoll joined eBay after it was already profitable. And he had started two businesses before getting his MBA.
Trip Hawkins joined Apple specifically to work with successful entrepreneurs to learn how they did it, and he joined them at 50 people, not 15.
None of these people would have made the mistake that the MBAs who approach Matt did, which was assuming that the mere having of an MBA qualified them to take a major role at a startup.
"I am not trying to argue that there is no place for MBAs, or that no MBA has a clue about startups – both of those are demonstrably untrue. Also having an MBA itself is clearly not the problem."
The intention was not to attack any trade but to highlight a worrying misconception that seems to be particularly prevalent amongst MBA grads and ex-consultants. A segment that I feel my background makes me particularly able to comment on.
> The problem is that a large proportion of MBAs ambitions seem to have moved away from entering a large corporate to becoming part of the burgeoning startup scene, and this shift has not been reflected in the course content.
He's really talking about inexperienced, fresh-out-of-school MBAs.
You just haven't found the right MBA :)
Some quick background: I'm attending school part-time for my MBA (Richard Ivey, case-based). I've also been with a successful YC startup from the the ground floor as a technical hire, and am currently the co-founder of a very early stage startup.
Your article raises some really good points - most of which I agree with completely. Execution is key, and becoming a PM at an early stage startup is misguided if you're not able to implement your ideas.
That said, should a startup outright ignore applicants with MBAs? Like most things...it depends. The leadership, communication and (yes) strategic skills that a good MBA provides are important. Coupling these strengths with a technical background is a pretty powerful combination.
If that person with the MBA has the skills and more importantly the desire to get in an get their hands dirty executing on their own ideas, then great! But from my experience, most MBAs want to come up with the ideas and want others to execute them.
Like you say, the key is the ability and desire to execute.
Disclaimer: I have an MBA from a top tier school, and despite that fact, I have the utmost respect for execution. I clean data, I test, I write database queries that include all sorts of joins and I even code a little. The big data company I co-founded in NYC (CB Insights http://www.cbinsights.com) is aggressively seeking talented PHP / MySQL developers. If you happen to have an MBA, that's cool, but regardless we take all shapes and sizes so long as you like to code and ship weekly. Email me at the address in my profile if interested.
Why we've had bad luck interviewing MBAs. This one talks about your experience without sounding link baity. It also relates directly to your experiences.
In regards to your experiences. I think the issues with MBAs come from their conventional business education. A lot of them are not prepared to worok with startups. There are some good people out there, but it is not the standard.
more than that, i helped one of them on some module, because they knew i "knew about computers" and it turned out that they were learning how to configure firewalls (!) (in a very abstract way - the idea was to understand what a firewall was, not how iptables worked - and we got top marks for that assignment ;o). i guess it was some kind of i.t. security basics. anyway, the breadth of what they were covering surprised and impressed me.
I do think that these folks can add value in much larger organizations, but in my experience, the only good ones are the ones who would be useful on small teams. In short, a "software architect" who couldn't immediately transition to a highly productive role writing code almost certainly isn't a good software architect. A "user experience designer" who couldn't immediately sit down with a programmer and start creating a polished site almost certainly isn't a useful "UX Designer". And by could, I also mean would. The good designers and architects are kind of delighted to get a chance to get their hands into code again.
It sounds like the problem with MBAs (based on this essay) is that they seek those higher level roles 1) where they don't exist, or 2) without the more hands-on background that seems to be a prerequisite for success at a more abstract level.
I do sympathize with the people who object to the "black mark". A black mark is a conviction for embezzlement, not a degree honestly earned (albeit of potentially dubious value). But you know, filters are both a luxury and a necessity. Some people won't look at any resume that doesn't have a CS degree from a top school. If you're so deluged with candidates that you can afford to (and need to) do this, obviously you're in a position or real strength.
Aside from my "black mark" objection, I think the rest of this essay is spot-on. The rejection is based more on a conversation than a rigid filter, he engages with the interested candidate a bit to see how they might fit.
"If your whole role is to come up with ideas & strategies for the product but you can’t make them happen yourself, and have a very limited understanding of how you could, you are pointless."
Best product managers and/or designers are usually the engineers working, using and breathing the product.
Oh boy... I agree with the whole "idea-guys are hacks" thing but this phrasing is no less alarming. Don't worry about the product, we can always jut pivot!
I would say Most people get MBA's in order to change their job. Either they want a promotion or want to switch industries and MBA programs are great for doing that. For a startup that just isn't the profile of person you're looking for.
In that heap of MBA's there are some people I'd call business nerds. They love to learn about how business works and are cluefull if you talk with them. Hire a business nerd if you can find one.
At one point I asked him: What's an MBA good for?
His answer: Absolutely nothing.
He then argued that an MBA devoid of solid experience in another field, well, just didn't get reality. Academic studies don't necessarily converge with reality, at least not perfectly. In his case, having spent so many years in various engineering disciplines the advantage was that he came into the MBA program with a great deal of context in reality and came out of it with knowledge that was well founded, modulated and qualified by the reality filters he had developed over the years.
That portion of the discussion matched what I had seen. The only MBA's I had come into contact with that "got it" seemed to be those who went into the MBA program after having worked in the real world for a good while.
Would I hire an MBA? They'd really have to show me that they get reality and are not living inside of some star-trek-ish distortion field.
