4 ms·
a bit offtopic but -- imo technical folks don't need MBAs. However you _do_ need a person who can sell. That person might have a technical background, might hap
by hkmurakami 9y ago
a bit offtopic but -- imo technical folks don't need MBAs. However you _do_ need a person who can sell. That person might have a technical background, might happen to have a MBA (though frankly very few MBA types are very good salespeople), but honestly the skill is orthogonal to anything else.
The question you ask an engineer is "can you build this?". The question you ask a business cofounder is "can you sell this?"
- mgkimsal 9y agoso true. to get a bit pedantic, there's generally no 'business' to 'administrate' in the early days, so an 'MBA' is... not specifically useful. To the extent an 'MBA' is useful, it's probably in doing things that are tangential to the degree itself.
- throwaway2016a 9y agoLate replying but... I completely agree. Tech types do often underestimate the importance of sales. They have a "if you build it they will come" mentality. But as two counter points... - I've seen business people make this same mistake. Although probably not as much. - A technical CEO can hire and manage a non-technical hire (sales person) just as well if not probably better than a non-technical CEO can hire engineers. As a technical CEO/CTO myself I recommend that one of your first hires when the project nears launch should be a sales person. If you wait until the project has already launched you're late and you will burn through capital while they ramp up and build a pipeline.