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List of Companies Started By MBA's

4 points by rafaelc 16y ago

zachallaun 16y ago
I believe that this article mischaracterized the argument against business schools. While some may go to the extreme of saying that MBAs are poor startup founders, the majority lie in another camp: that business school may be the wrong school to learn to be an entrepreneur. This is effectively the argument for the Durant School of Entrepreneurship; Business schools teach corporate management (generally speaking), not entrepreneurship. While many schools may offer entrepreneurship courses, they are often just thinly veiled management courses. More on this can be found on Steve Blank's blog: http://steveblank.com http://steveblank.com
byoung2 16y ago
Having worked for UCLA, Sylvan Learning Centers, Kaplan Test Prep, The College Network, Grockit, and Veritas Prep has taught me that there is a lot you can teach someone in a classroom, but there is so much more you can't. Some of the best musicians in the world are self-taught, because you can learn as much or more about jazz in a smoky nightclub as you can in the halls of Julliard. That said, there are thousands of classically-trained musicians in symphony orchestras around for every Miles Davis or Jimi Hendrix. It could be that we only notice the hackers turned entrepreneur superstars because they get so much exposure in the tech world. I bet there are a lot of businesses started by MBA's that aren't as glamorous as Google or Facebook.
mathgladiator 16y ago
I don't like being a downer, but this is completely one-sided. What matters is the ratio. I would like to see the other list and see how the ratio of MBAs versus non-MBAs look.
deleted 16y ago
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jimt 16y ago
Suspicious of this likely biased list, I looked at two entries: EA: Founded by Trip Hawkins Hawkins designed his own major at Harvard... (NO MBA) Sun Microsystems: 4 Founders, only 2 with MBAs. Stopped checking the list after that. At the end of the day, we should be happy that Mr. MBA got to feel better about himself albeit for a brief while.
- rafaelc 16y ago
  The list is if they were founders and had MBAs. Not "are they the only person to found a company". Sun Microsystems succeeded because of all four founders. Also, Trip has an MBA from Stanford, if you are careful enough to dig a little further: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/ces/entreunion/entreunion_schedule.html http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/ces/entreunion/entreunion_schedu...

4 points by rafaelc 16y ago

I believe that this article mischaracterized the argument against business schools. While some may go to the extreme of saying that MBAs are poor startup founders, the majority lie in another camp: that business school may be the wrong school to learn to be an entrepreneur. This is effectively the argument for the Durant School of Entrepreneurship; Business schools teach corporate management (generally speaking), not entrepreneurship. While many schools may offer entrepreneurship courses, they are often just thinly veiled management courses. More on this can be found on Steve Blank's blog: http://steveblank.com http://steveblank.com

byoung2 16y ago

Having worked for UCLA, Sylvan Learning Centers, Kaplan Test Prep, The College Network, Grockit, and Veritas Prep has taught me that there is a lot you can teach someone in a classroom, but there is so much more you can't. Some of the best musicians in the world are self-taught, because you can learn as much or more about jazz in a smoky nightclub as you can in the halls of Julliard. That said, there are thousands of classically-trained musicians in symphony orchestras around for every Miles Davis or Jimi Hendrix. It could be that we only notice the hackers turned entrepreneur superstars because they get so much exposure in the tech world. I bet there are a lot of businesses started by MBA's that aren't as glamorous as Google or Facebook.

mathgladiator 16y ago

I don't like being a downer, but this is completely one-sided. What matters is the ratio. I would like to see the other list and see how the ratio of MBAs versus non-MBAs look.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jimt 16y ago

Suspicious of this likely biased list, I looked at two entries: EA: Founded by Trip Hawkins Hawkins designed his own major at Harvard... (NO MBA) Sun Microsystems: 4 Founders, only 2 with MBAs. Stopped checking the list after that. At the end of the day, we should be happy that Mr. MBA got to feel better about himself albeit for a brief while.

rafaelc 16y ago
The list is if they were founders and had MBAs. Not "are they the only person to found a company". Sun Microsystems succeeded because of all four founders. Also, Trip has an MBA from Stanford, if you are careful enough to dig a little further: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/ces/entreunion/entreunion_schedule.html http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/ces/entreunion/entreunion_schedu...