If 10gen make it big: perhaps. And then again, perhaps not. The fact that this guy spent 10 years as the CTO of a company and was still capable of producing a

If 10gen make it big: perhaps. And then again, perhaps not. The fact that this guy spent 10 years as the CTO of a company and was still capable of producing a piece of quality software like MongoDB says that this guy is isn't quite like other people. Very few people who make it into the executive ranks (and stay there for a decade or more) manage to stay sharp enough to actually write a coherent piece of code. Much less a piece of code worth building a company on. However such people do exist. Years ago I had the pleasure of working with a fellow who was nearing retirement age. We worked on a project together and he was learning a new programming language. As the weeks passed I slowly learned that he used to be an executive, but found this work boring after some years and wanted to return to the floor as an engineer. I also learned that he worked on software for the Apollo program. I have no doubt that if 10gen become very successful he might have to dial back his level of direct involvement. But if he is the brains behind MongoDB, it would only be natural that he stayed involved in the project. As an investor I'd see this as a plus. If nothing else then because it proves the CEO does have some brains and is less likely to be a business dullard.