The team I'm on is half PhDs. We aren't doing fundamental research, we are building a real product. We prefer to hire PhDs as applied scientists (which we disti

The team I'm on is half PhDs. We aren't doing fundamental research, we are building a real product. We prefer to hire PhDs as applied scientists (which we distinguish from research scientist) because they are better able to apply and build new-ish ideas from academia. But most of what we do is not novel in the publishable sense. The PhDs I work with are certainly all smart, but aren't the top echelon you are describing.