You see a lot of people with PhDs and MBAs on the side outside of the typical HN startups space. You might be surprised at how many PhDs also have an MBA, but j

You see a lot of people with PhDs and MBAs on the side outside of the typical HN startups space. You might be surprised at how many PhDs also have an MBA, but just don't advertise it since their other credentials are more important. For example, it's not uncommon for a researcher to come up with some great idea at a lab somewhere, quit, form a company (with him as CEO) and license the tech away from his former employers. In order to give the investors more of a warm fuzzy feeling about the competency of the guy running the company, they'll often have him do an executive MBA program while the company is still early stages. In megacorp-land, PhDs for senior execs are reasonably common as well, and it's desired that they also have excellent business education -- so you'll see lots of MBAs in executive resumes that they picked up somewhere during their careers. I haven't usually seen it as part of the education progression, it's treated more like a specialized certificate or accreditation program when people are moving out of researchy roles and into business ones.