My friend from business school, Matt Soldo, has a well written post on MBAs in the tech startup world, “In Defense of the MBA.”
Matt has held positions with a few different internet companies, and is currently with Box.net. I also know he seriously batted around a few legit startup ideas while getting his MBA as Wharton. So I respect his opinions.
Since I was sort of famously quoted in TC on my MBA experience (and my MBAs and Startups post continues to get good traffic) this is a good opportunity for me to revisit my MBA post from last year.
As OfficeDrop has grown I’ve found my MBA more and more useful. Basic stuff like statistics, pricing strategies, etc are particularly useful. I sure that I could have learned this in a book, but there is something about the classroom learning environment that is good for the way I acquire knowledge.
The connections I made during the MBA are very useful. For example, I wanted to test out an idea for a new verticalized product offering at OfficeDrop. I glanced through LinkedIn, saw several classmates who were in the targeted field and had some quick conversations. I could have done this without the MBA, but it was nice to know that there were people who would pick up the phone. And of course the connections were helpful during our fund raise.
I’ve said it before, but my Managing People at Work class was really good. People, outside of the greedy finance world, are pretty fun to manage because it’s not just about the money. My MBA has provided a structure for me to think about this.
I still wish there had been more emphasis on leading sales teams at Wharton. How is this not the most important skill for almost anyone running a company?
The environment of business school is a real problem for people thinking about starting their own company. So many MBAs run for the safety of things like consulting, banking and big corporate positions (and have their post-graduation jobs sewn up with high salaries by the early part of their second year) that you feel strange trying to do anything different. I know for a fact that this atmosphere pulled some potentially great startup people into the boring safe jobs. My friends at Stanford and Harvard who started their own companies said they felt this pressure there too, so I think it’s safe to say this is a pretty standard MBA program problem.
And, finally, business school loans are the bane of anyone looking to start a company because they destroy so much free cash flow.*
Those are my current, unfiltered, thoughts on my MBA. Just as my position has changed over the past year I’m sure it will change again. Would love your comments, and don’t forget to read Matt’s post!
*On a somewhat unrelated note, does anyone else think that student loan situation in the US is the major cause of the educational cost inflation that we have here? In other words, because the federal government makes loans so easily available it is driving up the cost of higher education? I’m starting to think that government policies may be part of the reason that education is becoming so expensive - flood a market with cheap financing and the asset prices will go up??