Not sure. I looked up what Paul Graham had to say on the subject:
> If you work your way down the Forbes 400 making an x next to the name of each person with an MBA, you'll learn something important about business school. After Warren Buffett, you don't hit another MBA till number 22, Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike. There are only 5 MBAs in the top 50. What you notice in the Forbes 400 are a lot of people with technical backgrounds. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Jeff Bezos, Gordon Moore. The rulers of the technology business tend to come from technology, not business. So if you want to invest two years in something that will help you succeed in business, the evidence suggests you'd do better to learn how to hack than get an MBA. [3]
>[3] Learning to hack is a lot cheaper than business school, because you can do it mostly on your own. For the price of a Linux box, a copy of K&R, and a few hours of advice from your neighbor's fifteen year old son, you'll be well on your way.
Yeah and if you look at those guys biographies and the critical decisions they made time and again ... a non technical person would make a fatal mistake a high % of the time.
If you were to tell me you managed to get a top tier MBA in much less time than normal (e.g. a year instead of two) and for free (instead of $XXk), I'd be super-impressed at your resourcefulness and determination.
If you tell me you spent 2 years and a whole bunch of money to get some letters after your name, instead of devoting those resources to the business you're asking me to fund, then it might be a negative signal.
Would you rather invest in a company that spends time and effort to enter and win startup competitions, or one that is fully focused on getting product-market fit?
I would guess that having one person on your team with a top-tier MBA would be a positive. If you're mostly/all MBAs, that would be a negative.
The benefits of having one top-tier MBA are: (1) networking for hiring/selling/partnerships, (2) someone who can give pitches better than the stereotypically average engineer, (3) background in marketing/operations/sales that most engineers don't have. Basically, it can round out a team and provide a network that helps with certain important functions.
To think that a bootstrapped company that is breakeven and has a lot of potential to grow is a very positive signal for investors...
Makes me think that if you are doing a MBA and you want to become an entrepreneur OF SUCCESS(not those that get dad/angel/whatever money and fail)...
You should be building a business, like... now. This second. Everything else is a waste of time.
Now, if you aren't and have no idea what to do, you are no different than me, then a MBA won't do anything for you. I believe people who are getting investment they are doing stuff, building teams and shit. For nothing of that, a MBA counts to be honest.
They want to invest in a business and they expect you to have one. If they wanted to employ somebody, they could hire some graduates
I'm surprised to see most answers are very negative. I am not sure that paying for an MBA is worth the money, but if you take out the money aspect, I'd say there is no reason why having a MBA should be anything but positive...
I think:
1. there is a tough selection process to get in, so chances that if you get an MBA from Harvard, you're a pretty smart person
2. MBA classes should give you valuable lessons, that you won't get from Startup School or YC.
But they´re the wrong lessons if you want to do a startup... an MBA is very focused on an existing firm.
That´s why Paul Graham et al advise against it. There´s some very useful knowledge, especially financial and accounting and knowing organizational dynamics if you want to go B2B (not to mention connections).
I personally sometimes regret spending the money and effort on my master´s (a Tech MBA). It definitely didn´t give me the career advancement I was hoping for.
> If you work your way down the Forbes 400 making an x next to the name of each person with an MBA, you'll learn something important about business school. After Warren Buffett, you don't hit another MBA till number 22, Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike. There are only 5 MBAs in the top 50. What you notice in the Forbes 400 are a lot of people with technical backgrounds. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Jeff Bezos, Gordon Moore. The rulers of the technology business tend to come from technology, not business. So if you want to invest two years in something that will help you succeed in business, the evidence suggests you'd do better to learn how to hack than get an MBA. [3]
>[3] Learning to hack is a lot cheaper than business school, because you can do it mostly on your own. For the price of a Linux box, a copy of K&R, and a few hours of advice from your neighbor's fifteen year old son, you'll be well on your way.
from: http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html