[mikhaill]

To follow up to the parent, there is a lot more to B-school then just to network. From common MBA-bashing that takes places on HN it seems that that many people fail to grasp the difference between building a product and building a company. If you want to build a product - MBA may not be necessary, but if you want to build a good company, an MBA will be a great help along the way. With all aspects of running a business covered in one class or another, you at least have an understanding of the issues you'll run into.

An MBA doesn't provide you a road map, it gives you a framework of how to approach business questions and an understanding how simple decisions cascade down to all aspects of a company (hr, accounting, operations).

[plinkplonk]

"but if you want to build a good company, an MBA will be a great help along the way."

An easy way to see if this is statistically valid, or just something that MBAs tell themselves, is to make a list of 'good' companies (by your personal definition of 'good') and see if the folks who built them had MBAs. The results might be surprising (either way).

[edcastano]

Nice point. You can build a great ruby site without Rails, but Rails gives you a nice framework to make the process easier. Similarly, you can build a business without an MBA, but an MBA gives you a convenient framework to help with important decisions.

[ajaycancherla]

True. Good point. So it comes down to - which type of person are you? I stick by my original point - YC is the new grad school. MBA's learn all the theory of business, and YC throws you right into it. There's no better way to learn.

[ajaycancherla]

To each his own. An MBA helps some people - the network is powerful coming out of schools like HBS and SBS. At the same time, a determined entrepreneur can create his own network and wow people with a great product.