[alephnerd]

At least in the US, most tech leaders and middle managers never did an MBA. Most are engineers who climbed the ladder into management.

Edit: Can't reply

> “Making money off of shareware” is no longer enough

Based on this I am guessing you are at least 10-15 years older than me and probably grew up in the 1980s and experienced the 1990s internet

> how do we make this company into an investment multiplier

> It’s a different mentality. It about unicorns or bust now

This is how startup funding has been since the beginning. You sure as hell weren't raising from Bessemer or Sequoia in the 2000s without also being able to answer whether you had a path to successful monetization.

Why would anyone give you their money if you cannot justify how you would make them more money?

[mc32]

Could be so but once their companies get on the path to getting listed they get advice from their banks or investors and either or both have one thing in mind: how do we make this company into an investment multiplier? Also often founders are paired with business types to make companies more viable.

“Making money off of shareware” is no longer enough (never mind that it’s a non-starter now that everything is needs to be saas these days.)

It’s a different mentality. It about unicorns or bust now.

[mrhottakes]

Do you really think Zuckerberg is only evil because he's getting evil advice from his banks?

[mc32]

I’m pretty certain they are not a moderating force. I think the lead-up dot-com bubble its subsequent burst and the following hunt for unicorns was begot by a different breed of people than those pursuing the technology sector before them. After the Netscape IPO more people started going into CS as a way to get a foot in the door to massive riches rather than the pursuit of technology as a way to solve human problems. The Woz vs Zuck, for example.

[alephnerd]

> After the Netscape IPO...

The Netscape IPO happened 31 years ago. Over half of all Americans alive today were either in elementary school or not around yet.

It's the equivalent of someone in the 2000s trying to enforce standards and norms from the 1950s-60s.

The reality is, the tech industry has essentially always been like this, and any period in the 1980s or early 90s that y'all look back to just isn't actionable in 2026 and fails to understand how different Americans are today versus when you started in the tech industry.