[eric_t]

If you think of your supervisor like a boss, that's wrong, IMO. You should pursue your own ideas in your own way, and your supervisor should do just that, supervise you and guide you as best as he can, then let you do what you want with his advice.

Of course it's hard to build a team as a PhD, at best you can get some reasonably competent master students to do some work for you.

[Aegean]

Well, I accept the term boss doesn't fit well. But still, in very competitive institutions you need to deal with lots of politics, do post-docs over post-docs to get a lab of your own or at least be more in control of the research. I think a startup that is financially successful is a good shortcut to that. You can become a CTO and go whatever direction you want.