I think the actual education would be very beneficial. Most MBA schools now position themselves as very entrepreneurial. Oxford, for example, has a seed fund for startup ideas from MBA students.<p>The thing that puts me off doing an MBA is the time and the cost. One or two years is a long time to <i>not</i> act on an idea if you've already got some in your head. If you don't already have some startup ideas in your head and you're thinking of doing a MBA I would argue that you're not really a startup person. There are lots of people that want to be an "entrepreneur" but don't have any actual startup ideas.<p>The cost is my biggest worry though. Having a £50,000 dept with £700/month repayments really does put a dampener on the idea of bootstrapping a startup. Hence why so many MBA graduates end up doing investment banking or consulting.<p>Me - non-coder, lots of startup ideas, entrepreneur wanabee, business school interview in a week!
I'm a non-technical founder who's founded one startup, joined another, and am now an Advisor at TechStars - before I go back to B school to get an MBA. And that's <i>after</i> I did a business degree in undergrad.<p>To me, getting an MBA is all about option value. If I want to go to a big company, it's a prerequisite. If I want to do startups, it's not. If I want to jump back and forth, then it's a prerequisite again. I'm willing to pay $150,000 to have the option value of jumping back and forth for the thirty years after I graduate, not to mention the experience of the two years there, the network I'll have, and the other attendant benefits.<p>I wrote about this decision last week; maybe it'd be useful to some people here: <a href="http://www.sachinagarwal.com/why-this-startup-guy-is-going-back-to-busines" rel="nofollow">http://www.sachinagarwal.com/why-this-startup-guy-is-going-b...</a>
I don't get this either or thing. I got a BSc in Computing Science when I was a kid. I'm 30 now and preparing for the GMAT. I also keep abreast of the latest on the lean startup and on the fat startup. Why not learn it all?
Being in a start up is a game. We have an idea and we are playing the game to make that idea as successful as possible. We need tools in this game - engineers, lawyers, accountants etc.. are all tools. Some tools are more useful in the beginning than others. Some tools become more important as our startup matures.<p>Now MBA is this awesome general degree that teaches you a bit of everything - accounting, sales, some business law. This makes you a versatile tool! :D. The question is, do you know how to best serve a startup? What can you do? What do you want to do? How will you make up for your lack of experience in a certain area - can you learn quickly? Adapt?<p>Many startups these days start out with the core team being engineers - they're looking to build something, so it makes sense. That said, some startups may do well with a gritty MBA who can go out there and talk to tons of people to generate / prove ideas and report back to the engineering team; take care of accounting; HR stuff if need be; etc... basically it means being the CEO from day one without worrying about the title.<p>Is that what you're looking for or do you just want a cusy desk job as a junior manager? ;)
I think an MBA can be helpful in the right situation/startup, but in other situations it might not be needed or the person might need to unlearn some things. It's the debate between B-School and E-School (Entrepreneurship School advocated by Steve Blank).
Related Reading Which You Will Find Useful:
The Simple MBA Manifesto: Do We Really Need MBAs? A Presentation <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/pramitsingh/the-success-manual-do-we-need-mbas" rel="nofollow">http://www.slideshare.net/pramitsingh/the-success-manual-do-...</a>
Presentation Transcript is Available Here <a href="http://bighow.com/news/the-simple-mba-manifesto-do-we-really-need-mbaspresentation-transcript" rel="nofollow">http://bighow.com/news/the-simple-mba-manifesto-do-we-really...</a>
Do we need MBAs? A 5- part look <a href="http://bighow.com/tags/doweneedmbas" rel="nofollow">http://bighow.com/tags/doweneedmbas</a>
I was a founder at consecutive startups years ago and I recently got my MBA. One thing I can attest, if I had my MBA in the past, it would have helped to run the startups more productively and efficiently.
I don't think this debate will really be settled until we have actual data to deal with, which isn't likely to happen any time soon, because you'd have to observe the same people with, and without MBA's.