
The Startup MBA  - peter123
http://venturehacks.com/articles/startup-blogs
======
pg
I'd say the startup MBA is starting one.

I don't mean that just as a metaphor, either. I wouldn't be at all surprised
if it one day starting a company is considered an acceptable educational
experience, in the same way an internship or apprenticeship is.

~~~
netcan
I would like to hear a great public speaker put that in to the right words.

It seems perfectly natural to hear currently successful people recall the
learning experience of running a business early in life. It's seems perfectly
natural that if you meet a 21 year old that has been running a business for
some time, you will expect future success from them. This is obviously due to
the (a)educational value of these activities & (b) what personality traits
these suggest (It is usually not because this business is especially
successful). You can speculate about which one is dominant, but (a) is
unlikely to be insignificant. Already this sounds like a discussion about the
value of going to a top Uni.

Like I said, I think a good speaker could take a friendly audience through
something like this thought process & come to the conclusions that spending
time & money running a business early on is valuable.

But if it comes to making a practical decision based on the above it quickly
starts to feel radical. A proactical decision could be to take the time &
money it takes to attend University & spend it creating a business. If the
educational & associated benefits are similar to a University education, there
are two outcomes. (1) The business fails - Education is acquired (2) The
business succeeds - Education is acquired + the business can be sold or
operated.

The risk doesn't seem _that_ big.

Where I live (Australia) International Undergraduates typical need are:
20k-30k USD * 3-5 years. Students are often from Malaysia, Indonesia, China &
India.

60k - 150k buys you a fairly substantial education business experience in
these countries. But even some place like England, it is substantial.

In essays, PG implies "risking" about a year and little or nothing out-of-
pocket. That is an order of magnitude less "risky" then University typically
is.

The logical case is there. What's needed is the emotional resonance. I don't
think it applies only to startups in the YC sense.

------
chime
Hate to be negative but reading blogs by accomplished and knowledgeable
entrepreneurs does not an MBA make. Please stop devaluing the MBA degree by
using it willy-nilly. This would be like linking to authors on arXiv and
saying "The Physics PhD."

On the flip side, I think this is a pretty good list though it could use some
diversity. One blog I like is <http://sivers.org/blog> \- Derek is a coder at
heart but manages a very popular music storefront ( www.cdbaby.com ). Blogs
like his may not tell you how to sell your company but will encourage you to
keep going, despite all technical difficulties.

Reading what the VCs say is great, but ONLY reading what VCs say is setting
yourself up for failure and narrowing down your perspective.

~~~
nivi
There is a lot to be learned from a lot of "MBA" professors including Drucker,
Christensen, Pfeffer, Ackoff, and more. And there are a lot of great graduates
of MBA programs.

But the MBA programs have already de-valued themselves into the garbage can.
The burden is on MBA programs to prove that they are valuable as these blogs,
not the other way around.

~~~
ojbyrne
I like venturehacks (actually a lot) but blogs in general have just as much
"de-valued themselves into the garbage can." At least when you are in an MBA
program you receive information from different disciplines (HR, Strategy,
Operations, etc, etc.) With blogs you first have to get past the fact that the
top 20 are just one big echo-chamber.

------
s_baar
As a not-so-famous blogger once said, the government will give you 200k of
debt to go to college, but not to start a business. For some people, one might
be more beneficial than the other.

~~~
duncanj
You're right. The government will give you $1500k of debt to start a business.
[http://www.sba.gov/services/financialassistance/sbaloantopic...](http://www.sba.gov/services/financialassistance/sbaloantopics/7a/index.html)

------
zokiboy
I read 90% listed. Good read. I would suggest one more:
<http://marketingstartups.com/>

~~~
teej
I read a fair number of them too, but it worries me. Between my feed reader,
twitter, and HN, I feel like I'm in a startup echo chamber. I need to
diversify my knowledge generating assets.

~~~
zokiboy
Learn to use these resources effectively. It can feel overwhelming. Tip: limit
time for feed reading/twitter/HN... if you have a limited time you'll use it
better.

