Hey everyone,
So many well-known tech founders come from top schools Stanford, MIT, Harvard, etc. It makes me wonder, is being academically brilliant actually a key to startup success? Or is it more about buisness acumen like in other industries ? You always hear the big names, Zuckerberg, Gates, the Google guys, and they all have elite academic backgrounds. But are there counter examples of founders who were more “street smart” than school geniuses.
But the demands for making a successful business has changed. The US economy financialized[0] and a lot of the value derived from physical innovation was supplanted by financial maneuvering. In simple terms, it became easier to make money with a contrived licensing scheme or asset-trading cabal than it was to make a good or desirable product. Reciprocally, investors became cagey with "real world" problem solvers and adopted a moonshot mentality, looking for equity in risky areas over safer but less profitable opportunities.
As a founder, this means that no, you do not need to be academically smart to compete against the largest businesses in America. But you do have to try like hell regardless, because if you don't make hay while the sun is shining Wall Street will eat you for breakfast and burp up what's left of your offices on a Craigslist ad.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financialization