How Should Business Schools Prepare Students for Startups? – Jeff Bussgang and Michael Seibel

TL;DR

Michael Seibel argues business schools do a "criminally poor job" prepping students for tech startups, citing three recurring gaps in MBA YC applications: lack of a technical cofounder, insufficient commitment (conditional on funding/acceptance), and over‑reliance on research instead of ship‑then‑iterate (MVP with traction).

Key insights

• MBAs applying to YC should be doing disproportionately better than non‑MBAs because they have formal business training, yet they make the same foundational mistakes as other applicants, which is the c
• The three “red flags” in MBA applications are: (1) no technical cofounder and willingness to outsource core tech; (2) treating startup commitment as contingent on funding/YC acceptance; (3) prioritizi
• Research is important, but “research with a live product is far more valuable than research with a general survey.”