Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, and a great teacher around MIT, often talks about the ideal start-up team. He affectionately talks about the "geek" technical founder and the "suit" business person getting together to found a great team. [Bill uses this more as a discussion point than anything, and acknowledges that there are many types of successful teams.]
This explanation sounds great to me and my fellow entrepreneurially minded MBA students at Sloan, and makes sense for a lot of reasons. But usually, the next question is "so, how can I meet a geek?!" I think that's the wrong question for MBAs or non-techies to ask. That mentality tends to lead to the classic story of an MBA wandering through a networking event looking for a "coder to work for his hot start-up" and probably gives the rest of us a bad name.
I think instead it is worth it to challenge the "geek" and "suit" theory a bit.
Yesterday morning over breakfast with Brad Feld and Bill, I asked Brad about this subject. Brad's response was that the best way for suits to meet geeks is for the suit to become a geek. Focus on an area that you are really interested in, and could imagine being interested in for the next 20 years of your life. At least the next decade. This has to be something you really really care about (if you can't do this, are you really fit to run a company?) Get to know it. For Mark Pincus at Zynga, that is games. For Brad, it is internet software. For each of us it is something different. Become an expert. Go to meet ups and conferences and events. Tell people about your interest. Tell anyone that will listen. Don't be afraid to admit when you don't understand.
You will be surprised at how much you are capable of learning, and how much of a geek you will become. You may even start to get noticed and respected as an expert by the real geeks. It is funny because Rob Poor, who I worked with this past January, said the same thing. Maybe they are on to something.
For me this is inspiration, and makes me even more excited to be transitioning from mechanical engineering to social internet startups, even though I sometimes feel technologically clueless. But instead of being overwhelmed, I am excited to become as geeky as an MBA "suit" can be.
