Stanford Dropout Turned $120 Million Founder Says MBAs Are 'A Fraction Of What You Would Get From Building Your Own Thing For That 2 Years'
- - Stanford Dropout Turned $120 Million Founder Says MBAs Are 'A Fraction Of What You Would Get From Building Your Own Thing For That 2 Years'
Casey B. RennerDecember 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM
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Stanford Dropout Turned $120 Million Founder Says MBAs Are 'A Fraction Of What You Would Get From Building Your Own Thing For That 2 Years'
A sharp pushback against the MBA track is reshaping how the technology industry views graduate business school. The degree delivers far less value than two years spent building a company, Trilogy Software and ESW Capital founder Joe Liemandt recently told the "Big Deal by Codie Sanchez" podcast.
"It is a great two-year period to build up a set of good relationships, but no, there's nothing on the business knowledge that you're going to come out of there that is a fraction of what you would get from building your own thing for that two years," Liemandt said.
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How He Separates Entrepreneurs From MBA Graduates
Liemandt attended Stanford University before dropping out to launch Trilogy Software in 1989. Trilogy built software used by large enterprises and reached about $120 million in annual revenue at its peak.
Trilogy later spun off pcOrder.com, which went public during the dot-com boom. The company also created Trilogy University, an intensive internal training program for new hires, according to Harvard Business Review.
Liemandt later founded ESW Capital, a software-acquisition firm built around buying and turning around underperforming software companies.
He described differences he sees in how founders and MBA graduates evaluate ideas. "You're going to look at the spreadsheet and you're going to say, ‘That cell doesn't work, so the spreadsheet doesn't work. So I'm not going to do this idea,'" he told host Codie Sanchez.
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In contrast, he said entrepreneurs approach the same issue differently. "An entrepreneur looks at that cell and says, ‘I will change that cell. I will make that work,'" he said. "If you're going to be a builder and an entrepreneur, you're gonna go change reality."
MBA Earnings And Market Value
MBA programs remain attractive despite high costs. Recent Harvard Business School data show a median base salary of $184,500 for graduates who accepted offers and a $30,000 signing bonus.
A recent Graduate Management Admission Council survey projected a median salary of $125,000 for MBA graduates in the U.S., about $25,000 more than experienced direct-from-industry hires.
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This article Stanford Dropout Turned $120 Million Founder Says MBAs Are 'A Fraction Of What You Would Get From Building Your Own Thing For That 2 Years' originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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