Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#81

Post by fivecour » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:28 AM UTC

GeneBond wrote: post #25

Hi, I'm the original author. It's late for me, but if you have questions or comment for me, I will get back to you in the morning. The article has to do with this idea: "Software engineers deeply understand that you iterate your way to value through hundreds of failed attempts.” I by no means think software engineers are smarter or more virtuous. What I do think is that the high rates of fail from writing code teache…

Why software engineers in particular then, if scientists, inventors, artists, and many others are also known for iterating through and learning from their failures?

I also agree with others who said limiting analysis to the top 10 seems arbitrary, especially when you're covering mostly just the runaway outliers despite having the general overall claim of "why are software engineers better CEOs?" Does your analysis still hold when you expand your field of vision to the top 100, or top 1,000 companies?

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#82

Post by arethuza » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:35 AM UTC

anxrn wrote: post #6

sebmellen wrote: post #5

Does anyone find this methodology lazy, if not disingenuous? - Google/Alphabet's current CEO is a materials engineer [0] - Apple's current CEO is an MBA with a degree in industrial engineering [1]. Jobs, the founding CEO, was also not a software engineer. - Amazon's CEO, Bezos, was a software engineer [2], but it's widely known that he didn't do programming work for Amazon. I don't think he would consider himself a "…

Getting an MBA does not make you not-an-engineer. From the article [1] you linked, "He earned a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering". Also, the article is referring to founding CEOs, and hence referring to Page/Brin and Jobs/Wozniak, not Pichai and Cook.

"Getting an MBA does not make you not-an-engineer."

My view having known quite a few engineers who got MBAs (outside of the software world) is that it very much marked a point where people had decided they wanted to stop being a practising engineer and wanted to be someone who managed practising engineers (directly or indirectly).

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#83

Post by dalbasal » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:36 AM UTC

...because these companies are engineering companies?

7/10 of the biggest companies are software companies. 6/7 of the software companies were founded by engineers. Ma is an outlier.

Any of these other points might be true, but there's no empirical reason to expect that that they predict "success." The simpler explanation is that software company founders tend to be engineers. Financial companies tend to be run by financiers, etc.

Conclusions like "discovery of solutions via techniques like continuous A/B testing" may be true, but they're not required to explain why engineer founded companies dominate the top 10.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#84

Post by zheng_qm » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:44 AM UTC

         Internet Boom (Confounder)
         /             \
        /               \
       /                 \
 Software Engineers ----> Successful CEOs

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#85

Post by Number157 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:45 AM UTC

sebmellen wrote: post #5

Does anyone find this methodology lazy, if not disingenuous? - Google/Alphabet's current CEO is a materials engineer [0] - Apple's current CEO is an MBA with a degree in industrial engineering [1]. Jobs, the founding CEO, was also not a software engineer. - Amazon's CEO, Bezos, was a software engineer [2], but it's widely known that he didn't do programming work for Amazon. I don't think he would consider himself a "…

> Google/Alphabet's current CEO

Current, sure, but he showed up after Google was already successful. Becoming the CEO of Google made him successful, but he didn't make Google successful.

> Apple's current CEO...

Same thing.

> Jobs, the founding CEO, was also not a software engineer.

True but he co-founded it with a software engineer (Wozniak) who was arguably influential enough that he had the influence of a CEO if not the title.

> Amazon's CEO, Bezos, was a software engineer

He may not have held the title or had the function, but apparently he had the knowledge.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#86

Post by 0xfaded » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:49 AM UTC

One of the brilliant things about start-ups is that it allows you to step directly into the CEO shoes, and I'm amazed by and extremely grateful for the willingness of investors to allow first time founders to learn on the fly.

There is a hurdle though, that being a CEO of a startup is a full time job. A consequence is that if you happen to be a strong engineer with relevant skills in a cash strapped environment, you will come under strong pressure to be an engineer and perform poorly as a CEO unless you can raise the funds to hire a top-tier engineer.

Now I get to insert yet another gripe against Europe and its horrible environment for fundraising. I believe that the lack of technical CEOs is likely due to the lack of resources (both at startups and large companies) to develop them.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#87

Post by infinity0 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:49 AM UTC

From the slew of negative nitpicky comments here, it seems that Hacker News has been taken over by MBA and not technical types. Yes the nerds you looked down on in high school are doing way better than you, no hard feelings. :)

I agree with the article, but there's also a much simpler answer. To be successful in a world-changing sense, you have to actually care about making a good product. People get MBAs to make personal money, not to make world-changing products. People in these leadership roles got into software because they were interested in making cool products. Nowadays we see some people getting into software primarily to make some personal money - they won't succeed either, not in this world-changing leadership sense.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#88

Post by Number157 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:50 AM UTC

sebmellen wrote: post #8

anxrn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting an MBA does not make you not-an-engineer. From the article [1] you linked, "He earned a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering". Also, the article is referring to founding CEOs, and hence referring to Page/Brin and Jobs/Wozniak, not Pichai and Cook.

Yeah, but that doesn't make him a software engineer. And he never practiced as an engineer either [0]. I know plenty of people with physics degrees who ended up in accounting and people with arts degrees who ended up in software. Your degree doesn't determine your career or what you actually end up doing. [0]: From Cook's Wikipedia article: After graduating from Auburn University, Cook spent 12 years in IBM's persona…

> Also, needless to say, Jobs was not a software engineer either.

The article actually refers to Jobs & Wozniak.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#89

Post by etripe » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:50 AM UTC

NotPavlovsDog wrote: post #78

Primarily because the companies listed succeeded in capitalizing on Software Eating the World (Thiel). Software companies grew the way they did because, for a while, there was little regulatory capture, with tech doing what tech wanted, at least with the unicorns. Thiel, PG have commented on this. There was a recent article on HN from O'Reilly - the new wave of breakthroughs anticipated, in biotech, might not have ro…

Just a small nitpick: what you probably mean is there was little regulation. Regulatory capture is what occurs after regulation has been established, is seen as a hindrance and companies start currying favour by greasing the wheels. In a word, captured regulatory agencies are beholden to the industry. See also: Ajit Pai in the FCC, SOPA, Boeing and the FAA...

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#90

Post by Number157 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:50 AM UTC

sebmellen wrote: post #12

anxrn wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to have to ask this, but did you read the article? It explicitly addresses this. > *Wozniak obtained a master’s in computer science in 1987 and does code. Though Jobs was brilliant and technically savvy, Jobs clearly didn’t professionally code; he did contribute to creative and technical designs

Yes, I did, which is why I find it so disingenuous. I mean, looking at their chart, 7/10 do not have software engineer CEOs. And Wozniak was never CEO of Apple. "Contributing to creative and technical designs" does not make you a software engineer. LOL. Might as well give my grandmother the moniker as well (she's contributed to some creative designs for my startup). -- Also, it's a terribly written article. I mean, t…

> And Wozniak was never CEO of Apple.

In terms of title? No. In terms of function? Well sure, he's a co-founder.