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

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

#71

Post by doctor_eval » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:00 AM UTC

rorykoehler wrote: post #52

replyifuagree wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it took a while for the Ballmer effect to kick in at Microsoft. Organizations have creating new things baked into their DNA, and it does resist corrosion. So I am curious to see if Cook can avoid squelching that like Ballmer. Operations is great to have and Cook is really good at it. Focus on ops can destroy the creative process though. I figure another 8 years and we'll know for sure (Ballmer clocked in at 1…

The M1 chip and moving Jony Ive on points towards Cook being in a different league to Ballmer.

Not just Ive, but Forstall too. That's gotta have taken guts.

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

#72

Post by zubairov » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:01 AM UTC

Good example of survivorship bias :)

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

#73

Post by PeterStuer » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:11 AM UTC

The best managers are those that could do the job they manage.

That is a recursive algorithm.

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

#74

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

Dubious. Software and computing itself as an industry has been thriving in the last decades, so it is natural the founders come from the same field.

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

#75

Post by Grustaf » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:17 AM UTC

replyifuagree wrote: post #13

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 "…

Regarding Alphabet, the article listed Sergey and Larry, arguably the leaders who oversaw google's meteoric rise. There is a note about Schmidt as well. Pretty much same comment for Apple, it remains to be seen if Tim Cook is another Jobs/Gates or if he is instead a Ballmer. Regarding Bezos, if you read the article you will find that you actually made the one of the major points in the article with your comment about…

> it remains to be seen if Tim Cook is another Jobs/Gates or if he is instead a Ballmer

No that doesn't remain to be seen. Tim Cook is clearly one of the most successful CEOs of all time. Compare Apple now to Apple when Jobs died.

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

#76

Post by antupis » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:18 AM UTC

kuu wrote: post #54

dogma1138 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what would that be exactly?

For me it's at least the following: - Attention to detail - Control of flow (if this then that) mentality - More binary thinking - Precision when describing (programming does not allow ambiguity) - A lot of frustration tolerance :) That's at least my experience

Also iteration.

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

#77

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:19 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 "…

"Does anyone find this methodology lazy, if not disingenuous?"

Yes.

The original HN title was something like "Software engineers make the best CEOS, if measured by market cap".

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

#78

Post by NotPavlovsDog » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:20 AM UTC

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 room for engineer CEOs, nor the unicorn growth of software-based start-ups.

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

#79

Post by finchisko » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:21 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 "…

I think, that is the power of word "many". If the claim was "1% of all CEOs are sw engineers", it wouldn't be that impressive, even though 1% may be actually quite lot of people (many). :)

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

#80

Post by tinco » Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 9:23 AM UTC

GeneBond wrote: post #56

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 "…

Hi, I'm the original author. The point of the article is as follows: there is clearly a trend towards top market-cap companies being founded by software engineering CEOs, but why? The data regarding the trend is pretty clear. I believe there are two reasons: 1. Software has become a global form of super infrastructure that facilitate scaling, but there's more going on. 2. I believe that guys like Zuckerberg, Bezos, M…

8/10 companies on your list are software companies, of those 7/8 have software engineer CEO's. The only thing you've shown is that successful software companies are often led by software engineers. I bet you'll find similar patterns in other industries. Who better to have visionary leadership than an engineer who grasps the industry perfectly.

I'd love to believe that software engineers make better CEO's in general, but you'd have to show me a list of companies that became successful only after hiring an ex-SE CEO, and preferably in another industry than information processing.