I thought this was a good article but one of your points touches on one of the reasons why purely engineer-driven start-ups fail: no business sense. I agree that the MBA-types need to stay away from the engineers on a day-to-day basis, but I've seen too many start-ups shoot themselves in the foot because they launch a product without any market research and no understanding of how to make partnerships that will help them scale.
Good luck with whatever you do next.
...why purely engineer-driven start-ups fail: no business sense.
I'm not sure how you managed to draw that conclusion. His bonus point is that the CTO didn't even do work, that's hardly engineer-driven. And they had a Stanford MBA, who was apparently a drain during product development.
Most successful technology startups are engineer-driven. Google is the ultimate example of just how far a couple engineers can go without any "business sense".
Who was it at Google who had the sense to clone Overture's business model, I wonder.
It was Omid. He put his job on the line and the company when he bet on AdWords.
An MBA. The average MBA isn't the kind of person you want, but a really bright MBA can be a game changer if they stay out of your hair.
Nope. Also, it's not a clone in any meaningful sense.
AdWords was invented by Eric Veach, formerly of Pixar, wasn't it?
What does it mean to invent a product? Adwords is just a name. The actual system was built and rebuilt and improved many times. Eric did do a lot to make it a success though -- he's part of the reason why Google makes so much more money than Yahoo.
P.S. I added a "bonus" at the bottom of the article, which was the first thing I remember that really frustrated me at the startup I joined.