People kinda underestimate how much the economy has changed, and with it, the demand for different businesses has ebbed and flowed. The postwar economy was deeply pragmatic for America, and our production lines could be leveraged by clever entrepreneurs to manufacture high-margin goods. The key to success in these years was material wealth; producing a lot of something meant you could make proportionally more money. Industrial logic still applied, at least for a little while.

But the demands for making a successful business has changed. The US economy financialized[0] and a lot of the value derived from physical innovation was supplanted by financial maneuvering. In simple terms, it became easier to make money with a contrived licensing scheme or asset-trading cabal than it was to make a good or desirable product. Reciprocally, investors became cagey with "real world" problem solvers and adopted a moonshot mentality, looking for equity in risky areas over safer but less profitable opportunities.

As a founder, this means that no, you do not need to be academically smart to compete against the largest businesses in America. But you do have to try like hell regardless, because if you don't make hay while the sun is shining Wall Street will eat you for breakfast and burp up what's left of your offices on a Craigslist ad.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financialization