I think many people on this thread don't understand the importance of "mission". Mission plays a big role in hiring the best talent - without a mission, you are like a rudderless ship. You may make money in the short-term but you are not building a great company for the future.
"So, contrary to the article, I think that there are plenty of people from investors to founders to employees who are simply chasing a buck. So much so, that from outside SV (and from many quarters within), it has become the understood ethos of the valley."
Those VCs are not AZ16 + those startups are not the future facebooks or googles of the world.
We are hiring software engineers, tools engineer, devops engineer, front end engineer etc. in engineering roles. We are also looking for a project manager, graphics designer and PR Manager.
We are a small team of 20+ based out of Palo Alto, CA. Our goal is to make it easy for Java developers to build Big Data/Hadoop apps. We are looking for people who have worked on hard Big Data/Hadoop problems. We are well funded (seed $2.5M + Series A $10M) and backed by AZ16, Ignition Ventures, Battery Ventures etc. Check out our careers page.
I simply don't understand the obsession of founders with getting into YC. If you are a founder and you are really passionate about an idea, you simply don't have time to think about "how to game the system and get into an incubator". You have more important things to think about - like product-market fit, hiring the right people etc. etc. In Aileen's Lee recent article about unicorns or billion dollar startups - 2 out of 39 were YC companies, the rest 37 were not.
If MBA is such a negative hiring signal (for startups) - why do I see so many MBAs in startups? The data shows that there are as many MBAs as PhDs or Masters. (% working in startups vs total pool).
Just like a degree in computer science teaches you the inner workings of a computer, a degree in business administration teaches you how to run a business. How can that knowledge be invaluable in a startup?
I do believe that certain segment (including the author) of the population has a strong negative bias against MBAs but majority aren't... Most mature+experienced tech founders understands the value of an MBA degree and even if they don't, they treat it as any other degree...