I am thinking of going into business and would like to get an MBA. I have 8 years of experience writing software professionally and a background in CS. My goal is to learn about business, running them, scaling them, raising money, etc.
Will getting an MBA help me achieve this goal?
MBAs specifically teach knowledge which is not applicable to starting a new business. Empirical research is done on scaled businesses by definition so they often learn how to scale things once a bunch of foundations have already been set. Hence why a lot of people end up employed at big corporations—they can’t apply their skillsets to something much smaller.
But you can also learn about scaling by getting a position as a middle manager or lead in development and your knowledge would be more applicable.
If your goal is to start something but you don’t feel ready to just jump in (which I think you should do), you would get more value out of a program focused on designing a product which meets a demand like “Design Innovation” or industrial design. Not only for the applicable practice with your engineering skills but for the network.
To be clear: not saying you should do this. I would just start the thing. There are tons of incubators that can bridge the gap for you.