Salim Ismail
Exponential strategist and author of Exponential Organizations (2014) and ExO 2.0 (2023).
“There's still not a single MBA program in the world that can teach you how to build Uber. Every single MBA program teaches how to build a 20th century organization.”
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · October 2026
Context
The hosts were discussing data showing falling MBA applications and asked what should replace the degree. Salim argues business schools should become places where you build things and are credentialed on what you built.
Transcript
…healthier lifestyles, eating healthier, moving their body regularly, and optimizing sleep. People overlook that so often, but that sleep optimization is critical for our brain health. What we showed is that we were able to improve the brain age in 46% of those individuals. That's a powerful number.
…that's exactly where AI does its job really well. Hopefully, you know, it's not too long before we automate judgment, relationships, taste, and courage. So, Salim, you know, you've been talking about this for some time. So, what replaces the MBA? Is it just experience building a company yourself?
…Jevin's paradox means we'll just keep writing way, way, way more code for a long time to come. And experienced computer science folks and people that understand data structures and networking and so on are going to be badly needed for quite a while to come. But the MBA program has been out of date for a while. I've been noting for about 10 years that even 10 years now, like 2026, almost 2027, there's still not a single MBA program in the world that can teach you how to build Uber. Every single MBA program teaches how to build a 20th century organization. And so there's that problem because the curriculum can't be updated in this. The bigger problem, though, is you can't study business to build a bit to understand business. You really just have to go build it. And the opportunity because of the demonetization and democratization of anybody and their grandmother picking up A and using it to build a business has never, ever, ever been better.…
Yeah. Dave, when you and I were in school, a lot of our undergrad friends went and did their MBA degree. It was like the, you know, the most important degree you could get. You know, go get a job on Wall Street. Are you seeing MBA students inside of LINC, the LINC ecosystem?
Well, the venture fund, the deal negotiators and the capital raisers are mostly business school alums for sure. But we would take people in that role that have won one year and they're done or they were about to go to get their MBA, but they decided not to get it because the moment's too urgent.…
I mean, good riddance to slides and presentation. PowerPoint sucks, right? Like it is.
More from Moonshots with Peter Diamandis
