this is simply false, generally. This would have been accurate: "doing a startup funded by TechStars gives someone way more credibility than an MBA, within the population that reads Hacker News." --- which is about, oh, i don't know .01% of the world's population. A top-5 MBA (most especially, one from HBS) opens doors for you in every industry, on every continent. YC/TS makes you the cool kid at parties in SoMa. Let's try and keep some perspective here.

Based on the assumption that the person rating your credibility isn't at BIGCO, but at somewhere else in/near the startup sphere.

It is impossible to overstate how much you are underestimating the reach, influence, and prestige granted to graduates of HBS.

Not saying it should matter (I've seen how the sausage is made), but it does matter to the billions of people who consider it to be the best of the best, almost none of whom have ever heard of Tech Stars.

Even in the startup community TechStars isn't that well known. TechStars, YC, etc. are well known among a certain clique within the startup community, but it's all too easy to forget that most tech startup founders will never have heard of them.

Statements like this demonstrate that the anti-education movement has reached the tipping point.

There is no way on earth that placement in a somewhat obscure accelerator/mentorship program offers more "credibility" than an MBA from what is arguably the most prestigious post secondary institution on the planet. And that assertion requires no support or justification.

You don't need a Harvard MBA to be successful, but having one will open more doors than you can imagine.