Having an engineering degree, says Jeff Seibert, founder of Increo Solutions, Inc., allows you to prototype your own idea. “You don’t have to choose” between an engineering degree and an economics one, quips Clara Shih, founder of Hearsay Labs. Having a nontechnical degree allows you to better explain complex technical issues in everyday language, she says. Though, while you do need to meet business needs, her partner Steven Garrity says that engineers are in demand and hard to hire.