They mention in the article that they had to move since his wife got a new job. So, they may not have the roots in the community. Also the local economy seems much worse than rest of the country (with unemployment being higher) and raising money in the condition is probably hard<p>Also, starting your own thing require a lot of skills/resources which few are capable of, with a straight out of college job and lots of years in the industry starting a business might seem more difficult than just hunting for a new job while working on a low paying one. And nobody said he was a smart MBA, he could be just a average guy (hard working one though) with an MBA