Oct 7, 2024

Which schools have the most startup founders? PitchBook’s 2024 ranking is in. PitchBook — a database for mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital — has released its 2024 list of the world’s best university programs for startup founders. There are no surprises at the top. For MBA programs, three U.S. powerhouses claimed the top three spots: Harvard University had a founder count of 1,881 over the last decade, followed by Stanford University at 1,189 and University of Pennsylvania at 1,147. For graduate programs, Stanford flipped with Harvard for the very top with 4,214 alumni founders compared to 3,716 at Harvard. Massachusetts Institute of Technology came in third with 2,834. PitchBook compiles its annual list by tallying the number of alumni from each school who have founded capital-backed companies. This year, it based its analysis of more than 167,000 VC-backed founders. Pitchbook ranks universities based on MBA, Graduate Program, and Undergraduate founders, compiling three distinct lists. It also compiles lists of universities based on the number of female founders and European schools at all three academic levels. TOP UNIVERSITIES FOR MBA FOUNDERS Pitchbook’s 2024 list evaluates 50 MBA programs from around the world. Its annual ranking is based on the number of alumni founders whose companies received a first round of venture funding over the last 10 years. It also tracks universities around the world by how much first-round investment their founders have earned over that time period. Data used comes from the PitchBook Platform or is collected from publicly available and primary sources. PitchBook’s Top 10: MBA Founders Rank $10.92 In the last decade, Harvard MBAs have founded 1,729 companies raising at total $79.4 billion in capital. Its highest earning company is Northvolt at $6.9 billion followed by Generate at $4.3 billion and Kavak at $2 billion. Stanford’s MBAs have founded 1,077 companies in the same time frame, raising $68 billion. OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, has raised $10.3 billion since its founding in 2015. Rounding out the top five MBA programs by alumni founders are No. 3 University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School where its 1,147 MBAs founded 1,053 companies raising a total of $40.2 billion; No. 4 France’s INSEAD with 916 MBA founders, 841 companies and $23.8 billion in capital; and No. 5 Columbia University Business School with 835 MBA founders, 782 companies, and $26.2 billion in capital. Pitchbook further narrows down its MBA list to break out the number of female founders. Harvard again tops this metric with 384 female MBA founders, 365 companies and $7.7 billion in raised capital. Its top earning companies by female founders include Everly Health with $465 million and Pollen with $351 million. Stanford comes in second with 233 female founders, 219 companies and $11.5 billion raised. Its highest earning company is Kavak at $2 billion. Click to page 5 to see the full Pitchbook list by number of female founders. GOOD B-SCHOOLS ARE GOOD FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP Not surprisingly, the top-ranked MBA programs in the world are good at making founders. The top two PitchBook MBA programs for producing founders also topped Poets&Quants’ composite ranking of the best MBA programs in the U.S. : Stanford GSB at No. 1 and Harvard Business School at No. 2. Columbia University Business School (No. 5 on Pitchbook’s list) ranked fourth on P&Q’s MBA ranking. U.S. schools dominate the MBA list with 31 out of the 50 evaluated. Five countries have three universities apiece on the list including China, France, India, Israel, and the United Kingdom. Spain has two schools ranked while Brazil and Canada each have one. TOP UNIVERSITIES FOR GRADUATE FOUNDERS Pitchbook’s graduate list takes into account a university’s founders from any graduate-level program which may or may not have anything to do with business education. This may include a master’s in management, or in computer science, or in engineering. 2024’s list evaluates 101 universities from around the world. PitchBook’s Top 10: Graduate Founders Rank $35.48 Again, U.S. universities dominate the list accounting for more than half (53 total). United Kingdom had the next highest number of universities at 9 followed by Israel with 6. Sweden and France each had 5 universities, Canada had 4, and three countries each had 3 – China, Denmark, and the Netherlands. In terms of female graduate founders, Harvard has the most at 676. They founded 613 companies in the last decade and raised $15.5 billion in capital. Stanford comes in second with 584 female founders, 490 companies, and $20.1 billion raised. TOP UNIVERSITIES FOR UNDERGRADUATE FOUNDERS At the undergraduate level, two schools in the San Francisco Bay area top the list: University of California-Berkeley is first with 1,811 founders, 1,642 companies, and $59.7 billion raised. Stanford University came second with 1,547 alumni founders, 1,397 companies and raised $80.1 billion on first-round venture capital investment. We find the next three schools on PitchBook’s undergraduate ranking on the east coast. Harvard University had 1,352 founders, 1,222 companies, and $56.98 billion raised to earn the No. 3 spot. University of Pennsylvania was No. 4 with 1,197 founders, 1,099 companies, and $52.87 raised. Massachusetts Institute of Technology came in fifth with 1,175 founders, 1,049 companies, and $53.64 billion raised. PitchBook’s Top 10: Undergraduate Founders Rank