Top Universities Producing Startup Founders

Which universities in America produce the most venture capital-backed startup founders? Look no further than Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University, according to PitchBook. As PitchBook writes, “Great entrepreneurs can come from anywhere, but some universities have a truly exceptional track record of producing future entrepreneurs. PitchBook’s annual university rankings compare schools by tallying up the number of alumni entrepreneurs who have founded venture capital-backed companies. The undergraduate and graduate rankings are powered by PitchBook data and are based on an analysis of more than 144,000 VC-backed founders.”

In fact, among Pitchbook’s universities in America (non-American universities were removed) producing the most VC-backed startup founders are the vast majority of America’s elite universities. Among the top 25 are, in order: Stanford University (#1), University of California, Berkeley (#2), Harvard University (#3), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (#4), University of Pennsylvania (#5), Cornell University (#6), University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (#7), University of Texas at Austin (#9), Yale University (#10), University of California, Los Angeles (#11), Princeton University (#12), Columbia University (#13), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (#14), University of Southern California (#16), University of Wisconsin – Madison (#17), New York University (#18), Brown University (#19), Duke University (#20), Carnegie Mellon (#22), Northwestern University (#23), University of Washington (#24).

And, yes, each of the eight Ivy League institutions made the list — as did the vast majority of the highest ranked schools in the annual US News & World Report college ranking. So remember that private high school counselor who tried to gloss over the fact that so many of America’s Fortune 500 CEOs attended our nation’s elite universities? Well, he was misleading his readers then. And if he were to suggest that many VC-backed startup founders did not also hail from America’s elite private universities (and top public universities), he’d be misleading his readers again. Let’s see if he ever does try to make that argument. Stay tuned!