Which Universities Produce The Most Startup Founders? 🚀

What We're Showing

The top 10 undergraduate and graduate schools ranked by the number of alumni who have founded their own startups.

Ever year, PitchBook ranks universities across the world by the number of alumni entrepreneurs who have raised venture capital in the last decade, by undergraduate, graduate, and MBA programs.

Only founders whose companies received a round of venture funding between Jan. 1, 2013, and Aug. 1, 2024 were counted. Founders can attend multiple schools and may be counted towards multiple universities.

Data is updated as of August 30, 2024.

Stanford Is The Hotspot for Entrepreneurs

Stanford University boasts an impressive track record of producing startup founders in the past 10 years.

It ranks first in the graduate category, with over 4,000 founders having attended one of its graduate programs–the highest number across all three categories–and second in the undergraduate category. 

Notable founders from Stanford include OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who dropped out of school, and Robinhood co-founder Vladimir Tenev. 

UC Berkeley ranked first overall in the undergraduate category and was the top-ranked public school in the graduate category, coming in at fifth.

DoorDash’s founder and CEO Tony Xu and supply chain management company Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen did their undergrad at Berkeley.