Top Universities That Produce the Most Startup Founders

Launching a startup takes grit, resilience, and a great idea. The road to success is tough—more than 90% of startups fail and don’t make it. But choosing the right university can give aspiring founders a real edge. Schools with strong reputations, top-tier education, and powerful networks can increase your chances of success.

Back in 2022, we explored why so many startup founders came from Stanford University. At that time, Stanford led the pack with 1,427 founders. UC Berkeley was right behind with 1,406, and Harvard came third with 1,184. Fast forward two years later, and Berkeley has taken the lead as the best undergraduate college for startup founders while Standford remains the best graduate school for entrepreneurship.

Every year, PitchBook ranks universities based on the number of alumni who’ve raised venture capital in the past decade. The rankings cover undergraduate, graduate, and MBA programs. In its latest 2024 rankings, UC Berkeley has reclaimed the top spot.

UC Berkeley: The Best Undergraduate College For Startup Founders

According to PitchBook’s 2024 rankings, UC Berkeley reclaimed the number one spot with a total of 1,811 founders who have raised venture capital in the last decade. Berkeley is particularly strong in its undergraduate programs, often leading or competing closely with Stanford in the number of alumni who go on to become successful entrepreneurs.

Notable UC Berkeley alumni who have founded startups include Tony Xu, the CEO and founder of DoorDash, and Ryan Petersen, the founder and CEO of Flexport. The university’s proximity to Silicon Valley and its strong entrepreneurial culture contribute to its high output of successful startup founders.

Visual Capitalist’ Kayla Zhu created an infographic showing the top 10 undergraduate and graduate schools based on alumni who started their own companies. The data includes only founders whose companies secured venture funding between January 1, 2013, and August 1, 2024, and was updated as of August 30, 2024. Founders who attended multiple schools were counted for each.

Top Universities for Startup Founders – Click to expand

Stanford University: The Best Graduate School for Entrepreneurs

Stanford, located in Silicon Valley, remains a powerhouse for producing startup founders. It leads the graduate category, with over 4,000 alumni founders, and ranks second for undergrads.

Stanford’s notable founders include Sam Altman, who co-founded OpenAI after dropping out, and Robinhood’s co-founder Vladimir Tenev.

Meanwhile, UC Berkeley tops the undergraduate category and is the highest-ranked public school for graduate founders, coming in fifth. Some of Berkeley’s successful alumni include Tony Xu, CEO and founder of DoorDash, and Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport.

Both Stanford and UC Berkeley benefit from their proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area, which PitchBook named the best startup city in the world.

Among the top 10 schools, three non-American universities made the list: Tel Aviv University in Israel, and the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford in the UK.

Below is the list of the top 10 undergraduate schools by number of alumni founders.

This table shows the top 10 graduate schools by number of founders.

Top Universities That Produce The Most Startup Founders In The World

Below is the global ranking of top universities producing the highest number of startup founders, categorized by undergraduate, graduate, and MBA programs. The list also includes filters for school size, location, and whether the institution is publicly or privately funded. As part of PitchBook’s 2024 rankings, universities are compared based on the number of alumni entrepreneurs who have raised venture capital over the past decade. The data comes from PitchBook’s extensive analysis of nearly 167,000 VC-backed founders.

Below is the list of the world’s top 10o undergraduate colleges by the total number of startup founders.

World’s Top 100 Undergraduate Colleges That Produce The Most Startup Founders

Below is the list of the world’s top 10o graduate schools by the total number of startup founders.

World’s Top 100 Graduate Schools That Produce The Most Startup Founders

Methodology

The 2024 PitchBook’s university rankings are determined by the number of founders whose companies secured venture funding between January 1, 2013, and August 1, 2024. This analysis draws from PitchBook’s data on global VC investments and the educational backgrounds of nearly 167,000 founders.

Since companies can have multiple founders, and founders may attend more than one institution, a single company or founder can be counted for multiple universities.

The graduate category includes all founders with advanced degrees, such as master’s or PhDs, while the MBA category specifically tracks founders who earned an MBA from the listed institution.