Where Did Successful VC-Backed Entrepreneurs Go To School?

If you were asked where the most venture capital backed entrepreneurs went to college, which universities would show up in your top five?

As a guess, you would most likely put the Massachusetts Institute of Technology high, as well as perhaps Stanford, Harvard, and other Ivy League or high academic schools.  After all, that’s where the best and brightest go, right?

Well, here’s the list according to Pitchbook’s ranking of alumni who founded companies that received a first round of venture capital funding from 2010 to the third quarter of 2013.

In first place is Stanford at 190, followed by UC Berkeley at 160, and the University of Pennsylvania at 131.  The rest of the top 10 include Harvard at 124, MIT at 115, Cornell at 110, University of Michigan at 93, University of Texas at 80, Carnegie Mellon at 79, and Indian Institutes of Technology at 77.

Which university surprises you the most?  If you’re an American or European, it’s probably the Indian Institutes of Technology at number 10.  Well, if you are one of those individuals, you’re about 20 years behind the times.  India has been in a technology boom for at the least the past couple of decades.

How does the 2013 list compare to prior years?  Here’s a comparison of how the top 10 list looks from 2010 to now.

• In 2010, the top three university backgrounds were Stanford at 36, Harvard at 23, and Cornell at 21.
• In 2011, the top three university backgrounds were the University of Pennsylvania at 56, Stanford at 54, and UC Berkeley at 44.
• In 2012, Stanford regained the top spot at 66, followed by UC Berkeley at 54, and the University of Michigan at 39.

Any surprises beyond the emergence of the Indian Institutes of Technology? Well, one thing is pretty clear.  Entrepreneurs that went to Stanford University had the highest likelihood of getting venture capital funding.  In three of the four years covered, individuals out of Stanford held the top spot.

Overall, individuals out the Ivy League, the Big Ten, and the Pac-12 lead the entrepreneurial group of individuals in terms of getting their businesses funding by venture capital companies.  What is interesting is the emergence of the Indian Institutes of Technology as a clear competitor to American universities’ dominance.