Best Business Schools For VC-Backed Startups

Stanford-founded SoFi has raised more than $1.38 billion in venture backing since 2011. That $1.38 billion is more than totals at 12 of the top 25 schools on PitchBook’s list. Pictured are SoFi co-founders Dan Macklin (L) and James Finnigan – Ethan Baron photo

PitchBook also broke out data to track ventures with women as founders or co-founders. Predominantly, there was not much change in the school rankings. HBS topped the list with 181 women founders or co-founders behind 167 ventures with more than $3.2 billion in VC backing. Stanford’s GSB had 102 women found or co-found 97 companies, raising over $1.5 billion. Columbia Business School jumped from seventh in the overall rankings to third, with 69 women on founding teams at 68 ventures raising $333 million. Interestingly, Israel’s Tel Aviv University ranked 12th with 187 entrepreneurs on the overall list but failed to make the top 20 on the list of women founders.

In the aggregate, the data further confirms entrepreneurship, venture capital, and Silicon Valley does not create an equal playing field for men and women. Despite growth in representation of women at many elite B-schools over the years, entrepreneurial representation remains low. While admittedly not an apples-to-apples comparison, the 21 schools to be included on PitchBook’s report had 775 women founders (less than 12% of the aggregate of the overall ranking) and 733 companies (just over 12% of the total from the overall ranking). What’s more, the total $8.8 billion in VC backing raised by the 775 women is a just 8.9% of the nearly $100 billion on the overall list.

HBS ALSO TOPPED THE LIST FOR CREAING THE MOST UNICORNS

Harvard Business School again topped the list of ventures deemed as unicorns — firms valued at $1 billion or more — with 10 companies and 14 founders and co-founders. INSEAD snuck up the list, claiming seven unicorns with eight founders or co-founders. Wharton and Stanford’s GSB each stake claim to four unicorns. All told, 48 MBAs are behind 36 unicorns that received funding over the past decade. Eisenmann says this particular portion of the report is what “most excites” him because “these firms are such important engines of innovation and job growth.”

Over the past decade, 629 MBA founders or co-founders have navigated exit strategies for 570 ventures, totaling more than $71 billion in exit deals. The usual suspects dot the top of the list. Some 134 HBS affiliated ventures were sold for an aggregate price tag of $16.8 billion. While Stanford GSB claims less ventures to be sold (66), their purchasers have placed greater value on the acquisitions at $19.1 billion in exit deals. MIT Sloan-founded ventures also had a particularly high total of $11.2 billion in exits for 49 deals. On average, MIT Sloan ventures were sold at about $228 million, while Stanford and Harvard ventures were sold at a clip of about $180 million and $125 million, respectively.