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Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

qz.com

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Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#21

Post by LeifCarrotson »

api wrote: post #17
ryandrake wrote: post #15

The article stops just short of implying a causal connection between what school you go to and whether you're going to "found a unicorn" but come on! Maybe, just maybe , could it be that this deserves a little deeper look? Perhaps people who have the opportunity to go to one of these top schools have that opportunity because of some other structural advantage that also provides them the opportunity to found a unicorn…

They also likely acquire a lot of amazing connections at those schools.

Furthermore, their qualifications after graduation from these school are more respected regardless of the quality of the education described by the degree.

Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#22

Post by snarf21 »

ryandrake wrote: post #15

The article stops just short of implying a causal connection between what school you go to and whether you're going to "found a unicorn" but come on! Maybe, just maybe , could it be that this deserves a little deeper look? Perhaps people who have the opportunity to go to one of these top schools have that opportunity because of some other structural advantage that also provides them the opportunity to found a unicorn…

Obviously. I think the biggest benefit this group has is the safety to fail. I worked 40+ hours and was doing 12+ credits for my undergrad. When I graduated, I had massive loans and bills to pay. I wonder what I could have done if I had two years with no bills to work on something and zero debt looming.

Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#23

Post by corporateslave2 »

cylinder wrote: post #9
corporateslave2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better? It is just much easier for them to get funding. More funding -> More successes. Source: I know a ton of people who went to Stanford and who had zero trouble getting near unlimited funding. Also the purpose of this article is to appeal to the Indian reader base that is qz.com. They are writing articles to appease their demographics.

Amazes me that a low/no capital business model (software) combined with the hacker ethos was so readily and quickly hijacked by The Money People. You don't need this much money and a true entrepreneur dies inside everytime they give away a piece of their company.

I think most solutions are capital intensive.

The general business model is:

Build software that provides a service that loses a little bit of money on every transaction. Use VC capital to fund this.

Continue the model until volume is very high or some critical velocity is reached, creating a barrier to entry.

Slightly pivot the business model to profitability.

Profitable monopoly created.

Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#24

Post by mjevans »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #13
chronic6a5 wrote: post #2

This article will be downvoted because it goes against many peoples mental model that, if you work hard, you can be successful. Well, statistically, Stanford/Harvard/IIT graduates are more likely to be successful. If you go to Berkely or Georgia Tech, good for you, but the Stanford et al. grads are probably better.

What about us that don't go to top public schools?

Not independently wealthy / well off enough and not a 1 in million over-achiever who's able to overcome that.

Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#25

Post by CalChris »

tristanj wrote: post #6

This ordering is bunk because the author makes no attempt to normalize for student population. Larger schools have a massive advantage compared to smaller ones. Compare the University of California and MIT. University of California has 250,000 students and MIT has 11,000. After normalizing the data, MIT produces 1 unicorn per 1,200 yearly enrolled student, while UoC produces 1 unicorn per 13,900 yearly enrolled stude…

It isn't at all clear from the article (or from the source article either) whether it is talking about UC Berkeley (aka Cal) or the UC system. The source is British and might not see the difference. Cal is a fair comparison with Stanford, MIT, .... The UC system wouldn't be.

Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#26

Post by nostrademons »

snarf21 wrote: post #22
ryandrake wrote: post #15

The article stops just short of implying a causal connection between what school you go to and whether you're going to "found a unicorn" but come on! Maybe, just maybe , could it be that this deserves a little deeper look? Perhaps people who have the opportunity to go to one of these top schools have that opportunity because of some other structural advantage that also provides them the opportunity to found a unicorn…

Obviously. I think the biggest benefit this group has is the safety to fail. I worked 40+ hours and was doing 12+ credits for my undergrad. When I graduated, I had massive loans and bills to pay. I wonder what I could have done if I had two years with no bills to work on something and zero debt looming.

The easiest way to take care of this problem is to continue to live like you're in undergrad but take a well-paying job in finance or tech afterwards, work for 4-5 years, pay off your loans, and bank a lot of money. If you're earning $160K/year but living on $20K/year, debt goes down really fast.

You start later than someone who went to Stanford and comes from a wealthy, well-connected family. You're not going to be Mark Zuckerburg or Evan Spiegel and found a billion-dollar company at 22. But realistically, you're looking at late-20s, which is about when your Ph.D and M.D. friends are starting their careers and still gives you plenty of good productive years ahead of you. And the time you spend in industry is invaluable for learning how the world really works, which problems are really important, and all the other stuff they don't teach you in college.

Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#27

Post by throw2bit »

IIT grads get funded to study using taxpayers money in India and they migrate to the US. There is no use for the country funding them with high quality education. We should stop funding IITs with tax payers money which is of no benefit to the people or the country. India's brain drain.

Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#28

Post by snarf21 »

nostrademons wrote: post #26
snarf21 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously. I think the biggest benefit this group has is the safety to fail. I worked 40+ hours and was doing 12+ credits for my undergrad. When I graduated, I had massive loans and bills to pay. I wonder what I could have done if I had two years with no bills to work on something and zero debt looming.

The easiest way to take care of this problem is to continue to live like you're in undergrad but take a well-paying job in finance or tech afterwards, work for 4-5 years, pay off your loans, and bank a lot of money. If you're earning $160K/year but living on $20K/year, debt goes down really fast. You start later than someone who went to Stanford and comes from a wealthy, well-connected family. You're not going to be…

That would definitely work if you can find it, but it is pretty impossible to find a $160K/year coming out of the local state school. At least where I'm from....

Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#29

Post by Houshalter »

ryandrake wrote: post #15

The article stops just short of implying a causal connection between what school you go to and whether you're going to "found a unicorn" but come on! Maybe, just maybe , could it be that this deserves a little deeper look? Perhaps people who have the opportunity to go to one of these top schools have that opportunity because of some other structural advantage that also provides them the opportunity to found a unicorn…

Exactly. I've heard it said that you can remove all the classes and teachers from a prestigious university. Let the students do whatever they want. And they'd still do just as well.

I doubt it's just wealth. Those schools are fairly selective and difficult to get into beyond just financial reasons. Presumably the selected students are more likely to have higher IQs or higher conscientiousness or whatever.

Re: Most unicorn founders are graduates of Stanford, Harvard, and the IITs

#30

Post by nostrademons »

snarf21 wrote: post #28
nostrademons wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The easiest way to take care of this problem is to continue to live like you're in undergrad but take a well-paying job in finance or tech afterwards, work for 4-5 years, pay off your loans, and bank a lot of money. If you're earning $160K/year but living on $20K/year, debt goes down really fast. You start later than someone who went to Stanford and comes from a wealthy, well-connected family. You're not going to be…

That would definitely work if you can find it, but it is pretty impossible to find a $160K/year coming out of the local state school. At least where I'm from....

You don't do it directly. You find the best-paying job you can, work there, do some open-source work in your nights & weekends, and then start looking for a new job when you're about 6 months in, on the strength of your work experience & open-source portfolio. Repeat 2-3 times at roughly 1-year increments until one of the big firms comes knocking. I started at $8/hour at my first programming job and doubled my income every time I switched.

You may have to move - if there are no jobs in your area, go where the jobs are! Once you're past entry-level positions you can often get a new employer to pay for your move though.

The big secret about "elite" institutions is that they're constantly looking for signs that they fucked up about their judgment of a person, and are usually happy to rectify that if they see concrete information that they were wrong. This goes for universities (I know several people who totally slacked off in high school, got rejected by all the Ivies, went to a state school, did nothing but study in college, and then transferred back into an Ivy), for the big-5 tech companies (where oftentimes people will get in on the second try after a few more years work experience and demonstrable progress launching products for their current employer), and for venture capitalists (who will often pass on a company and then beg to be let back into a later funding round, at a much higher price, if it looks like a startup is taking off). The problem is that most people adjust their performance to the expectations of people around them. If you're not satisfied with where you are in life, act like the people who you want to be. Eventually they'll take notice and decide you're one of them.

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