Ask HN: Education level of successful tech founders?

#1

Post by outotrai » Tue, Feb 09, 2010, 2:04 PM UTC

What is the average highest level of education attained by those who have sold their technology-based companies for a personal gain of $10+ million?

Inspired by the Reddit AMA posted yesterday (man sold startup for $20 million, has Bachelor's degree), I began wondering how I could realistically do the same. As a college student, a very immediate issue is graduate school - to go or not to go? Naturally there are other factors, but I'm really wondering about statistics: how often do founders at each level of education succeed impressively but repeatably?

This seems like the kind of statistic that would interest the HN community, but I could not find a similar submission.

Re: Ask HN: Education level of successful tech founders?

#2

Post by icey » Tue, Feb 09, 2010, 3:18 PM UTC

Education can help you, yes.... but I've never heard anyone who succeeded say that their degree was pivotal in their success. They've all pretty well said it takes some smarts, some guts, and more hard work than ordinary humans should be able to accomplish.

(Of course, in some fields you must have a degree just to play, so YMMV)

Re: Ask HN: Education level of successful tech founders?

#3

Post by mos1 » Tue, Feb 09, 2010, 4:06 PM UTC

Grad school isn't just about in-class education, it's about making connections, opening doors, and demonstrating a certain level of seriousness about the endeavor.

If you have an MBA from HBS and an MS from MIT, there will be a lot of doors open to you that simply won't be available without those sorts of connections. This is not to say that they are requirements for achievement. They simply improve your odds of getting "lucky" at some future point in time.

That said, I shouldn't downplay the importance of the education aspect. The number of case studies I read and thought about during grad school did wonders for sharpening the way I think about my own business.