Ask HN: Is there a list of all the YC-backed founders with education details?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2350875

by AdamTReineke • 15 years ago

7 6 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'd be curious to see a list of all the founders of YC-backed companies, particularly with info where they went to school and the degree they got (or didn't). Is there a correlation between the level of education of the founders and the success of a startup?

swGooF• 15 years ago

I would also be interested in something like this.

ig1• 15 years ago

Here's one I wrote earlier for British YC companies with a few updates:

Cambridge: Immad Ahkund (Heyzap), Jude Gomila (Heyzap), Rahul Vohra (Rapportive), Martin Kleppman (Rapportive), Sam Stokes (Rapportive), Ian Hogarth (SongKick), Pete Smith (SongKick), Michelle You (SongKick)

Imperial: Tim Davey (SnapTalent), Sumon Sadhu (SnapTalent), Niall Smart (Echodio), Nathan Chong (NewsLabs), Jof Arnold (FitFu)

Oxford: Peter Nixey (Clickpass), Harjeet Tagger (Auctomatic), Kulveer Taggar (Auctomatic)

Bristol: Tom Riley (Fabricly)

LSE: Ari Helgason (Fabricly)

Southampton: Benjie Gillam (FitFu)

Kent: Mike Laming (Propable)

Anglia Ruskin University: Peter Clark (Still in stealth?)

Newcastle-upon-tyne: Einar Vollset (ReMail)

No university: Michael Ossareh (HeySan)

It's not comprehensive and I wrote it from memory, but it's indicative that there is some level of correlation (Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Bristol and LSE are all generally ranked as "top-tier" universities).

For personal experience I'd say Cambridge graduates are far more likely to found startups than those from other universities. I was at Cambridge StartupWeekend a week or so ago and there were probably 20-30 students from Cambridge university there.

Serene• 15 years ago

Check http://ycpages.info/people

I like this visualization of America's richest people that shows some patterns:

http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/18/billionaire-social-mapping-...

It shows that all those with a net worth over 5.5 bln got graduate degrees or went to prestigious schools, or both

willgodfrey• 15 years ago

Correlation doesn't prove causation....?

Did they go to prestigious schools and get graduate degrees because they were rich, or did they become rich because they went to prestigious schools and got graduate degrees?

The visualization is interesting, no doubt, but I found it to have too little detail to really be able to draw any conclusions from.

JoshKalkbrenner• 15 years ago

Thank You! I'd like to see this too.

rabble• 15 years ago

This is the kind of question which should be asked over in Quora, because you can have a wiki edited list of schools.

Ask HN: Is there a list of all the YC-backed founders with education details?

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