哈佛、斯坦福、麻省理工：最善于培养女性企业家的名校

    又到了返校季，有一个问题值得我们探讨：哪些顶尖大学能够给女学生提供最好的跳板，让她们在自己的公司中成为掌握最高权力的领导者？

    在过去5年中，有40位斯坦福大学（Stanford University）女性本科毕业生创立了公司，并获得了风险投资基金的支持。根据向私募股权和风投机构提供研究服务的PitchBook公司的数据，这一数值超过其他顶尖大学。斯坦福校友近年来开设，并获得风投基金支持的公司包括家居装饰网站One Kings Lane。其创立者为斯坦福毕业生苏珊•费尔德曼和艾莉森•平卡斯，后者是社交游戏商Zynga公司共同创始人马克•平卡斯的妻子。此外，另一位曾入选《财富》“40位40岁以下商界精英”的斯坦福校友，星巴克公司（Starbuck）董事克拉拉•史密斯，与前微软公司(Microsoft)工程师史蒂夫•加里蒂共同创立了社交媒体营销管理服务公司Hearsay Social。

    就MBA项目而言，哈佛大学（Harvard）有56位女性毕业生在过去5年中创立公司，并受到风投基金的支持，这在所有大学中名列第一。比如，哈佛大学MBA项目毕业生海莉•巴纳和凯蒂娅•比彻姆创立了化妆品和装饰品网站Birchbox，该公司在B轮融资中获得了6,000万美元。此外，卡特琳娜•雷克于2011年创立了女性个人造型网站Stitch Fix。这位创始人实际上在斯坦福和哈佛都拿到了学位。

    在2009年至今创立公司的女性本科毕业生榜单上，哈佛以29人名列第三，位列拥有31人的麻省理工学院（Massachusetts Institute of Technology）之后。而在PitchBook公司编撰的过去5年创立公司并获得风投基金支持的女性MBA榜单上，麻省理工学院以23人名列第三，落后于拥有31人的斯坦福大学。

    当然，这三所大学并不只是培养女性企业家。PitchBook公司还编撰了一份榜单，来评估大学培养的公司创始人总数（不论性别）。在这份榜单上，斯坦福大学、哈佛大学和麻省理工学院均位列前五。斯坦福大学再次高居本科生榜单之首，而哈佛大学也再次成为MBA榜单的霸主。两份榜单的结果证明，这些顶尖大学持续不断地培养成功的企业家，不论性别。

    It’s back-to-school season, so it’s worth asking which top universities offer their female students the best springboard to a powerful position at the top of their own company?

    Over the past five years, 40 women with undergraduate degrees from Stanford University have received venture capital funding for companies they founded, more than any other top school, according to data from PitchBook, which provides research to private equity and venture capital firms. Among the companies founded by Stanford alums receiving venture capital funding in recent years is flash-sale style home decor website One Kings Lane, which was founded by Stanford grad Susan Feldman along with Alison Pincus, the wife of Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus. Another Stanford grad, Clara Shih — a former Fortune “40 Under 40″ member who also serves on Starbucks’ board — co-founded social media marketing management service Hearsay Social with former Microsoft engineer Steve Garrity.

    When it comes to MBA programs, Harvard tops the list with 56 female founders receiving funding over the past five years. Companies springing up recently that are led by female Harvard MBA’s include beauty and grooming products delivery service Birchbox, founded by Harvard MBAs Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, which recently raised $60 million in a Series B funding. Another company on the list is personal styling for women website Stitch Fix, which was founded in 2011 by Katrina Lake, who actually has degrees from both Stanford and Harvard.

    Harvard also came in third on the list of undergraduate programs with 29 female-founder alums dating back to 2009, finishing behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its 31 female founders during that same period. MIT finished third on PitchBook’s list of MBA programs with female alums receiving VC funding over the past five years. MIT had 23 during that period, behind Stanford’s 31.

    Of course, those three schools aren’t just churning out female entrepreneurs. Stanford, Harvard and MIT also placed in the top five (for both undergraduates and MBAs) in a separate PitchBook list ranking schools by the number of company founders of all genders that they produced. That the schools fared well on both lists — again, Stanford topped the undergraduate list, while Harvard’s MBA program topped its list — shows that these top schools are simply consistently producing successfully entrepreneurial graduates of all genders.