4 ms·

Art schools have minted more massive Unicorns than MIT

1971genocide 11y ago
Big surprise than art schools produce more leaders/CEOs than MIT which is a specialized engineering school ?
- replicatorblog 11y ago
  I was fairly surprised by the finding. Yes MIT is an engineering school, but is much more oriented around the startup lifestyle. They've got an annual entrepreneurship competition, a top 5 business school, and most importantly, a raft of super successful founder/graduates. I think the art school issue is a bit of a fluke, but surprised MIT isn't more like Stanford or Harvard in terms of presence.
  - gumby 11y ago
    Believe me MIT is well aware of their poor startup record. I donate enough that people from the development office visit me in person, and they have been worrying for decades that MIT grads go on to work for other people. When I was a student (80s) MIT was still basically anti-entrepreneurial (this despite Draper, EG&G, etc..even Symbolics and LMI) and instead focused around government R&D and policy. There is so much hysteresis in the system that this culture is very hard to change. A lot of the things you mention (startup competition) are surface phenomena. Stanford is far and away more deeply entrepreneurial (they were already a bit this way back in the early 80s -- think the Sun/Cisco era). As for Harvard, well, the reasons I chose not to go there still appear to apply.
h_o 11y ago
I don't think this matters. People who want to start businesses will start them - regardless of what school they go to. Sure it's an interesting insight, but don't get knocked by it. How many unicorns are there where the founder(s) didn't go to college? Plus, it was my understanding that the people who want it more are often less well off - and can't afford to go to these higher priced schools (M.I.T., Harvard etc); perhaps that's a point worth noting too. Less chips = less flips *chips referring to 'chips on shoulders'; flips referring to flipping companies
- akhilcacharya 11y ago
  Top schools generally are competitive or cheaper for low income families. I think this is meant to be surprising because people from lesser known instituons are more likely to fall victim to institutional elitism - Sand Hill Road VCs are generally not going to take a University of Oklahoma student as seriously as a Stanford student (at least that's my perception, may not be accurate).
- replicatorblog 11y ago
  Totally, hence we see startups from the U of Calgary and the Missouri School of Science & Technology. Thankfully we're in a world where amazing founder can come from anywhere.
  - akhilcacharya 11y ago
    Who went to MSST? Im a bit skeptical that school doesnt matter - but I'd agree with you completely if more founders came from my school, ha-ha.
    - replicatorblog 11y ago
      It definitely matters, but our point was that it's not an impenetrable barrier. Stanford/Harvard are still highly represented, but so are some lesser known state schools. Twitter/Square's Jack Dorsey is the MSST alum!
      - akhilcacharya 11y ago
        Good points. However, Dorsey did transfer to NYU, which is at least marginally better known nationally.

1971genocide 11y ago

Big surprise than art schools produce more leaders/CEOs than MIT which is a specialized engineering school ?

replicatorblog 11y ago
I was fairly surprised by the finding. Yes MIT is an engineering school, but is much more oriented around the startup lifestyle. They've got an annual entrepreneurship competition, a top 5 business school, and most importantly, a raft of super successful founder/graduates. I think the art school issue is a bit of a fluke, but surprised MIT isn't more like Stanford or Harvard in terms of presence.
- gumby 11y ago
  Believe me MIT is well aware of their poor startup record. I donate enough that people from the development office visit me in person, and they have been worrying for decades that MIT grads go on to work for other people. When I was a student (80s) MIT was still basically anti-entrepreneurial (this despite Draper, EG&G, etc..even Symbolics and LMI) and instead focused around government R&D and policy. There is so much hysteresis in the system that this culture is very hard to change. A lot of the things you mention (startup competition) are surface phenomena. Stanford is far and away more deeply entrepreneurial (they were already a bit this way back in the early 80s -- think the Sun/Cisco era). As for Harvard, well, the reasons I chose not to go there still appear to apply.

h_o 11y ago

I don't think this matters. People who want to start businesses will start them - regardless of what school they go to. Sure it's an interesting insight, but don't get knocked by it. How many unicorns are there where the founder(s) didn't go to college? Plus, it was my understanding that the people who want it more are often less well off - and can't afford to go to these higher priced schools (M.I.T., Harvard etc); perhaps that's a point worth noting too. Less chips = less flips *chips referring to 'chips on shoulders'; flips referring to flipping companies

akhilcacharya 11y ago
Top schools generally are competitive or cheaper for low income families. I think this is meant to be surprising because people from lesser known instituons are more likely to fall victim to institutional elitism - Sand Hill Road VCs are generally not going to take a University of Oklahoma student as seriously as a Stanford student (at least that's my perception, may not be accurate).
replicatorblog 11y ago
Totally, hence we see startups from the U of Calgary and the Missouri School of Science & Technology. Thankfully we're in a world where amazing founder can come from anywhere.
- akhilcacharya 11y ago
  Who went to MSST? Im a bit skeptical that school doesnt matter - but I'd agree with you completely if more founders came from my school, ha-ha.
  - replicatorblog 11y ago
    It definitely matters, but our point was that it's not an impenetrable barrier. Stanford/Harvard are still highly represented, but so are some lesser known state schools. Twitter/Square's Jack Dorsey is the MSST alum!
    - akhilcacharya 11y ago
      Good points. However, Dorsey did transfer to NYU, which is at least marginally better known nationally.