The MBA-to-VC pipeline stays a really actual factor. However that path is somewhat shakier than it as soon as was, in keeping with PitchBook reporting and new tutorial analysis.
Harvard positioned 50 of its 1,004 MBA graduates into VC roles in 2024, with a median beginning wage of $177,500. Stanford positioned round 30 from its smaller class. Greater than 10,000 Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton MBA alumni at present maintain senior positions at U.S. VC corporations, PitchBook knowledge reveals.
The MBA’s grip on enterprise capital is loosening, nevertheless, in keeping with Stanford professor Ilya Strebulaev, who discovered that 44% of mid-career enterprise professionals held MBAs within the early 2000s, in comparison with 32% immediately.
What’s driving the change? VC has advanced past conventional sectors into AI and {hardware}, the place technical expertise beats enterprise faculty credentials, so corporations are more and more scanning expertise from corporations like OpenAI and SpaceX somewhat than elite MBA applications. “There may be much less urge for food for MBAs at present,” government recruiter Will Champagne tells PitchBook.
College students haven’t gotten the memo but; Stanford’s VC membership nonetheless boasts 600 members out of the roughly 850 MBA college students on campus. They’re paying a steep value, too. Nabbing an MBA at a prime program can value greater than $200,000.