While most MBA graduates pursue high-paying corporate roles, a notable number launch entrepreneurial ventures immediately after graduation. Among top MBA programs such as Harvard Business School (HBS) and Stanford GSB, entrepreneurship is the chosen career path for a significant portion of the Class of 2024.
MBA Graduates Pursuing Entrepreneurship: Starting a Business
Many MBA students consider becoming entrepreneurs, and business schools offer a robust array of entrepreneurial programs to cater to this interest. While many MBA graduates start businesses after working for several years, some students start companies soon after graduation. Here is a chart showing the percentage of MBA graduates who launched businesses immediately after graduation.
Stanford GSB has the highest percentage of Class of 2024 graduates who started a business, followed by HBS and MIT Sloan. Stanford’s high rate of entrepreneurship suggests a deeply embedded entrepreneurial culture, likely driven by its proximity to Silicon Valley’s strong venture ecosystem. Likewise, the high rates of entrepreneurship at both HBS and MIT Sloan suggests a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem in Cambridge.
Since MBA programs have different graduating class sizes, it is also valuable to examine the number of Class of 2024 graduates who are starting entrepreneurial ventures.
Among MBA Class of 2024 graduates, HBS and Stanford GSB have the most graduates starting a business, followed by Wharton, MIT Sloan, Booth, and CBS. It is interesting to note that M7 programs represent six of the seven MBA programs with the most graduates starting businesses upon graduation. It suggests that these M7 programs excel at providing a favorable environment for MBA students to explore new ventures. These six MBA programs are also located in or near big cities, which likely offer entrepreneurs easy access to talent, resources and customers in these cities.
Looking at the entrepreneurship career data over the last three years, HBS and Stanford GSB have actually been growing the number of graduates starting a business: HBS grew from 100 in the Class of 2022 to 138 in the Class of 2024. Likewise, Stanford GSB grew from 86 in the Class of 2022 to 98 in the Class of 2024.
In contrast, Wharton declined from 59 in the Class of 2022 to 55 in the Class of 2024. Similarly, MIT Sloan declined from 49 entrepreneurs in the Class of 2022 to 42 in the Class of 2024.
Booth has grown from 18 entrepreneurs in the Class of 2022 to 25 in the Class of 2024, while CBS has seen a slight decline from 27 in the Class of 2022 to 23 in the Class of 2024.
Entrepreneurship at Stanford GSB and HBS
Given the prominence of entrepreneurship as a career path among MBA graduates of both Stanford GSB and HBS, both schools include information about entrepreneurial ventures in their 2024 employment reports.
The 98 full-time entrepreneurs in the Stanford GSB MBA Class of 2024 set up ventures in at least 12 different industries:
The two most popular entrepreneurial paths for Stanford Class of 2024 graduates were to set up a search fund or launch a technology venture. Health Care was the third most popular industry for ventures, followed by ventures in the energy, finance and media and entertainment sectors. Note: A search fund is an investment vehicle through which investors financially support an entrepreneur’s efforts to locate, acquire, manage, and grow a privately held company.
In comparison, the 138 full time entrepreneurs in the HBS Class of 2024 set up ventures in at least nine industries.
For the HBS Class of 2024, most new ventures focused on the financial services and technology industries, followed by manufacturing, health care and professional services. In the employment report, HBS also notes the strength of the entrepreneurial network at HBS: Of the 138 HBS founders in the Class of 2024, 34 of these founders have a co-founder whom they met within the HBS community.
In summary, HBS and Stanford GSB have emerged as clear leaders in fostering entrepreneurship. They produce the most entrepreneurs who start businesses upon graduation, and they have consistently grown both the percentage and the number of graduates starting ventures over the past three years.
