Most Successful Technology Companies Were Started by University Students

Some of the most successful technology companies were started by university students. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University to join Paul Allen to pursue their software programming efforts full-time. The result was Microsoft. And Yahoo's Jerry Yang and David Filo were Stanford University graduate students when they decided to turn their Web Site directory into a company. It's no wonder that venture capitalists have helped colleges create competitions for the best business plan; about 30 universities have such face-offs. MIT's competition produced Akamai Technologies, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, firm that boasts a market valuation of $25 Billion.

(Fortune, "Battle of the Business Plan," January 24, 2000)