VCs are still hiring MBAs, but firms are starting to need other experience more

The MBA-to-VC pipeline stays a really actual factor. However that path is a bit of shakier than it as soon as was, in keeping with PitchBook reporting and new educational 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 presently maintain senior positions at U.S. VC corporations, PitchBook information exhibits.

The MBA’s grip on enterprise capital is loosening, nonetheless, 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% right now.

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 moderately than elite MBA applications. “There may be much less urge for food for MBAs presently,” govt 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 worth, too. Nabbing an MBA at a prime program can price greater than $200,000.