# List of companies founded by Stanford University alumni

This is a list of companies founded by Stanford University alumni. This list is not exhaustive, as it only includes notable companies i.e. having articles on Wikipedia, but we don't reference Wikipedia within Wikipedia of which the founding and development history is well recorded by reliable sources. In particular, subsidiaries are listed with their owners in parentheses.
Stanford University is one of the most successful universities in creating companies, attracting funding, and licensing its inventions to existing companies. It is often held up as a model for technology transfer. Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing is responsible for commercializing developments. The university is described as having a strong venture culture in which students are encouraged, and often funded, to launch their own companies.
According to PitchBook, from 2006 to 2017, Stanford produced 1,127 company founders as alumni or current students, more than any other university in the world; and these founders created 957 companies, second only to UC Berkeley in the world. In addition, according to a Stanford alumni survey conducted in 2011, some 39,900 companies founded by Stanford alumni were active, and companies founded by Stanford alumni altogether generated more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue and had created 5.4 million jobs, roughly equivalent to the 10th-largest economy in the world (2011).
In this list, founders of a company which merged with other companies to form a new company are counted as founders of the new company. However, founders of a company which later dissolved into several successor companies are not counted as founders of those successor companies; this same rule applies to spin-off companies. Finally, a defunct company is a company that stopped functioning completely (e.g., bankrupt) without dissolving, merging or being acquired.

## Top companies by revenues
### Fortune Global 500 (2017)

This list shows companies in Fortune Global 500 founded or co-founded by Stanford alumni. The cut-off revenue for 2017 Fortune Global 500 companies was $21,609M in 2016.
| | Company | Region | Fortune Global 500 (2017) | Revenue in US$ millions (2016) | Type | Category | Year founded |
| 1 | Alphabet Inc. | United States | 65 | 90,272 | Public | Conglomerate | 2015 |
| 2 | Cisco Systems, Inc. | United States | 187 | 49,247 | Public | Hardware | 1984 |
| 3 | HP Inc. | United States | 194 | 48,238 | Public | Technology | 1939 |
| 4 | Nike | United States | 331 | 32,376 | Public | Athletic equipment | 1964 |
| 5 | TSMC | Taiwan | 369 | 29,388 | Public | Semiconductor | 1987 |
| 6 | Capital One | United States | 395 | 27,519 | Public | Finance | 1988 |

### Fortune 1000 (2017)

This list shows companies in Fortune 1000 (only for companies within the U.S.) founded or co-founded by Stanford alumni. The cut-off revenue for 2017 Fortune 1000 companies was $1,791M in 2016.
| | Company | Fortune 1000 (2017) | Revenue in millions (2016) | Type | Category | Year founded | Comments |
| 1 | Alphabet Inc. | 27 | 90,272 | Public | Conglomerate | 2015 | |
| 2 | HP Inc. | 61 | 48,238 | Public | Technology | 1939 | |
| 3 | Cisco Systems, Inc. | 60 | 49,247 | Public | Hardware | 1984 | |
| 4 | Nike | 88 | 32,376 | Public | Athletic equipment | 1964 | |
| 5 | Capital One | 100 | 27,519 | Public | Finance | 1988 | |
| 6 | Gap Inc. | 178 | 15,516 | Public | Clothing/accessories | 1969 | |
| – | Trader Joe's* | 208 | 13,300 | Private | Grocery | 1958 | $^†$ Equivalently |
| 7 | Micron Technology | 226 | 12,399 | Public | Semiconductor | 1978 | |
| 8 | PayPal** | 264 | 10,842 | Public | Financial services | 1998 (Confinity) 1999 (X.com) | |
| 9 | Netflix | 314 | 8,831 | Public | Entertainment | 1997 | |
| 10 | Expedia | 317 | 8,774 | Public | Travel | 1996 | |
| 11 | Charles Schwab Corporation | 357 | 7,644 | Public | Finance | 1971 | |
| 12 | Nvidia | 387 | 6,910 | Public | Technology | 1993 | |
| 13 | NetApp | 468 | 5,546 | Public | Technology | 1992 | |
| 14 | Yahoo!*** | 498 | 5,169 | Acquired | Technology | 1994 | |
| 15 | Intuit | 527 | 4,831 | Public | Software | 1983 | |
| 16 | Electronic Arts | 556 | 4,396 | Public | Video game | 1982 | |
| 17 | Akamai Technologies | 851 | 2,340 | Public | Internet/technology | 1998 | |
| – | Bain & Company**** | 864 | 2,300 | Partnership | Consulting | 1973 | $^†$ Equivalently |
| 18 | Cypress Semiconductor | 959 | 1,923 | Public | Semiconductor | 1982 | |
*: $_{TraderJoe'sdoesnotrevealitsannualrevenue.ItsrevenueisestimatedbySupermarketNews.}$
**: $_{Mergerofdifferentcompanies,atleastoneofwhichwasfoundedbyStanfordalumni.}$
***: $_{Yahoo!wasacquiredbyVerizonin2017andisnolongeranindependentcompany.}$ $_{However,itisstilllistedinFortune1000byFortunefor2017.}$
$_{****:}$ $_{Bain&CompanyarenotlistedinFortune1000.ItsrevenueisprovidedbyForbes.}$

### Former Fortune-listed companies

For each company, only the latest rankings (up to three years) are shown in this list.
| | Company | Fortune Global 500 | Fortune Global 500 | Fortune Global 500 | Fortune 1000 | Fortune 1000 | Fortune 1000 | Type | Category | Year founded |
| 1 | Google | 162 (2014) | 189 (2013) | 277 (2012) | 46 (2014) | 55 (2013) | 73 (2012) | Subsidiary | Technology | 1998 |
| 2 | Sun Microsystems | - | - | - | 204 (2010) | 187 (2009) | 184 (2008) | Acquired | Technology | 1982 |
| 3 | Atari | - | - | - | 400 (1989) | 483 (1988) | - | Acquired | Video game | 1972 |
| 4 | Silicon Graphics | - | - | - | 876 (2003) | 738 (2002) | 625 (2001) | Defunct | Technology | 1981 |
| 5 | LinkedIn | - | - | - | 945 (2015) | - | - | Acquired | Social media | 2002 |
| 6 | Fairchild Semiconductor | - | - | - | 984 (2008) | 963 (2007) | 886 (2005) | Acquired | Semiconductor | 1957 |

## Timeline
### Index

This index also contains companies listed in section "Notable defunct & dissolved".
| Year | Companies founded | Companies founded | Companies founded | Companies founded | Companies founded | Companies founded |
| 1932 | Draper Laboratory | | | | | |
| 1939 | HP Inc. (Hewlett-Packard) | | | | | |
| 1948 | Varian Associates | | | | | |
| 1957 | Fairchild Semiconductor | | | | | |
| 1958 | Trader Joe's | | | | | |
| 1964 | Nike | | | | | |
| 1965 | Dolby Laboratories | | | | | |
| 1969 | Gap Inc. | | | | | |
| 1971 | Charles Schwab Corporation | | | | | |
| 1972 | Atari | Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | | | | |
| 1973 | Bain & Company | | | | | |
| 1978 | Micron Technology | | | | | |
| 1981 | Logitech | Silicon Graphics | | | | |
| 1982 | Cypress Semiconductor | Electronic Arts | Sun Microsystems | | | |
| 1983 | Intuit | Lattice Semiconductor | | | | |
| 1984 | Bain Capital | Cisco Systems, Inc. | Hellman & Friedman | | | |
| 1986 | Farallon Capital | Pixar | | | | |
| 1987 | TSMC | | | | | |
| 1988 | Capital One | D. E. Shaw & Co. | | | | |
| 1990 | iRobot | | | | | |
| 1991 | 3DO | IDEO | | | | |
| 1992 | NetApp | | | | | |
| 1993 | Nvidia | | | | | |
| 1994 | Cycorp | Yahoo! | | | | |
| 1995 | WebEx | | | | | |
| 1996 | Alta Partners | Expedia | Extreme Networks | | | |
| 1997 | Netflix | | | | | |
| 1998 | Akamai Technologies | Confinity (PayPal) | Google | VMware | | |
| 1999 | SparkNotes | Viking Global Investors | X.com (PayPal) | | | |
| 2000 | Pandora Radio | StubHub | | | | |
| 2001 | OkCupid | Two Sigma | | | | |
| 2002 | Clarium Capital | Coverity | LinkedIn | SpaceX | | |
| 2004 | Palantir Technologies | Redfin | Trulia | Tesla, Inc. | | |
| 2005 | Eye-Fi | Founders Fund | Loopt | TechCrunch | Workday, Inc. | YouTube |
| 2006 | Youku | Zillow | | | | |
| 2007 | Bonobos | Glassdoor | Sunrun | | | |
| 2008 | Cloudera | Yammer | | | | |
| 2009 | Ginkgo Bioworks | WhatsApp | | | | |
| 2010 | Instagram | Obihai Technology | | | | |
| 2011 | Gusto | Snapchat | Stitch Fix | Sapphire Ventures | | |
| 2012 | Coursera | Omaze | | | | |
| 2013 | Robinhood | | | | | |
| 2015 | Alphabet, Inc. | Draper James | OpenAI | | | |
| 2016 | The Boring Company | | | | | |
| 2017 | Brex | | | |

### Before 1960

| Company | Type | Stock | Category | Year founded | Total founders | Founder/co-founder from Stanford |
| Draper Laboratory | Non-profit | | Defense & security | 1932 | 1 | Charles Stark Draper (B.A) |
| Fairchild Semiconductor | (NASDAQ: ON) | | Semiconductor | 1957 | 8 | Co-founder Victor Grinich (PhD) |
| HP Inc./Hewlett-Packard | Public | NYSE: HPQ | Technology | 1939 | 2 | William R. Hewlett (B.A, PhD) David Packard (B.A, M.S) |
| Trader Joe's | Private | | Grocery | 1958 | 1 | Joe Coulombe (M.B.A) |

### 1960 - 1979

| Company | Type | Stock | Category | Year founded | Total founders | Founder/co-founder from Stanford |
| Atari | (EPA: ATA) | | Video game | 1972 | 2 | Nolan Bushnell (M.B.A Attendee) |
| Bain & Company | Partnership | | Consulting | 1973 | Unknown | Co-founder Patrick F. Graham (M.B.A) |
| Charles Schwab Corporation | Public | NYSE: SCHW | Finance | 1971 | 1 | Charles R. Schwab (B.A, M.B.A) |
| Dolby Laboratories | Public | NYSE: DLB | Audio electronics | 1965 | 1 | Ray Dolby (B.S.E.E.) |
| Gap Inc. | Public | NYSE: GPS | Clothing/accessories | 1969 | 2 | Co-founder Doris F. Fisher (B.A) |
| Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers | Private | | Finance | 1972 | 4 | Co-founder Brook Byers (M.B.A) |
| Micron Technology | Public | NASDAQ: MU | Semiconductor | 1978 | 4 | Co-founder Ward Parkinson (M.S) |
| Nike | Public | NYSE: NKE | Athletic equipment | 1964 | 2 | Co-founder Phil Knight (M.B.A) |

### 1980 - 1999

| Company | Type | Stock | Category | Year founded | Total founders | Founder/co-founder from Stanford |
| Akamai Technologies | Public | NASDAQ: AKAM | Internet/technology | 1998 | 4 | Co-founder Jonathan Seelig (B.S) |
| Alta Partners | Private | | Venture capital | 1996 | 4 | Co-founder Guy P. Nohra (B.S) |
| Bain Capital | Private | | Investment management | 1984 | 3 | Co-founder Mitt Romney (undergraduate attendee) Co-founder T. Coleman Andrews III (M.B.A) |
| Capital One | Public | NYSE: COF | Finance | 1988 | 2 | Co-founder Richard Fairbank (B.A, M.B.A) |
| Cisco Systems, Inc. | Public | NASDAQ: CSCO | Hardware | 1984 | 2 | Leonard Bosack (M.S) Sandy Lerner (M.S) |
| Confinity & X.com (now PayPal) | Public (merged) | NASDAQ: PYPL | Financial services | 1998 (Confinity) 1999 (X.com) | 5 | Co-founder Elon Musk (Graduate Attendee) Co-founder Ken Howery (B.A) Co-founder Peter Thiel (B.A, J.D) |
| Cycorp | Private | | Artificial intelligence | 1994 | 1 | Doug Lenat (PhD) |
| Cypress Semiconductor | Public | NASDAQ: CY | Semiconductor | 1982 | 1 | T. J. Rodgers (M.A, PhD) |
| D. E. Shaw & Co. | Private | | Finance | 1988 | 1 | David E. Shaw (PhD) |
| Electronic Arts | Public | NASDAQ: EA | Video game | 1982 | 1 | Trip Hawkins (M.B.A) |
| Expedia | Public | NASDAQ: EXPE | Travel | 1996 | 1 | Rich Barton (B.S) |
| Extreme Networks | Public | NASDAQ: EXTR | Networking/technology | 1996 | 3 | Co-founder Stephen Haddock (B.S, M.S) |
| Farallon Capital | Private | | Investment management | 1986 | 1 | Tom Steyer (M.B.A) |
| Google | (NASDAQ: GOOGL) | | Technology | 1998 | 2 | Larry Page (M.S) Sergey Brin (M.S) |
| Hellman & Friedman | Private | | Private equity | 1984 | 2 | Co-founder Tully Friedman (B.A) |
| IDEO | Private | | Design | 1991 | 3 | Co-founder David Kelley (M.S) |
| Immersion | Public | NASDAQ: IMMR | Virtual reality / haptics | 1993 | | Founder Louis B. Rosenberg (B.S, M.S, Ph.D) |
| Intuit | Public | NASDAQ: INTU | Software | 1983 | 2 | Co-founder Tom Proulx (B.S) |
| iRobot | Public | NASDAQ: IRBT | Technology | 1990 | 3 | Co-founder Rodney Brooks (PhD) |
| Lattice Semiconductor | Public | NASDAQ: LSCC | Semiconductor | 1983 | 3 | Co-founder Rahul Sud (PhD) |
| Logitech | Public | NASDAQ: LOGI | Technology | 1981 | 3 | Co-founder Daniel Borel (M.S) Co-founder Pierluigi Zappacosta (M.S) |
| NetApp | Public | NASDAQ: NTAP | Technology | 1992 | 2 | Co-founder James K. Lau (M.S) |
| Netflix | Public | NASDAQ: NFLX | Entertainment | 1997 | 2 | Co-founder Reed Hastings (M.S) |
| Nvidia | Public | NASDAQ: NVDA | Technology | 1993 | 3 | Co-founder Jensen Huang (M.S) |
| Pixar | (NYSE: DIS) | | Computer animation | 1986 | 2 | Co-founder Alvy Ray Smith (PhD) |
| SparkNotes | (NYSE: BKS) | | Publisher | 1999 | 4 | Co-founder Sam Yagan (M.B.A) |
| Spectrum Astro | Private | | Space | 1988 | | W. David Thompson |
| Sun Microsystems | (NYSE: ORCL) | | Technology | 1982 | 4 | Co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim (PhD) Co-founder Scott McNealy (M.B.A) Co-founder Vinod Khosla (M.B.A) |
| TSMC | Public | NYSE: TSM | Semiconductor | 1987 | 1 | Morris Chang (PhD) |
| Viking Global Investors | Private | | Hedge fund | 1999 | 1 | Ole Andreas Halvorsen (M.B.A) |
| VMware | Public | NYSE: VMW | Technology | 1998 | 5 | Co-founder Scott Devine (M.S, PhD) Co-founder Edouard Bugnion (M.S, PhD) |
| WebEx | (NASDAQ: CSCO) | | Telecom | 1995 | 2 | Co-founder Min Zhu (M.S) |
| Yahoo! | (NYSE: VZ) | | Web service | 1994 | 2 | Jerry Yang (B.S, M.S) David Filo (M.S) |

### 2000 - present

| Company | Type | Stock | Category | Year founded | Total founders | Founder/co-founder from Stanford |
| Alphabet, Inc. | Public | NASDAQ: GOOGL | Conglomerate | 2015 | 2 | Larry Page (M.S) Sergey Brin (M.S) |
| Bonobos | (NYSE: WMT) | | Apparel retail | 2007 | 2 | Andy Dunn (M.B.A) Brian Spaly (M.B.A) |
| Clarium Capital | Private | | Finance | 2002 | 2 | Co-founder Peter Thiel (B.A, J.D) |
| Cloudera | Public | NYSE: CLDR | Software | 2008 | 4 | Co-founder Amr Awadallah (PhD) |
| Coursera | Public | NYSE: COUR | Technology/education | 2012 | 2 | Co-founder Daphne Koller (PhD) |
| Coverity | (NASDQ: SNPS) | | Security/technology | 2002 | 3 | Co-founder Andy Chou (PhD) Co-founder Seth Hallem (B.S) |
| Draper James | Private | | Clothing | 2015 | 1 | Reese Witherspoon (undergraduate attendee) |
| Eye-Fi | Private | | Computer hardware | 2005 | 4 | Co-founder Yuval Koren (M.S) |
| Founders Fund | Private | | Finance | 2005 | 3 | Co-founder Peter Thiel (B.A, J.D) |
| Freelancer | (ASX:FLN) | | Crowdsourcing | 2009 | 1 | Matt Barrie (M.S.) |
| Ginkgo Bioworks | Private | | Biotechnology | 2009 | 5 | Co-founder Austin Che (B.S) |
| Glassdoor | Private | | Online review | 2007 | 3 | Co-founder Robert Hohman (M.S) Co-founder Rich Barton (B.S) |
| Instagram | (NASDAQ: FB) | | Social media | 2010 | 2 | Kevin Systrom (B.S) Mike Krieger (B.S, M.S) |
| LinkedIn | (NASDAQ: MSFT) | | Social media | 2002 | 5 | Co-founder Reid Hoffman (B.S) Co-founder Allen Blue (B.A) Co-founder Eric Ly (B.S) Co-founder Konstantin Guericke (B.S, M.S) |
| Loopt | Private | | Mobile services | 2005 | 3 | Sam Altman (undergraduate attendee) Nick Sivo (on-leave) Alok Deshpande (undergraduate attendee) |
| Palantir Technologies | Private | | Technology | 2004 | 5 | Co-founder Peter Thiel (B.A, J.D) Co-founder Alexander C. Karp (J.D) Co-founder Joe Lonsdale (B.S) Co-founder Stephen Cohen (B.S) |
| Obihai Technology | (NASDAQ: PLCM) | | Communication | 2010 | 2 | Co-founder Jan Fandrianto (M.S) |
| OkCupid | (NASDAQ: IAC) | | Dating service | 2001 | 4 | Co-founder Sam Yagan (M.B.A) |
| Omaze | Private | | Fundraising | 2012 | 2 | Ryan Cummins (B.A) Matt Pohlson (B.A) |
| OpenAI | Non-profit | | Technology | 2015 | 2 | Elon Musk (Graduate Attendee) Sam Altman (undergraduate attendee) |
| Pandora Radio | Public | NYSE: P | Music streaming | 2000 | 3 | Co-founder Jon Kraft (B.A) Co-founder Tim Westergren (B.A) |
| Redfin | Public | NASDAQ: RDFN | Real estate | 2004 | 3 | Co-founder David Selinger (B.S) |
| Robinhood | Private | | Financial services | 2013 | 2 | Baiju Prafulkumar Bhatt (B.S, M.S) Vlad Tenev (B.S) |
| Sapphire Ventures | Private | | Venture capital | 2011 | 1 | Nino Marakovic |
| Snapchat | Public | NYSE: SNAP | Social/technology | 2011 | 3 | Evan Spiegel (undergraduate attendee) Bobby Murphy (B.S) Reggie Brown (B.A) |
| SpaceX | Private | | Aerospace/technology | 2002 | 1 | Elon Musk (Graduate Attendee) |
| Stitch Fix | Public | NASDAQ: SFIX | Retail/styling | 2011 | 2 | Katrina Lake (B.S) Steve Anderson (M.B.A) |
| StubHub | (NASDAQ: EBAY) | | Ticket exchange | 2000 | 2 | Jeff Fluhr (M.B.A Attendee) Eric Baker (M.B.A) |
| Sunrun | Public | NASDAQ: RUN | Solar energy | 2007 | 3 | Co-founder Lynn Jurich (B.S, M.B.A) Co-founder Edward Fenster (M.B.A) |
| TechCrunch | (Oath Inc.) | | Online publisher | 2005 | 1 | Michael Arrington (J.D) |
| Tesla, Inc. | Public | NASDAQ: TSLA | Automotive | 2004 | 5 | Elon Musk (Graduate Attendee) J. B. Straubel (B.S. ajd M.S.) |
| The Boring Company | Private | | Technology | 2016 | 1 | Elon Musk (Graduate Attendee) |
| Trulia | (NASDAQ: Z) | | Real estate database | 2004 | 2 | Pete Flint (M.B.A) Sami Inkinen (M.B.A) |
| Two Sigma | Private | | Finance | 2001 | 3 | Co-founder John Overdeck (B.S, M.S) |
| WhatsApp | (NASDAQ: FB) | | Social media | 2009 | Co-founder Brian Acton (B.S) |
| Workday, Inc. | Public | NASDAQ: WDAY | Software | 2005 | 2 | Co-founder Aneel Bhusri (M.B.A) |
| DeepVu | Private | | Autonomous supply chains | 2016 | 2 | Co-founder Moataz Rashad (M.S.) |
| Yammer | Private | | Social networking | 2008 | 3 | Co-founder David O. Sacks (B.A) |
| Youku —> Youku Tudou | —> (NYSE: BABA) (merged) | | Online video | 2006 (Youku) | 1 (Youku) | Victor Koo (M.B.A) |
| YouTube | (NASDAQ: GOOGL) | | Video hosting services | 2005 | 3 | Co-founder Jawed Karim (M.S) |
| Zillow | Public | NASDAQ: Z | Real estate database | 2006 | 2 | Rich Barton (B.S) Lloyd Frink (B.A) |
| MX Player | Private | | Online video | 2017 | 2 | Karan Bedi (B.A) Satyan Gajwani (B.S) |

## Defunct

| Company | Type | Category | Year founded | Total founders | Founder/co-founder from Stanford |
| 3DO | Bankrupt | Video game | 1991 | 1 | Trip Hawkins (MBA) |
| Silicon Graphics | Bankrupt | Technology | 1981 | Unknown | Kurt Akeley (MS, PhD) et al |
| Theranos | Defunct | Technology | 2003 | 1 | Elizabeth Holmes (dropped out) |
| Varian Associates | Defunct | Technology | 1948 | 4 | Russell Varian (BS, MS) W. W. Hansen (BA, PhD) Edward Ginzton (PhD) |