Harvard University is one of the most prestigious and well-known schools in the world.
Its undergraduate program had an acceptance rate of just 6% last year, while its Business School was ranked No. 1 in the country.
Not surprisingly, Harvard has produced some of today’s most successful tech entrepreneurs. From social media to smartphones, Harvard grads (and dropouts) are everywhere in today’s tech landscape.
We put together some of the top tech rock stars who went to Harvard, and the list is quite remarkable.
Bill Gates
Gates is the cofounder and former chairman of Microsoft.
He got into Harvard in 1973, and majored in applied mathematics, before deciding to drop out in 1975. That year, he started Microsoft with cofounder Paul Allen.
In 2007, he was able to earn an honorary degree from Harvard, when he delivered the school’s commencement speech.
Gates has been the richest man in the world for 15 out of the last 20 years according to Forbes. He has an estimated net worth of $80.6 billion.
Paul Graham
Graham is one of the most prominent computer programmers/tech investors in the world. He earned his master’s (1988) and doctorate (1990) in philosophy at Harvard.
In 1995, he founded Viaweb, the first software as a service company that allows you to build online stores, and sold it to Yahoo in 1998 for roughly $49 million.
He went on to start Y Combinator in 2005, which has become one of the earliest and biggest startup incubators in the world. So far, Y Combinator has invested in more than 450 startups, including Dropbox, Airbnb, Stripe, and Justin.tv (which later became Twitch).
Tony Hsieh
Hsieh is best known for his role as CEO of Zappos, the online shoe and clothing store.
After earning his computer science degree at Harvard, Hsieh got a job at Oracle. But only after five months, he quit his job and launched his own ad network startup called LinkExchange.
Hsieh had originally made an early investment in Zappos through his own investment firm, Venture Frogs. But two months after the investment, he became CEO of Zappos.
Amazon acquired Zappos in 2009 for $1.2 billion.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider