Approximately a third of all alumni founders work specifically in technology, including “tech-enabled” companies in fields such as health care, finance, or retail.

If we drill down on these tech founders, we find that women are underrepresented: they make up 31% of all working alumni but only 18% of tech founders (and only 21% of all founders). Women also lag men when it comes to securing capital for their tech ventures, as described below.

Proportion of Men and Women as Founders and Non-Founders

	Women	Men
Non-Tech Founders	21%	79%
Tech Founders	18%	82%
Founders	21%	79%
Working Alumni	31%	69%

Meanwhile, the racial makeup of tech founders generally mirrors that of the overall alumni population, meaning that no group is significantly over- or underrepresented among tech founders. There are some race differences when it comes to funding, which are detailed below.

Older alumni are more likely than younger alumni to be entrepreneurs: Baby Boomers account for 28% of all working alumni but make up 35% of tech founders, while Millennials represent 39% of working alumni but only 21% of tech founders. In future years, we’ll be able to assess whether this data represents a life stage effect—if so, we would expect the share of tech founders who are Millennials to increase as they age.

Founders’ family status does not differ greatly from that of other alumni. Both male and female founders are married or partnered at rates similar to the overall alumni population. The proportion of female tech founders with children under 18 at home (55%) is slightly higher than that of male tech founders (48%) or working alumni overall (49%).

Likelihood of Alumni Leaving Their Current Organization

They also report higher satisfaction than other alumni on some key life dimensions, including:

• Personal relationships
• Ability to combine work and personal life
• Opportunities for career growth

However, among tech founders, women are somewhat less satisfied with these aspects of life than are men.

This pattern continues when we look at other sources of funding. 44% of tech founders said they received funding from angel investors, with 57% of white men in this group receiving $1 million or more, compared to 52% of men of color, 31% of white women, and 28% of women of color.

A quarter of tech founders received funding from other entrepreneurs. About 40% of men said they received $1 million or more from this funding source, with slightly more white men than men of color reporting this level of investment from other entrepreneurs. No women reported receiving $1 million or more from other entrepreneurs. Among white women, 57% received between $100K and $499K and 43% received less than $100K. All women of color who secured funding from other entrepreneurs received less than $100K

31% of tech founders received venture capital funding. Of these founders, white men received slightly more than men of color and women. Again, white men fared best among those who received venture capital: 86% received $1million or more, compared to 82% of women and 76% of men of color. (The proportion of white women and women of color receiving this level of investment was roughly the same.)

About a third of tech founders received funding from other sources. 65% of

White men and men of color alike received $1 million or more. Meanwhile, only 48% of white women and 43% of women of color received this level of investment.