In today’s edition: A new way to Uber, female founders’ advantage, and Nina Ajemian on why some founders are leaving startups behind for the classroom.
– Back to school season. For many founders, a successful exit of their startup is the end goal. But sometimes, the exit doesn’t lead to life-changing wealth, with the option to never work again (especially for women, who represented 24.3% of VC exits in the U.S. last year, according to PitchBook). Or, simply, a founder is left to consider what comes next—to find a second act, a new path, or a fresh purpose.
For some post-exit female founders, the answer to the inevitable question of “what’s next?” has been to go back to school. Founders have a wide range of personal reasons for making the pivot, from seeking self-fulfillment to meeting a strategic need in their next chapter. Research shows women often require more credentials to be given a shot at the same roles as men—like CEO.
“Many women navigate what I call ‘perception gaps,’ being underestimated or typecast based on their past roles,” says Laura Huang, a professor and associate dean of executive education at Northeastern University. “After an exit, they may feel pressure to prove what’s next, especially if their identity was deeply tied to their company.”
She explains, “Even after success, women often experience ‘success guilt’ or feel the need to justify further investment in themselves, especially if caregiving or cultural norms are in play.” Going after an advanced degree can help with this feeling by allowing women to “reposition themselves” and “reset” after an exit.
These founders also may be closing a gap that starts before they launch their startups. Only 36% of female tech founders in North America have an advanced degree, versus 41% of male founders, PitchBook data from 2023 shows, even though women have recently outpaced men in undergraduate programs.
Stella Garber, a cofounder of the startup FeeFighters, which Groupon acquired for an undisclosed sum in 2012, pondered those questions. “Should I start another company? Should I go to business school? My parents really wanted me to go to business school,” she remembers thinking. Her mentors advised her not to get an MBA—but she didn’t listen. When the startup she later worked at, Trello, was acquired by Atlassian, she found that the decision to attend business school at the University of Chicago played to her advantage. “There were all these fancy, big-tech corporate people who all had fancy MBAs,” she recalls. “All of a sudden, I could punch up.”
Others decide to pursue skills-building coursework, rather than full degrees. Christine Boyle, the former Y Combinator founder of Valor Water, took a course for women on boards at the University of Washington after her startup’s acquisition by water technology giant Xylem in 2018, and studied with the National Association of Corporate Directors.
A common concern shared by these founders when deciding to return to education was falling behind in their industries. “The tech world is changing so fast right now that the pressure also comes from feeling that if I don’t go back into it immediately, I will get irrelevant,” says Shruti Kapoor, another Y Combinator alumna who founded Wingman, which was acquired by revenue operations company Clari in 2022.
Heading to a brand-name institution can be a way to counter some of the challenges founders realized they faced on their first go-round—before potentially starting a second company. “I think that my path would have been easier as a founder raising money had I had a fancy brand name institution on my resume when I started out,” says Hayley Leibson, founder of generative AI startup Astrapilot, acquired by Blackhawk Systems founder and CEO Robert Spix in May 2024. She is now pursuing a master’s degree in management at Harvard.
It depends what a founder wants to do next. “If the women wanted to go on a corporate board, people might like to see an MBA,” says Siri Terjesen, associate dean, research and external relations and a professor of entrepreneurship at Florida Atlantic University, “because you can’t always exactly explain what your startup experience really was.”
Nina Ajemian
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Smart money. A new report from Female Founders Fund finds that female founders generate 78 cents of revenue for every dollar raised—while male-founded startups bring in 31 cents. Inc.
- Safety first. Uber will allow users in the U.S. to request cars only with female drivers, a feature it first debuted in Saudi Arabia. CNBC
- Lawsuit incoming. French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron are suing right-wing commentator Candace Owens for defamation. Owens has repeatedly said that Brigitte Macron "is a man." A spokesperson for Owens said she is "not shutting up." Guardian
- Road-ready. Raquel Urtasun is the CEO of the driverless trucking startup Waabi, which has raised almost $300 million—and she says the era of R&D is ready to become true commercial use. Bloomberg
ON MY RADAR
What if everything we know about Sacagawea is wrong? New York Times
In search of equity, WNBA players have a Nobel Laureate on their side Sports Illustrated
White House, Tulsi Gabbard ramp up attacks on Obama over alleged Russia conspiracy Wall Street Journal
PARTING WORDS
"Being in your twenties is such an experimental time. … I’m going to make a decision, and it might not always be the right decision, but at least it’s mine."
—Lola Tung, the star of The Summer I Turned Pretty
