YouNoodle Publishes Top 10 Ranking of World's Most Entrepreneurial Universities
YouNoodle is helping fuel Global Entrepreneurship Week as a Social Media Partner
San Francisco, California — November 20, 2008 — YouNoodle, the online platform for the global entrepreneurial community, this week published the first data-driven leaderboard recognizing the top 10 university startup communities worldwide, based on data compiled from more than 10,000 startups.
Generated from a proprietary YouNoodle algorithm calculating each university's significance as a startup community, the rankings take into account each university's available resources for startups, entrepreneur groups and competitions, availability of talent, and the number and quality of startups emerging from the school.
"This is our industry's first ranking of significant entrepreneurial university communities based on such a large quantity of startup data," says Bob Goodson, CEO and co-founder of YouNoodle. "Because we assembled it from over half a million startup data points, we were able to assemble an authoritative recognition of the world's most relevant, influential university incubators for new enterprise today."
Some of the schools that placed in the top 10 of the YouNoodle university leaderboard were not surprises — institutions such as Stanford University and MIT that have notable roots in the startup ecosystem, for example. However, a number of prominent international universities also appear on the list. Schools such as IIT India, which ranked for its strong engineering programs and high level of technology innovation, and NUS Singapore, known for one of the biggest business plan competitions in Asia, indicate the direction of startup innovation in the future.
The complete list of schools is available at http://www.younoodle.com/topschools. Each university listing describes the resources available at each top university, showcases noteworthy startups that are emerging from the school, and profiles student leaders who are rising entrepreneurial stars.
The top-ranked schools include:
- Stanford University, Palo Alto, Ca., U.S.A.
- MIT, Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
- University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.
- UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Ca., U.S.A.
- IIT India
- University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
- NUS, Singapore
- University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- UC Davis, Davis, Ca., U.S.A.
The publication of the YouNoodle leaderboard coincides with Global Entrepreneurship Week, running this week November 17-23. This first-ever worldwide celebration of enterprise is aimed at inspiring and educating millions of young people worldwide about innovation and entrepreneurship.
YouNoodle serves as a social media partner for the week and is being used by entrepreneurship groups in more than 15 countries to make connections and promote events happening as part of the week from London and Sydney to Hong Kong and Hanoi. YouNoodle also facilitated an online global "speednetworking" event with participants from eight countries as part of the week.
"YouNoodle is the online epicenter of entrepreneurial innovation, and Global Entrepreneurship Week is the perfect way for us to help spread the startup spirit to creative young people around the world," says Goodson. "We provide a platform for the world's top university entrepreneurship clubs and competitions, so we're thrilled to be part of bringing together the next generation of talent and turning their attention towards the opportunities entrepreneurship can provide."
During a week when thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs from top international universities are engaging with each other online and in person, YouNoodle offers the most significant ranking of the world's university innovation clusters, backed by substantial quantitative data from operating startups.
"It's fitting that we released these rankings during Global Entrepreneurship Week," says Kirill Makharinsky, co-founder of YouNoodle. "University environments have nurtured many startups that are now industry leaders and are contributing significantly to the global economy. This week is the perfect time to recognize the universities that lead the pack in encouraging enterprising, creative young people to turn their ideas into the next wave of leading companies."
Information about the top 10 universities can be accessed at www.younoodle.com/topschools. More about Global Entrepreneurship Week can be found at www.unleashingideas.org.
About YouNoodle
YouNoodle develops innovative ways to bring together the information, people and technology that help startups succeed. The company provides an online networking platform for entrepreneurs, investors, journalists, service providers, technologists and others devoted to the startup ecosystem. Recognizing that some of the world's most groundbreaking startups came from university communities (where all of YouNoodle's founders began their careers), YouNoodle also serves as a platform for so far 250 of the world's top university entrepreneurship clubs and competitions, encompassing 80,000 members and 4,500 startups. Additionally, YouNoodle develops decision-making technology software and tools for the startup community. www.younoodle.com