A recent study confirms FIT’s strong track record of empowering women leaders. Among founders of startups with more than $1 million in funding, the college’s alumni have the highest ratio of women to men. The Pioneering Women study was sponsored by Tide, a U.K. financial technology company offering mobile-first banking for businesses.
Researchers mined Crunchbase, a data platform for the startup community, to discover where the 80,000 founders of million-plus startups went to college. Of the 12 founders who went to FIT, seven are women, or 58 percent. That puts FIT at number one among all colleges in the world, handily outshining the second place college, University of the Arts London, with 39 percent female founders.
Some of these founders are Eva Coicochea, Advertising and Marketing Communications ’03, founder of Maude, a modern sexual wellness company; Jade Huang, International Trade and Marketing ’06, founder and CEO of StyleSage, a data analytics firm for fashion retail; and Jennifer Zuccarini, Fashion Design ’02, co-founder and CEO of Fleur du Mal, a line of intimates and more.
The data show what the FIT community already knows: Through innovative education in business and design, FIT gives students the tools they need to start thriving businesses.