The 29 Hardware & Electronics companies that produced the most founders (2026)

A founder factory is a company whose people leave to start companies of their own. This ranks every company in the graph by how many of its alumni — people who founded it or worked there — went on to found at least one company, counting only ventures started no earlier than the company itself.

Refreshed 2026-10-05 · updates nightly

#	Company	Sector	HQ	Founded	Founders	Companies started
1	Apple	Hardware & Electronics	Cupertino, USA	1976	18	41
2	Sun Microsystems	Hardware & Electronics	Santa Clara, USA	1982	6	9
3	Hewlett-Packard	Hardware & Electronics	Palo Alto, USA	1939	5	11
4	Silicon Graphics	Hardware & Electronics	Mountain View, USA	1982	5	11
5	Oculus	Hardware & Electronics	Irvine, USA	2012	4	7
6	Oculus VR	Hardware & Electronics	Irvine, USA	2012	4	7
7	Desktop Metal	Hardware & Electronics	Boston, USA	2015	4	6
8	Nest	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	4	4
9	Google Nest	Hardware & Electronics	United States	2010	4	3
10	Pixieray	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	4	2
11	Wyze Labs	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	4	1
12	Cisco	Hardware & Electronics	United States	1984	3	3
13	Varjo	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	3	3
14	Cerebras Systems	Hardware & Electronics	Sunnyvale, USA	2015	3	2
15	CTRL-labs	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	3	1
16	Peloton	Hardware & Electronics	New York City, USA	2012	3	1
17	Sauron Systems	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	2	9
18	Ampex	Hardware & Electronics	Redwood City, USA	1944	2	5
19	Kano	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	2	2
20	Konux	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	2	2
21	Leap Motion	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	2	2
22	Acorn Computers	Hardware & Electronics	—	1978	2	1
23	Dropcam	Hardware & Electronics	United States	—	2	1
24	Estimote	Hardware & Electronics	New York City, USA	2012	2	1
25	Markforged	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	2	1
26	Mighty Buildings	Hardware & Electronics	San Francisco, USA	2017	2	1
27	Nanotronics	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	2	1
28	NuvoMedia	Hardware & Electronics	Mountain View, USA	1997	2	1
29	Pure Storage	Hardware & Electronics	—	—	2	1

How this is counted. A person counts as an alumnus of a company if they founded it or worked there. They count towards the company’s score if they went on to found at least one other company that was started no earlier than the company itself. Universities and other non-commercial organisations are pruned from the graph where we can identify them. Data is community-corrected — fix something.