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The 10 Telecom 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 2026-09-13 · updates nightly
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Founder factories · TelecomAlumni who went on to found companiesQualcomm: 4 alumni founded 4 companiesQualcomm4Cisco Meraki: 3 alumni founded 2 companiesCisco Meraki3Jasper: 2 alumni founded 6 companiesJasper2Infinera: 2 alumni founded 5 companiesInfinera2Tele2: 2 alumni founded 5 companiesTele22Fibracat: 2 alumni founded 3 companiesFibracat2Redback Networks: 2 alumni founded 3 companiesRedback Networks2PIPE Networks: 2 alumni founded 2 companiesPIPE Networks2Messagebird: 2 alumni founded 1 companiesMessagebird2OpenPhone: 2 alumni founded 1 companiesOpenPhone2
# Company SectorHQFounded Founders Companies started
1 Qualcomm Telecom United States 1985 4 4
2 Cisco Meraki Telecom United States 2006 3 2
3 Jasper Telecom — — 2 6
4 Infinera Telecom United States 2000 2 5
5 Tele2 Telecom Sweden 1993 2 5
6 Fibracat Telecom Spain 2012 2 3
7 Redback Networks Telecom — — 2 3
8 PIPE Networks Telecom Australia 2001 2 2
9 Messagebird Telecom Amsterdam, Netherlands 2011 2 1
10 OpenPhone Telecom — — 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.