We analyzed 150 Venture Capital backed tech scale-ups that have already achieved product-market fit and found that PhDs are taking on critical leadership roles in the C-suite. From biotech to AI and quantum computing, PhDs are decision makers in the future of Europe’s most promising tech companies who are solving complex problems.
PhDs bring more than just advanced academic degrees to the management team. We break down our data by industry and company size, showing exactly where PhDs make the biggest impact and why they’re essential for the success of tech scale-ups.
Whether you’re an investor scouting high potential opportunities, or a startup or scale-up aiming to build a topnotch team, tapping into the expertise of PhDs gives you a strong position and helps your company grow beyond product-market fit.
Methodology and approach
To understand the role PhDs play in driving growth, we focused on Venture Capital supported companies within three industries solving complex problems:
– MedTech, HealthTech and BioTech
– Quantum Computing and AI
– Manufacturing, Engineering and Environmental Sciences
We only looked at scale-up companies that got a Venture Capital backing, because we assume that they are further down the line with their product-market fit.
We categorized 150 companies into three groups based on size: those with 1-10 employees, 10-50 employees, and those with more than 50 employees, all based in Europe or the UK. The number of companies in each of these groups is given in Table 1 for all three industries.

We looked at the number of PhDs by company size to determine whether PhDs are more prevalent in smaller companies compared to larger teams. This helped us understand how the presence of PhDs evolves as companies scale. Finally, to gain insight into the career preferences of PhDs, we’ve also conducted a survey to see where PhDs ideally like to work.
Why PhDs could be the competitive edge in tech scale-ups
Given the scientific nature of the industries surveyed, a strong presence of PhDs in leadership was expected. However, the finding that every company in our analysis had at least one PhD in a C-level role was surprising, underscoring the critical role their expertise plays in driving strategic decisions.
Our analysis also reveals interesting trends in the distribution of PhDs across company sizes. As shown in Graph 1, small organizations (1-10 employees) tend to have a relatively high median number of PhDs. In fields like quantum computing and AI, the median number of PhDs tends to grow along with company size when increasing from 1-10 to 11-50 employees. This could be attributed to the growing need for specialized knowledge in these research-heavy sectors when scaling-up. This increase in the number of PhDs along with the company size only seems true up until a certain point, as companies with more than 50 employees don’t tend to have more PhDs in house.
In MedTech, HealthTech and BioTech companies, the median number of PhDs remains unchanged as companies scale, indicating a more important role for PhDs in start-ups compared to scale-ups.
In industries like manufacturing, engineering, and environmental sciences, the number of PhDs seems to decrease as company size increases. However, as only five companies in this field were surveyed, this observation is unreliable.

These insights highlight an important consideration for entrepreneurs: when building founding teams, bringing in co-founders with a PhD can offer valuable niche expertise that’s crucial for solving complex problems. Their deep academic background might be just what’s needed to solve complex problems with desirable solutions.
Where do PhDs want to work (and why it matters)
We received responses from 51 PhDs, offering valuable food for thought. We refer to the graph 2 below showcasing where PhDs prefer to work.
29% of respondents expressed a preference for working in startups or scale-ups, and another 29% were inclined toward consulting roles. About 20% are considering careers in large corporations. Interestingly, only 14% are looking to stay in academic institutions.

This suggests that there’s strong potential for PhDs to contribute to problem-solving in private companies, which often overlook the immense value that this “brain power” can bring.
What other hypotheses does this research spark?
Although this research sheds some light on the unique role PhDs play in tech startups and scale-ups, it also opens up several intriguing avenues for further investigation and raises new questions about their integration into leadership roles. Here are a few hypotheses that could be explored:
– VC investment preferences: Do VC firms favor companies with PhDs in leadership, viewing them as well-equipped to address complex problems?
– Barriers to entry for PhDs in start-up/scale-up ecosystem: Is a lack of structured recruitment efforts and defined pathways from academia to start-ups/scale-ups a challenge faced by PhDs?
– Leadership style of PhDs: Could PhDs bring in a specific data-driven leadership approach, emphasizing scientific rigor and long-term research strategies?
Future research on these hypotheses can deepen our understanding of the strategic advantage that PhDs offer, and can uncover potential gaps in how startups & scale-ups recruit and utilize this highly skilled talent.