structural:expansion
Businesses and entrepreneurship

Stanford is one of the most successful universities worldwide in creating companies and licensing its inventions to existing companies, and it is often considered the model for technology transfer. Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing is responsible for commercializing university research, intellectual property, and university-developed projects. The university is described as having a strong venture culture in which students are encouraged, and often funded, to launch their own companies. Companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue and have created some 5.4 million jobs since the 1930s. When combined, these companies would form the tenth-largest economy in the world.

Some notable companies closely associated with Stanford and their connections include: