A new Show HN project ranks 28 founders by the $18.31 trillion in shareholder wealth their companies generated for index funds, pensions, employees, and co-founders — excluding what each founder personally retained. The list, updated 11 Jul 2026, uses a methodology that measures company wealth creation above T-bill returns via the Bessembinder baseline plus live market delta, attributed by founding stake, then subtracts the founder's current net worth.

The formula produces a multiple (created ÷ kept) that reveals stark differences. Some founders show negative values, meaning their public companies have destroyed shareholder wealth since listing. The approach explicitly rejects the "lone genius" narrative: each figure represents collective value attributed proportionally to the founding stake, not a claim of solo achievement.

Methodology v1.1.0 publishes the full calculation and every caveat, including how the Bessembinder baseline — derived from Hendrik Bessembinder's research showing most stocks underperform Treasury bills — sets the hurdle rate. This shifts focus from paper wealth to measurable value distributed beyond the founder.

The ranking reframes how we evaluate entrepreneurial impact. By quantifying externalized value, it offers a proxy for ecosystem contribution that traditional net-worth lists miss. Investors and policymakers could use this lens to assess which founder-led companies genuinely compound capital for broad ownership versus those that primarily enrich insiders.